A HIGH-ACHIEVING Colchester headteacher is leaving after leading her school to become one of the best in the country.

Angela Konarzewski has been headhunted by governors who want her to oversee the merging of a junior school with an infant school in Dartford, Kent.

She is moving on after winning plaudits during an eight-year stint at the helm of St John’s which saw the Clay Lane Grove primary school rated near-perfect in its last Ofsted report.

Inspectors awarded the top “outstanding” grade in all 27 areas of assessment when they visited in 2008.

The school gets consistently good results in standard assessment tests and was praised for the close working relationship between staff, governors and parents.

Mrs Konarzewski, who is herself an Ofsted inspector, said she was sad to leave but looking forward to the challenge ahead.

She said: “I was going to carry on here but I was headhunted. Following on from the standards we’ve achieved here, hopefully I will be able to do the same in this bigger school.

“I am very sad because I have absolutely loved working with the school community here – the staff, children, governors and parents.

“We have had a very successful eight years and I hope another outstanding head will be appointed to carry on the good work.”

Mrs Konarzewski, who entered teaching after a number of jobs including a role at an Oxford publishing house run by the late Robert Maxwell, has kept her planned departure under wraps until now.

She decided to go public partly to avoid misunderstandings after she recently gave a cautious welcome to Government plans to reduce red-tape by inviting all schools to become academies.

She said: “I’m not going to be here and in any event it is a governors’ decision, so I want to make clear to parents that I am certainly not looking to turn the school into an academy.”