Pauline O'Keeffe grew up in Oakworth and her first job was in a Haworth gift shop. She is now returning after a decade in London to become head of Haworth Primary School.

Pauline, 38, takes up the post in January as the school settles into its new home at the former Hartington School. She takes over from Diane Adam, a temporary head who replaced retiring head Mo Newman last summer.

Visiting this week she says: "Haworth is a school with a lot of strengths and a huge wealth of experienced teachers.I'm very lucky - I think all it needs is leadership. The teachers are very skilled and very committed." She says that although she wants high standards and good SAT results, education is not only about the National Curriculum. "Children should achieve their full potential in whatever they're good at."

As a child Pauline attended Holy Family, then took a degree in English and drama at Leeds University. She taught in Bradford and Keighley - including St Anne's Primary and Worth Valley Middle Schools - before living in the USA for a year. Returning to the UK in 1990, she spent the last decade in London at one of the govern-ment's Beacon Schools.

She saw the headship advertisement on the Internet and thought "that's made for me!" She regularly holidays in the Worth Valley and believes it is an ideal place for her 13-year-old son James to spend his teenage years.