Mrs Sarah Burke has been acting Head Teacher at Auchterhouse Primary School for 1 3/4 years.  After undertaking the role to an extremely high standard over almost two years achieving significant educational outputs for individual pupils, the school as a whole, the community and for Angus, Mrs Burke was not appointed as head teacher.

We believe that Mrs Burke should be appointed as Head Teacher for Auchterhouse Primary School. We would ask that you re-consider your decision not to appoint her after almost two years in the post. We believe that under her leadership and due to her skills and talents as a teacher the children of our community have achieved significantly at Auchterhouse School.

We request that this decision not to employ Mrs Burke is reviewed. 

My name is Caroline Millar and I started this petition as our son Finlay was being bullied at another school with regular physical and mental bullying. He no longer wished to go to school and could not concentrate in class. He was miserable and dreaded going to school. His ability to learn and develop was being affected.

We met with Mrs Burke in December last year regarding possibly moving to Auchterhouse. She assured our son that bullies had no place at Auchterhouse.

Since moving to Auchterhouse our son is a new person. This is down to the leadership and way that Mrs Burke runs the school. Not only is bad behaviour dealt with but positive behaviour is rewarded. The quality of learning, the way children are encouraged to think for themselves and to take responsibility for their learning and for their actions are all positive aspects. Our son is happy, confident and has learned more since January than in the past two years. He has progressed in all aspects of learning particularly reading and maths.

Mrs Burke has helped us a family significantly and in our view she takes not only the education of each pupil extremely seriously but she also views each child as their own person and goes out of her way to understand the needs of each child and to ensure they are happy in the school environment.

Mrs Burke is the best teacher we have experienced and we know many other parents as well as many members of the local community feel the same. She is not only a great teacher but a first class head teacher and she sets the style and atmosphere for the whole school. She is a fantastic asset to the school and the area and we hope that this decision will be reviewed and overturned.