A MUCH-LOVED head teacher at a York primary school has retired after nearly 20 years as a head in the city.

Sally Taylor, the head teacher of Burton Green School in Clifton , was previously head at Burdyke Infant School and started there in January 1993.

She saw that school become Burton Green Infant School and eventually grow to Burton Green Primary School , with the first Year Six children leaving Burton Green for secondary school in July 2005.

Year Six teacher Gary Everett, who has been at Burton Green for seven years, said: “She has made differences to the lives of many families in this community.”

Mrs Taylor’s colleagues at the school also said her drive and determination, along with her interior design skills and on occasions her prowess with a paint brush, had brought about radical changes to the school building.

They said that although these building projects had been important, they were secondary to the support and care Mrs Taylor had given not only to her pupils but to their extended to families in the area over the years.

During her time at Burton Green Mrs Taylor has overseen the school’s 50th anniversary celebrations and the opening of a new extension in 2004.

To reflect the importance of reading, and recalling shared experiences, at Burton Green, Mrs Taylor has donated a storyteller’s chair for the children.