A HEADTEACHER who led maths teaching around the world before turning a Witney school into an outstanding-rated institution has retired.

Cynthia Savage, 60, helped introduce the maths GCSE and went on to advise teachers in the UK, the forces and in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

She later became deputy headteacher of Bartholomew School in Eynsham and, in 1999, became headteacher of Wood Green School in Witney.

Staff and students at the school, which was rated as outstanding by Ofsted in 2010, gave her a send off when she retired last Thursday.

She said: “I am going to miss it but I think it is the right thing for the school that I hand over to someone else.

“I would like to think I have left the school in a stronger position and that the next headteacher can come along and take it still further down the path.”

Four years into her teaching career, Miss Savage joined Holy Trinity School in Sussex, rising to become head of maths, and became a senior maths examiner.

Ten years later, in 1986, Miss Savage was part of a six-strong team that trained maths department heads for the Government introduction of GCSEs, which replaced O-levels.

Miss Savage will be moving to Kent and plans to travel the world.