HAVING hit capacity in September after a seven-year phased expansion, it easily takes the title of Oxfordshire’s biggest primary school.

Yet bustling Windmill Primary School in Headington is committed to creating a small-school atmosphere, in which every pupil feels valued.

Lynn Knapp, who has been headteacher for 11 years, is proud to know the names of each of the 630 children taught at the school.

She said: “We’ve maintained a strong sense of community, and that’s something parents have verified.

“Every child has got their own identity.”

The experienced educator has taught in Oxfordshire for 36 years, having worked at three other schools before joining Windmill.

Asked why she has stuck with the profession despite mounting pressures on schools, Mrs Knapp said: “We sometimes have to remember why we do the job we do.

“The bureaucratic stuff and pressures are secondary: it comes down to the responsibility we have towards giving children a good education and becoming life-long learners.

“School should not be something children dread – it should be a place they feel safe and happy, and can flourish.

“All the other stuff, you have to just get on and do.

“Year on year you see children growing up and then hear about what they’re doing when they’re 18.

“Some of the kids I’ve taught are now in their 40s.

“When they’ve got happy memories of being in your school and remember you doing something, that you’ve made a mark on their life, that’s really special.”

The school in Margaret Road, which was rated ‘outstanding’ in its 2015 Ofsted inspection, champions 22 core values including courage, happiness and peace.

Each is embedded in classes and assemblies and children focus on a different value every month, and after two years, start the cycle again to revisit each one.

Mrs Knapp said: “We teach the values and talk about how they come up in life - we put them into practice, they’re not just theory.

“I don’t ever want the children to think they’re learning just to do well in a test.

“They need to be able to learn in terms of how to solve a problem, have a positive mindset and be resilient, because life demands that.”