ILKLEY Grammar's headteacher says she is looking forward to a bright future for the school – despite coping with a challenging financial climate.

Like all schools nationally, IGS has been forced to tighten its belt to cope with a reducing budget, and Helen Williams has made changes to the way the school is run internally in order to balance the books.

But as teachers and students enjoy their summer break, Ms Williams, who is in her second year in the job, has moved to reassure parents no front-line teaching staff have been lost and the school will continue to maintain the same wide curricular and extra-curricular activities for pupils.

"Times are hard – I am not trying to pretend otherwise," she said. "We have had to tighten our belts and look to make some key decisions about how we must do things differently and more cost effectively.

"Although this has been challenging and has meant some changes to the internal organisation of the school, we have prioritised our students’ experiences, and I am very pleased we have been able to manage our reducing budget effectively to maintain the same wide curricular and extra-curricular offer to our students across Years 7-13 moving into next year."

With little flexibility left financially, Ms Williams is looking to set up a school fund, where the community, alumni, parents and carers can make voluntary donations or give sponsorship to IGS, which is facing an Ofsted inspection in the coming year.

She added: "We are predicting strong results again this summer, and if these come to fruition, it is our hope the Ofsted team will recognise the tremendous hard work of our staff and students during the past few years, so we may be able to secure an even more favourable judgement than previous inspections."

The school will be consulting in the autumn term to permanently increase to a ten-form entry from 2018 onwards, with a pledge that no tutor group will have more than 30 pupils. This is being undertaken in conjunction with Bradford Council, which will look to support any permanent increase with a captial investment to enable the school site to be developed.

"We are excited that having missed out on the BSF project several years ago, we may at last have the opportunity to develop our site to better accommodate our students in the future, including with enhanced social and catering facilities," said Ms Williams.

In other changes at the school, for the first time a head girl and head boy have been appointed to lead the post-16 student leadership team. Rebecca Newell and Josh Butcher will work with Ms Williams in areas such as promoting better student mental health and wellbeing support, more awareness of LGBT issues across school and more student leadership opportunities.

Ms Williams added: “We would like to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you and goodbye to a number of long-standing colleagues, who leave IGS this summer, for their tireless work and commitment to our students and the school over a number of years. Thank you to assistant headteacher, Karen Jones; biology teacher, Kay Shackleton; learning support assistant, Dorothea Drew; and student support manager, Cilla Wood, who have all worked at IGS for 22 years. Also to biology teacher, Laura Smith; year leader, Scott Wardle; learning mentor, Gill Wilson; music teacher, Eileen Murray; assistant headteacher, Chris Washington; and Sue Armstrong SENCO, who all leave IGS with more than 13 years’ service. We wish them all the very best for the future.”