Dominic Bareham GLOBETROTTING headteacher Martin Scott has taken the helm at Peterhouse Primary School in Gorleston.Mr Scott, 43, is hoping to drive forward changes to improve the curriculum on offer at the 250-pupil school which he took over at the beginning of this term.

Dominic Bareham

GLOBETROTTING headteacher Martin Scott has taken the helm at Peterhouse Primary School in Gorleston.

Mr Scott, 43, is hoping to drive forward changes to improve the curriculum on offer at the 250-pupil school which he took over at the beginning of this term.

The married father-of-two said he wanted the school, in Peterhouse Avenue, to integrate more with its community, possibly by opening up its computer facilities or holding car boot sales in the school grounds.

He felt greater involvement with the wider area would help in the pupils' development in addition to their academic learning.

“I like the area. Although there are socio-economic difficulties in this part of Gorleston which add to the challenge that this school faces, I feel that this school is rather isolated from the community and my goal is to make this school the centre of the community,” Mr Scott said.

The Cumbrian man, who was raised in Cockermouth, was also looking forward to the challenge of dealing with the redevelopment of the neighbouring Peterhouse Middle School site to provide �3m state-of-the-art facilities for the primary school children. A planning application has yet to be submitted.

Mr Scott, who lives with Thai wife Nareerut, 37, and daughters Rhiannon, two, and Tara, one, in Wroxham, has gained extensive experience as a headteacher at international schools abroad.

He started out as head of Tianjin Rego International School in China before moving on to international schools in Serbia and Thailand and finally the Libyan capital Tripoli during a 10-year period.

He has also spent time as the head of a boarding school in Nigeria.

He said this gave him a broad experience of different cultures and the different role the headteacher plays in international schools, where they are more involved in marketing their schools than their counterparts in the UK.

Mr Scott added although the British curriculum was followed by the international schools, the head-teachers had more flexibility to pick the elements they wanted to teach.

He said: “The reason I decided to come back to the UK was that I had all these fantastic experiences in my jobs, but the professional development opportunities were extremely limited. I really needed to come back to update myself on current practice in the UK and I also want my two daughters to grow up in England.”

His current car, a Mercedes, is the 57th he has owned during his lifetime, having previously driven, among other cars, the only Jeep Grand Cherokee in China while he was based there, which he had imported.

His other passion is cooking.

He has taken over the headteacher role from Dr Tony Harvey, who was stand-in head after Steve Palin who took early retirement.