INSPIRATIONAL deputy head Barbara Smart, who used her own experience of being expelled from school to help keep youngsters in education, will say goodbye to Devizes School next week.

Mrs Smart, 60, said: "I was thrown out of school as I was very rude to the deputy head. I was going through a very rebellious stage but I was lucky as they let me back in to do my O levels."

She managed to get her life back on track and after taking A levels at a technical college went on to study politics at York University. She said: "I think I just grew up. But it means that I really do know what it is like for students who are having a tough time."

She has devoted her teaching life to special needs teaching and originally came to Wiltshire as her army officer husband Mike was posted to the county.

She joined Lavington School in 1994 and stayed for six years before moving to a specialist unit in Trowbridge for children who had been excluded and then joined Devizes School 15 years ago.

She was first assistant head and then deputy but has always led a team dedicated to keeping pupils with a variety of special needs and problems in school. She praised her inclusion team for its incredible work supporting youngsters. She said: "The team is fantastic. The aim is to get every pupil to achieve the very best they can. The team is there when needed to act as mentors and for safeguarding."

She and her husband are to move to Somerset to be nearer their two grown up daughters who live in Bristol and plans to spend time cooking and walking.

She said: "I will miss everyone terribly but I felt that being 60 it was the right time to go."

Clare Dale, 32, who has just been appointed head of sixth at Devizes School, had a very different experience of school in her teenage years. Ms Dale, who grew up in Bradford on Avon and is a former pupil of St Laurence, loved school and was hugely ambitious from the start.

She said: "I was very driven. I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I hope to inspire students here to strive to be the very best they can. I want to raise aspirations and make Devizes sixth form the first choice destination. We have excellent facilities and the results have been fantastic in recent years."

Ms Dale, who will take over from long-time head of sixth form Glyn Evans in September, has been a high flyer ever since joining Devizes School after doing a first degree at Bristol University, a second at Cardiff and then a PGCE at Bath Spa.

She quickly became a head of faculty for religious studies and ethics and was then appointed deputy head of sixth form less than two years ago. She wants to inspire high students to think of applying to top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge and Russell Group establishments but said the most important thing was for pupils to choose the course and university that was right for them.

She said: "I want the pupils to start thinking about A levels and universities as soon as they arrive at Devizes School in Year 7 and to support them to make the right subject choices throughout their time here."