An English teacher who changed her name by deed poll to include the name of her school has lived up to the moniker by becoming the new headteacher.
Beck “Reach” Owen took over as head of Reach Academy Feltham in March this year, after legally swapping her middle name – “Lucy” – for the name of the school five years ago.
In 2012, Owen, a founding member of the school, promised to change her name if her year 7 pupils raised £1,000 for charity.
“We thought that was quite an ambitious number, and then they massively surpassed it,” she explained. “We decided that we had to fulfil this promise, this off-the-cuff comment that I’d made, because consistency is really important to us and to the relationships that we have with the pupils.
“My parents were incredulous!”
Those pupils are in year 12 now, among the school’s first sixth-form intake, and they welcomed Owen’s appointment to lead the school.
“They were happy for me,” she said.
Every child has that one teacher they hold fond memories of. For me, that was Miss Owen, deployed to my school as part of the TeachFirst programme. These teachers come once in a blue moon, they shape our imaginations and influence our core characteristics. Very happy to hear Beck (er, Miss,) is doing so well and is continuing to inspire kids throughout her career, as she did for me and my class full of English GCSE A-A*s 11 years ago!