Head teacher Angie Hamilton has 'downsized' to an idyllic and successful 34-pupil village school.

Mrs Hamilton has just started at Northrepps Primary, having come from her first headship at the 200-pupil Beck Row school near Mildenhall in Suffolk.

Her previous school was the 400-pupil Hardwick Middle School in Bury St Edmunds where she was also spent one day a week doing outreach work in other Suffolk and Essex schools as an advanced skills teacher spreading best practice.

'We were relocating to North Norfolk anyway to be close to the sea.

'I needed a job and came to visit Northrepps in the summer - and was impressed with the quality of learning at the school, which is also in the heart of the community.

'It is a beautiful part of the world, with fabulous scenery - but the school was given a good Ofsted rating in July and is in good shape.

'We will now be working towards taking it forward to outstanding,' said Mrs Hamilton, who has two others teachers, four teaching assistants and a pre-school on site.

She has been teaching for more than 20 years, and succeeds Mrs Terrie Clifft who was at the school as head for three years.

Initiatives include a soon-to-start free breakfast club for children - to help parents get to work and to give youngsters a positive start to the day.

Local supermarket Morrisons is helping sponsor the new venture.

Asked about other small village schools which have formed federations with others nearby, Mrs Hamilton said the community and local authority remaining very supportive of the school as it was - though she said partnership opportunities would be looked at.

Outside of school life Mrs Hamilton, who is originally from South Africa, is a keen runner, and has joined the North Norfolk Beach Runners club.

She also enjoys sailing and has a small dinghy moored at Morston.

Mrs Hamilton is also learning to fish, and enjoys walking her dog.

This week the school was visited by sonic artist Duncan McAfee, from the Belfry Arts centre at nearby Overstrand.

He involved the children in recording stories from the past.

It is part of a wider ongoing community project called Undersong, which is looking at the history and folklore of the land that has been lost to the sea between Overstrand and Sidestrand.

Stories will be combined with images, poetry and music in an exhibition which also features models and ephemera, with audio elements being available to be heard at three permanent listening posts.

The scheme has been backed by a £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund's sharing heritage scheme and is also backed by North Norfolk District Council and Norfolk County Council.