IF Lorraine Heath tells you to tuck in your shirt you simply don't argue.

To some it might seem a trivial offence, but when you're head of one of the top performing comprehensives in the county, it's all about maintaining standards.

In fact, Lorraine is setting standards all of her own — earlier this year she was invited to Downing Street and thanked personally by Gordon Brown, who described her as being among the "crème de la crème" of the teaching profession.

And what makes that an even greater achievement is that, at 43, this is her first headship.

Lorraine took up the role in September 2008 and since then has made her subtle mark — despite initially insisting that she wouldn't.

Lorraine, who lives in Taunton, recalled: "My first day as head was nerve- wracking. You are very conscious that people are looking to you for leadership and are trying to suss you out. I took over from an extremely good head who was very popular with staff, pupils and parents. I wanted to build good relationships with people and reassure them I was not going to dismantle everything they were proud of and had worked so hard for. But I made the mistake, when I first spoke to the staff, of saying I would not change anything. When you look at things with fresh eyes you understandably see changes you want to make, so those words have come back to haunt me!

"As the school is very successful, I have not made radical changes. I tried to discover what it is that makes the place work and then I looked at the small things we could do to make it better, like relocating and improving the library into a learning resource centre, creating a better space for staff, putting in new disabled toilets and automatic doors all over the building, and providing a flexible learning centre. I'm still building on relationships, particularly with the children — getting to know them and their names and what makes them tick. Some children think all I care about is whether their shirt is tucked in, but I genuinely care about more than that!"

Despite coming from a long family line of teachers, it wasn't an immediately obvious career choice for Somerset-born Lorraine.

"When you're 22 you really don't know what's going to happen," she said. "It was not until I started teaching that I realised I really wanted to do it. My first teaching job was a comprehensive school in Taunton, where I was lucky enough to work in a really good department with quite inspirational colleagues. I got involved in drama and school plays, and the more time I spent with the students the better I liked it.

After 18 months, Lorraine moved onto another school in Somerset where she was promoted to assistant department head before moving to a school in Wellington as head of department.

Lorraine said: "I never had a career path in mind, but if an opportunity arose I would want to do it.

"Being head of a department at 27 was quite a challenge. But like everything, you work through that and I was lucky enough to have a really fantastic team and together we transformed that English department.

"After seven years I joined the local authority as an English consultant and was part of the inception of lots of national strategies. It was a difficult decision, but I left after 18 months because I missed working with young people."

Lorraine's next move was into a new job but in familiar territory — she went back to the school where her teaching career began, but this time as its assistant head responsible for Key Stage 3.

Lorraine admitted: "Being a head was not something I had ever really considered until I joined the leadership team there. It was the second head I had worked with who had completely inspired me.

"He had a very quiet but courageous way of implementing change. A lot of people perceive head teachers as being this kind of very charismatic, almost hero type of figure who is going to improve the school by sheer force of their own personality. But the head I worked with at this school did things in a very much more gentle and low key way, which was also incredibly effective.

"It made me realise the job is not about egos or personality — it's about relationships. As soon as I heard about the Uffculme School job and came to visit I was hooked. It felt like a really small school, even though it's got nearly 1,000 students, and had a friendly family feel about it.

"It was also ideal because I didn't want to uproot my family. I have two children, a daughter who is nearly 14, and a son who is 11 and autistic. For that reason it was really important for me that if I took a headship it was something I could balance with my family life. It's a stupid thing to say because you can't as I've found out!"

Uffculme School's first female head freely admits the job still presents an enormous challenge — not the least of which is a proposed expansion into sixth form education.

A new £5m purpose-built block, plus a £600,000 extension to the school's existing science department, could be ready to accept over 300 post-16 students as early as 2012. The ambitious project's next hurdle comes in April when it will be discussed by cabinet members at Devon County Council.

Lorraine, who is married to Ronnie, an educational and leadership consultant, said: "There will be massive opportunities if it comes off. It's really exciting.

"What I enjoy about being head is the opportunity to make a difference. The feeling that you can impact positively on children's lies sounds cheesy but that's why you do it."