WHEN the teacher who is now Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools applied to be head of English at Ulverston Victoria High School, he was turned down for being too radical and progressive in his attitudes to education.

Because he failed to get that job in 1974, not only did his life change but, possibly, the lives of quite a few teachers across the country changed, given that he became chief inspector, he told guests at the Dallam School awards evening.

Chris Woodhead was speaking about his fondness for Cumbria and how, as a keen mountaineer and rock climber, he has always wanted to work in the county.

Returning to Dallam School for the second time this year, Mr Woodhead said he had taught head teacher Alan Mottershead during his teacher training, and had been pleased to accept his former student's invitation to present the awards.

In an interview with The Westmorland Gazette, Mr Woodhead said he believed it was important to get out of London to visit schools and listen to people.

He was impressed by Dallam, and said while it undoubtedly had advantages compared to other schools, what was important was what the school did with its pupils, and whether it helped them fulfil their potential.

The news that girls had overtaken boys for the first time in national examinations this year did not trouble Mr Woodhead, who said that each year one of the sexes had to do better than the other.

Commenting on one of the year's other big education stories, that of whether Oxbridge colleges discriminated against state school pupils, Mr Woodhead said he did not believe such prejudice was prevalent.

"Oxbridge colleges want the brightest young people and are not going to turn down an outstanding person from a comprehensive school," he said.

Morale among teachers nationally was "a lot better than you would believe from reading some of the horror stories", said Mr Woodhead.

But the Government needed to address the amount of paperwork flowing into schools, and the problems caused by disruptive pupils.

Mr Woodhead, who has been criticised for the pressure which Ofsted inspections put on schools, said they had tried to reduce it by shortening the waiting period for an inspection to ten weeks, and by ensuring inspectors listened to teachers.

However, problems in schools did need to be exposed so solutions could be found.

Asked whether he took notice of the personal criticism which he has faced, Mr Woodhead said: "If I was over-sensitive I would have resigned a long time ago.

We all make mistakes but I believe in the job that I'm doing, and I'm doing it to the best of my abilities."