Rachel is young, attractive, sassy - and is considered by the LEA to be one of the best head teachers there is. She's an innovator and has never been afraid to take risks to deliver quality education to the poorest sectors of society - and she has a passion for transforming the lives of working class kids. On arriving at Waterloo Road, she hits the ground running, keen to bring in radical new initiatives, shaping the curriculum in order to equip the most difficult and disadvantaged kids with the vocational and life skills they need to find employment and survive in the outside world.
Rachel has a quick wit and makes decisions quickly and decisively - but prefers to use her powers of persuasion to win people round rather than barking orders. She can play people like sooty but is a strong believer in letting people think they came to their own decisions. She likes solutions rather than problems but she will back her staff to the hilt if necessary. She can be offhand with inspectors, advisers and anyone else unwilling, as she sees it, to get their hands dirty.
Rachel likes to keep her private life private and rarely socialises with staff - partly to avoid blurring hierarchical lines - but also for a more compelling reason: she has a past that she's desperate to keep under wraps...
Read our exclusive interview with Eva...
