Being a perfectionist has produced results for student Charlotte Gaunt.

For the 21-year-old has beaten thousands of others to graduate as Huddersfield University’s top student.

Over the past two years of her BA course, she averaged an exceptionally high 89.33 per cent, giving her the top score of all the elite group of students who qualified for a Chancellor’s Prize at the University.

Charlotte, from Selby, is the first member of her family to attend university. Now she is about to embark on a career as a primary school teacher in Dodworth, near Barnsley.

She confesses that coming top of the class came as a shock and added: “I am a bit of a perfectionist and I always want to achieve highly in everything that I do!

“I have wanted to be a teacher since I was five, because I have always admired my teachers and have always loved school and children and wanted to make a positive difference to their lives.”

After high school, Charlotte went on to Selby College, where she studied for a BTEC in child care. This was the stepping stone for her two-year BA Primary Education degree course at Huddersfield, which included a large number of placements in local schools.

She has always set her sights on primary education, rather than secondary, and is in no doubt about the importance of her chosen sector.

Charlotte is the top student at Huddersfield University graduations - Charlotte Gaunt gained the highest average mark of 89.33% and now embarks on a career in primary teaching
Charlotte is the top student at Huddersfield University graduations - Charlotte Gaunt gained the highest average mark of 89.33% and now embarks on a career in primary teaching

She said: “Primary teachers don’t get enough credit. People think early years education is all about play, but the basic skills learned at primary school underpin everything that follows.

“If children are not properly taught the basics, then they are really going to struggle further up school. If you get the foundations wrong, then the whole structure will collapse.”

Charlotte is excited to be launching her career, and also has plans to add to her qualifications with part-time postgraduate study at Huddersfield University at some point in the future.

She added: “I just want to be able to put 100% into my job and then, when I get a work-life balance, I will probably come back to studying.”