The winner of The Great British Bake Off 2016 Candice Brown has made the agonising decision to quit her job as a PE teacher to pursue the "amazing baking opportunities" she has been offered since winning the series.

The 31-year-old, who beat Jane Beedle and Andrew Smyth in the final, shocked pupils when she returned to her post. However her headteacher told her to 'follow her dream' in order to inspire children. Over the past few weeks she has struggled to juggle her day job which involves working with children with special needs and as a PE teacher too much with the new commitments. It was advice from her headteacher not to approach her newfound fame "half-heartedly" that inspired a change of plans. 

After leaving the secondary school on Friday, Ms Brown said: "This has been such an agonising decision to make." "Never in a million years did I ever go into the show thinking this would happen. That is why I have been back at school teaching since I won the final." "I have been teaching for about eight years now and I love it. But since winning the final, I have also been completely bowled over by the amazing opportunities that I have been offered." With the whole school behind her, there are no hard feelings about Brown's abrupt departure – and it is hoped she could inspire youngsters to follow their ambitions.

"At first, I kept telling the school I would stay until December but they were so incredible and told me I had to grab everything whilst I could." Ms Brown said her school suggested she leave now, rather than at the end of this year, and that doing so would inspire the school's pupils to follow their dreams. The Bake Off winner said: "My headteacher told me: You've got to do this, you can't do it half-heartedly. I wouldn't forgive myself if you missed out." "It's not that we don't want you here but you have to give it 100%. If we can't encourage our staff to follow their dreams and inspire, then we are not doing our job properly.

You are showing the kids that anything is possible." Ms Brown added: "It was so incredibly lovely of him to say this." She plans to take her time to map her future and has signed up with a team of TV agents. She keeps pinching herself since winning the BBC1 show as she still can’t quite believe everything that is happening.