I have accepted the post of Principal (Designate) at The Wellington Academy in Wiltshire, with effect from September 2008, and so will be leaving Varndean at the end of the summer term.

I will be sad to leave behind such a unique culture and so many outstanding colleagues, along with the superb students who make coming to work every day a great pleasure. I've been at Varndean for over ten years and it would take something really special to drag me away but having the chance to design a brand new school from scratch is a unique opportunity.

Academies are independent state schools. This one will replace the existing Castledown School in 2009 and then open in new buildings in 2010. It will grow to have 1150 learners, including 250 in the sixth form. The school will be the first academy in a rural area and it will also provide a 100 place boarding unit, as a significant proportion of Castledown’s learners are from service families. The boarding unit will also include places for some looked after children from elsewhere in Wiltshire.

The sponsors of the academy are governors of the independent school, Wellington College in Berkshire.  Their Master, the well-known political historian Anthony Seldon, has been instrumental in the planning of the project, which is based on the idea that the academy will nurture a wide range of aptitudes (‘the all aptitude academy’), as well as student well-being – something that I know we have all worked so hard to do during my time at Varndean.

Note
Andy Schofield was appointed headteacher at Varndean in 1999, having previously been deputy head at the school for three years. Prior to that he worked in comprehensive schools in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, Devon, Essex and Sheffield. Andy chairs the Specialist Schools & Acadamies Trust Futures Vision group, who published the widely acclaimed Essential questions for the future school in 2006. Andy is a member of the Trust's headteachers' steering group, is a regular speaker at conferences in this country and abroad, and has also been a frequent contributor to the Times Educational Supplement. Between 1997 and 2007 he wrote a column in the Brighton & Hove Albion match day programme. This year, Andy has chaired the city's 14-19 partnership board, which has worked at coordinating courses across the city's secondary schools and colleges.