The Headmaster, Mr Chris Ramsey, will be leaving Whitgift at the end of this academic year to take up a new post as Head at an International School. The opportunity to run an international school overseas, which as a linguist he has always wanted to do, has come unexpectedly, and it is a great shame for the school, but it is an enormously attractive move for Chris and one which governors have agreed he should take.
Chris has hugely enjoyed being Head, and the school has been fortunate to have his exceptional leadership in setting a vision, guiding us through Covid and continuing to develop and improve the school. There will be time later to thank him properly for his achievements, but in the meantime, Chris is fully committed to leading the School until the end of the Summer Term.
Governors have already started the permanent recruitment process and whilst it is a competitive market, they are very confident that there will be a number of very strong candidates who will want to lead the School through its next phase. Given normal notice periods in the education sector a new permanent Head is unlikely to be able to start before the Summer Term of 2025, so Governors have appointed Mr Andrew Halls as Interim Head from September 2024 until the new permanent Head of Whitgift can start. .
Andrew has enjoyed a distinguished career and was the Headmaster of KCS Wimbledon for 13 years until 2021, and before that was the Headmaster at Magdalen College for 9 years. Both schools won the Sunday Times Independent School of the Year award under his leadership. He was also Deputy Head of Trinity and was an English teacher at Whitgift for four years earlier in his career. Andrew was awarded an OBE in 2020, for services to education. We believe him to be an outstanding school leader, and that he will be a superb addition to our rich history of excellent Headmasters.
