A NEW chapter is in store for pupils and parents at Kingsdown School in September as headteacher Wendy Conaghan will step down after 10 years at the helm.

The 54-year-old joined the Stratton St Margaret secondary school back in February 2007 and since then has aimed to improve the educational facilities available to pupils.

“I have been in education for 32 years and never really had any break,” Wendy said. “In a way, I’ve been at school every September since the age of five when I started as a pupil and so it will be very bizarre not to be here in September.”

Wendy has brought forward her retirement due to personal reasons regarding her husband’s health. The pair will be relocating to Devon in ther summer.

Emma Leigh-Bennett will be taking over at Kingsdown, and on March 30 the school will be hosting a ‘meet the new headteacher’ evening for staff, parents and pupils to get to know her. The evening starts at 6.30pm.

“There is more I would have liked to have done and there is never an ideal time to leave but in my personal life, it is a good time to leave and start a new chapter,” Wendy said.

“When the Adver first came into the school when I joined, I said then that I wanted to improve the school’s sports facilities because they had nothing.

“Over the years we have managed to get a sports centre, an astro pitch and we are having new sports pitches put in, as well as new changes facilities, so that is something I can look back on and feel proud of.”

Kingsdown will also become part of the River Learning Trust in September, aimed at further improving their education provision in the area - something which Wendy hopes will build upon the work she has dedicated to the school for the past decade.

“September will mark a new chapter for Kingsdown,” she said.

“The governors and I have been working closely together for a while to decide what trust we would like to join and we created a shortlist of five.

“We chose the River Learning Trust and we got approval by the regional schools commissioner last week that we can go ahead and join them.

“We know as a stand alone academy in today’s education it isn’t a sustainable model and so that is why we have been working to join a Multi Academy Trust. We wanted to make sure the one we picked was the right one for us and one that shared our vision and values. We feel very positive about the River Learning Trust because everything they offer is everything we have been looking for.”

Wendy’s final day at Kingsdown will be on July 21.