New head named at village school (From Worcester News)

New head named at village school

8:40am Wednesday 30th January 2013 in News By Sarah Davies

A SUCCESSOR has been found to lead a village school whose headteacher suddenly resigned last year.

Kempsey Primary School has been without a permanent head since early September after Adrian Osborne left for personal reasons.

Sue Parker, head at Callow End Primary, was appointed executive headteacher at both schools while a replacement was found.

Yesterday, Worcester-shire County Council confirmed the appointment of Bryony Baynes as Mr Osborne’s successor.

Mrs Baynes has been headteacher at Ashton-under-Hill First School near Evesham for the past six-and-a-half years and will begin her new role at the start of the summer term in April.

Speaking to your Worcester News/Evesham Journal yesterday, she said she would miss the Elmley Road school, but the time had come for a new challenge.

Mrs Baynes said: “Ashton is such a lovely school, it deserves to have lots of people enjoying it.

“Kempsey is a school with huge potential and we need to unlock that potential. I’m confident that is going to be an amazing school.

“I wanted to see a cohort thought at Ashton and I have done that and more. Whoever comes here will be really lucky. I’ll really miss it.”

As previously reported in your Worcester News, parents with children at Kempsey Primary School were handed a letter on the first day of the school year explaining that Mr Osborne would be leaving after four-and-a-half years in the post.

In a prepared statement released at the time, Jonathan Sutton, chairman of governors, said the governing body had received and accepted Mr Osborne’s resignation at the end of the summer term.

A spokesperson for Worcestershire County Council said Mrs Parker would remain executive head at Kempsey until the end of the current term.

Interviews will start next week to find Mrs Baynes’ replacement, whom it is hoped will be appointed before she starts her headship at Kempsey.