Fulwood Academy head quits

Staff and pupils at a Preston high school are reeling from the shock of the sudden departure of their new headteacher.
Fulwood Academy's new head Philip Grant has quitFulwood Academy's new head Philip Grant has quit
Fulwood Academy's new head Philip Grant has quit

Just days into the new term, Fulwood Academy was told that principal Phillip Grant has quit.

According to school he has left "for personal reasons."

Mr Grant was brought in to the Black Bull Lane School last April after it was plunged into special measures by Ofsted and was the third headteacher

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He said at the time that he had a vision to tackle unruly behaviour and turn things around.

Within weeks he said things were improving and an interim report from Ofsted confirmed measures were in place to get the school back on track.

In 2009 the former Fulwood High School controversially became the city’s first and only academy of it's kind, which means it is outside local authority control, and is now on it’s third headteacher since a new £25m state-of-the art building opened in the 2012/13 academic year.

Mr Grant joined Fulwood from the One In A Million free school in Bradford. It opened in September 2013, was rated as requiring improvement in its first Ofsted inspection in November 2015 under a different principal before Mr Grant achieved a good rating in March 2018.

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It is understood he left a previous post under similar circumstances.

A statement from the school said Mr Grant " has decided to leave the academy for personal reasons. "

It adds: "Out of respect for Mr Grant, we have supported him to leave with immediate effect and asked Mrs Jane Bailey, who has been a very successful headteacher, to be our acting principal.

"Mrs Bailey has already been working at the academy for a number of months to help us drive forward some key areas of our school improvement strategy. We have been impressed by both the positive impact that she has had, and the way in which she has been warmly welcomed into our community.

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"As Mrs Bailey already knows our school, our students and our staff well, we have every confidence that she will be able to step up to lead the school with minimal disruption and ensure that we continue forward on a very positive trajectory."

It adds that governors are activley looking for a "very strong replacement " and says: " We are pleased with the progress that has been made, and we are very confident that we will shortly have an excellent permanent headteacher in place."