Head chosen to convert Brighton primary school into academy

A Brighton primary school will have a new head teacher when it reopens as an academy in September.

David Williams, 55, from Hailsham, has been recruited as interim head teacher at Whitehawk Primary School.

Mr Williams currently works for City College Brighton and Hove, the main sponsor of the new academy.

He runs the college’s City East Campus, in Wilson Avenue, Whitehawk, where student numbers have quadrupled and exam results have been outstanding, reaching the top 5 per cent in the country.

Mr Williams taught PE in Sussex schools for more than 20 years, including at Hailsham Community College where he was head of department. During his time there the school gained “sports college” status.

David Williams

He has also worked at Park Sixth Form College and Sussex Downs College in Eastbourne. The latter became a “centre for vocational excellence for sport”.

And he has worked on sports development in primary schools throughout the county.

Liz Wylie, who chairs the board of governors at Whitehawk Primary School, said: “We are thrilled to have David on board at the school.

“He has a fantastic track record of achieving great things at schools and colleges in the county and a deep knowledge of the local community, where he’s worked for five years.

“David’s approach is just what we need to help build on the improvements we have been making at the school and the senior leadership team at the school welcomes the chance to work closely with him in the run up to the academy opening in September.”

Mr Williams said: “I firmly believe that positive changes can be brought about when all parties have ownership of a school.

“We are all in this together – the teachers, staff and parents – and we are going to work together to achieve the very best possible educational experience we can for the children in our community.

“Academic achievement is absolutely key. It’s proven that Key Stage 2 achievement leads on to improved employment and better quality of life in adulthood so we’re going to be focusing on that as our number one objective.

“The first thing I will be doing is meeting the teachers, parents, staff and pupils and listening to them and we’re going to work out what’s going well and what isn’t and then we can build a programme together to improve achievement at the school.”

In the meantime, the interim head teacher will be going through various benchmarking exercises with City College and the Department for Education before the school reopens becomes an academy in September.