AN Abingdon deputy headteacher has beaten 36 other candidates to become the new head of one of the town’s comprehensive schools.

Susan Tranter is retiring as headteacher of Fitzharrys School in Northcourt Road in December.

She has been headteacher since June 2005, and has now been appointed headteacher of Edmonton County School in North London, one of the largest comprehensives in the country.

She will take up her new post in January and her replacement at Fitzharrys School will start at the same time.

He is Jonathan Dennett, who has been a deputy headteacher at Larkmead School in Abingdon for the past five years Ms Tranter said she was delighted by Mr Dennett’s appointment, which was made on Friday.

She said: “Most headteacher vacancies attract between 10 and 20 applications and sometimes the number of applications only reaches single figures.

“I believe the high number of applications we had reflects the progress the school has made over the past six years and I think the school has an exciting future.”

Mr Dennett was chosen by a school governors’ selection committee, led by chairman of the governors Lynn Fathers.

Mrs Tranter added: “The selection committee includes parent governors, teacher governors and community governors who receive advice from the local education authority.

“The governors wanted to recruit the right person to continue our focus on improving standards.

“They want to maintain the outstanding behaviour of the pupils and continue to build the Fitzharrys School community, which is a very happy and successful one.

“We have delivered consistently improving GCSE results and this year 71 per cent of pupils got five A* to C grades, the best results in the school’s history.

“A few years ago, the school got into some difficulty, but it is now a high-performing school where some pupils are going off to the best universities with a string of top grades.”

Ms Tranter added that all the applicants who came for a tour of the school applied for the job and they included headteachers, deputy headteachers and other candidates with significant experience of leading good schools.

“They were all experienced professionals in the educational field,” Ms Tranter added.

“I will be very sad to leave because we have great teachers, great pupils and a great team which works well together.”

It is not yet known if the new headteacher will continue with Ms Tranter’s innovative way of marking the end of the school day.

A year ago, Ms Tranter got staff to play Vivaldi’s spring concerto of The Four Seasons, instead of ringing a bell, to remind pupils that it was time to go home.

Mr Dennett said: “I really enjoyed my time at Larkmead School and I’m delighted to be appointed the new headteacher at Fitzharrys School.”