THE principal of Okehampton College this week assured students and parents he will not be leaving the school, following the announcement he is to become the temporary acting head at Tavistock College. Chris Powell is taking up the position at Tavistock because the school?s principal John Simes is not returning after the Christmas break on health grounds. He was due to retire at Easter. Mr Powell said: ?There is no way the governors could appoint anybody else before September and given that Tavistock has Ofsted coming up, I have been asked to come in as acting principal for two terms. ?But I do want to make it clear that this is only a temporary position. I am more than happy to help out in the short term but I will definitely be returning to Okehampton. ?I am not intending to be a candidate for the Tavistock job. I love the job that I have at Okehampton and I don?t believe that is finished yet.? Mr Powell said he would not be splitting his time between Okehampton and Tavistock but would be in Tavistock full time until September, starting next Monday. ?My vice-principal at Okehampton will take on my role, so he will be looking after the school on a day to day basis,? he said. ?It?s a difficult time for any school with Ofsted coming up, but without a principal in post, Devon LEA in conjunction with the governors at Tavistock felt it would be a good idea to have somebody there to take the lead. ?But Tavistock is a good school and there are lots of reasons to be optimistic for the future with the new building programme, I am sure it will go from strength to strength.? Mr Powell has written to Okehampton parents to inform them of developments. In his letter he thanked them for their support during the last few years and said he was sure they would be equally supportive of vice-principal Daryll Chapman. Phil Norrey, Devon County Council?s director of Education, said: ?Chris has done an absolutely superb job since he took over as principal at Okehampton College and I am delighted he has agreed to do this. ?I also want to thank the governors of Okehampton College for allowing Chris to do this on a short term basis.? Alex Wood, Tavistock College?s chairman of governors, said the governing body was ?delighted? that Mr Powell had agreed to come to the school. ?He was the first person we asked and there was absolutely no hesitation at all. We are very pleased that he was able to come here so quickly. With Ofsted coming up, we didn?t want any sag in morale or confidence. We have just had our best results ever and we want to keep going on a high, getting better and better.? Tavistock College last week took out a half-page advertisement in the national Times Educational Supplement for a new principal. The advertisement said the new head should be a leader, collaborative, inspirational, passionate, successful and a visionary. Mr Wood said governors were hoping the new advertisement would attract a good field of candidates for the post and that they would be able to appoint the type of ?truly outstanding? person that Tavistock College deserved.
