Category: News and Announcements

Following a thorough recruitment process, led for RSAcademics by Charlotte Faber and Jenny Funnell, the Governors have announced that Mrs Sonal Chatrath has been appointed as Head of John Lyon Prep School (Quainton Hall) from 1st January 2024, to succeed Simon Ford.

Sonal is the current the Deputy Head Academic at Danes Hill School in Surrey and has over a decade of hands-on experience in senior leadership roles at prep schools, including seven years at Danes Hill School, where she worked her way up from Director of Learning Support and Assistant Deputy Head Academic to become Deputy Head Academic. Prior to this, she was Head of Prep at Manor House School in Surrey.

With her extensive prep school experience, across a number of senior level roles, RSAcademics and the John Lyon Governors were in agreement that Sonal is exceptionally well-suited and qualified to lead John Lyon Prep School.

Sonal joins the John Lyon family of schools at an exciting time in their history and she will help to take forward the collaboration between the senior and prep schools to maintain John Lyon’s position as one of Northwest London’s leading 3-18 co-educational schools. Sonal will work closely with Rose Hardy, the incoming Head of John Lyon School, with whose appointment RSAcademics was also delighted to assist the Governors.

After a rigorous selection process led by Jo MacKenzie and Michael Stephens for RSAcademics, the Governing Body has chosen Oliver Knight to be the next Head of Pangbourne, from what they described as a very strong and high-calibre field. He will join the School in September 2024.

Oli is former pupil at Uppingham School in Rutland, where he excelled as a rower and climber. He began his career in education teaching history in London. His first Headship was in 2014 in Greenwich and then in 2017 he became Executive Head of Phoenix Academy, moving in 2019 to be Principal of Ark Acton Academy.

Oli is also a published author on education and teacher development and one of his publications on curriculum planning and lesson design is currently included on PGCE courses. Alongside his published work on education, Oli is on the Board of a successful Multi-Academy Trust and is a Governor for a London Prep School and Senior School.

We wish him every success at Pangbourne.

Dr Emma Margrett, currently Head of the Prep School at Radnor House Sevenoaks, will take on the role of Head of Westminster Abbey Choir School from January 2024, having been selected from a very strong field of candidates provided by Charlotte Faber and her team at RSAcademics.

Emma read Theology and Religious Studies at Bristol University, then worked in international trade finance for several years before studying for an MPhil in Development Studies at Pembroke College, Oxford. Having realised that her true vocation lay in teaching she took on various roles, starting her career at the highly selective Townley Grammar School whilst also completing an MA in Religious Education at King’s College, London, before going onto roles at Benenden School and Mayfield School. As Deputy Head at Lingfield College Prep from 2013, Emma had responsibility for the academic direction of the school. She then moved to St Edmund’s Canterbury, taking on the role of Head of Junior School where she was also Headmistress for the choristers at Canterbury Cathedral. Most recently, Emma has been Head of the Prep School at Radnor House, since September 2020.

Emma trained as an ISI Inspector in 2014 and has worked on a number of inspections for ISI since that time. She completed a Doctorate in Education in 2017 and was recognised as a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching in 2019 for her contribution to the profession.

On Emma’s appointment as the Abbey’s first female Head, the Dean of Westminster the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle said: “We ran a challenging process, saw some good people and met one outstanding candidate in Emma Margrett. Emma performed well in every aspect of the application process, landed very well with the staff, taught an excellent lesson and impressed two panels of interviewers.”

We are proud to support women leaders in education and to have helped to recruit the first female head of a number of schools. The women appointed are all highly qualified, brilliant leaders, with a wealth of knowledge and expertise. We constantly strive to generate diverse fields of candidates for our clients. This is our commitment but we recognise there is still a long way to go. Read more about our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion activities. 

If you are looking for a new Head for your school, please contact claireoulton@rsacademics.com for UK appointments and keithclark@rsacademics.com for international appointments in complete confidence. Our search strategies are ambitious, far-reaching, persuasive and matched to the set of skills and talents you seek, to ensure we find the most outstanding leader for your school.

Find out more about how we can support your Appointments process

Our annual conference for over 70 colleagues took place in September. It was a wonderful series of talks, workshops and exercises with RSAcademics colleagues and our partners: Love Your Coaching, All-in Education, The Wellbeing Hub and Kampus 24. Andy Kemp, Principal of the National Mathematics and Science College, also gave a fantastic presentation about AI.

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In mid-September we launched our new research report “The New Art of Headship”. The report provides valuable insights into what has changed in headship at UK independent schools since our first study in 2013. We were delighted to welcome 200+ guests to the launch event.

Barry Speirs, who researched and wrote the whole report, presented the key findings from his home in Thailand and Claire Oulton, Head of Leadership Appointments UK, introduced the presentation and chaired a Q&A in the room.

We exist because the world needs schools to thrive.

We have been profoundly concerned and unsettled in the last year by the way in which major conflict has come to dominate our attention. First in Ukraine and now in the Middle East, we have been witnessing the horrors of conflict with terrible loss of life, destruction of communities and forced migrations on a daily basis. Of course, we know that the world is scarred by many other conflicts, with many origins, and we recognise, sadly, there are tensions and hostilities in other parts of the world. We should be concerned by any conflict that endangers life and threatens universal human rights.

Our work means that we especially appreciate the challenges that conflict poses to schools, whether in the region concerned, internationally or in the UK. Some schools will be in or close to the conflict zones, others will have close links to the communities involved, and almost all schools will be providing support to students and their families, including those directly or indirectly affected, to help them to make sense of what they see unfolding on every news bulletin, news feed or social media platform.

Thriving schools are built on an environment where all members of their communities feel safe, supported and included. We thought about this at the outset of the Ukraine War and our thoughts then seem still so relevant as another war has so devastatingly opened up. Thriving schools provide a place for individuals to grow and develop and they enable individuals to fulfil useful roles in society. At their core, we believe that schools should enable future generations to have respect for one another, develop a moral compass and help their communities learn how to resolve conflict peacefully. These fundamental freedoms form a strong social fabric.

At RSAcademics we stand with schools as they find their own ways to address the world’s current tensions, the search for peace and all our global challenges. These extraordinary times only increase our resolve to use our expertise, experience and networks to support schools.

The appointment from September 2024 of William Goldsmith as Headmaster of Packwood Haugh, one of the Shrewsbury School family of schools, has been announced by Mr Leo Winkley, Head of Shrewsbury School. Mr Winkley said: “Following a search led by recruitment experts RSAcademics, William emerged as the outstanding candidate from a strong field of school leaders from across the world.” The RSAcademics search team was headed by Charlotte Faber and Angela Short.

William has been Headmaster of St George’s School, Windsor, since January 2019.  He was previously Head of Junior School at St Leonard’s School, Fife and before that he was Head of Boarding at Highfield School in Hampshire.  Prior to his move to senior leadership in Prep Schools, he was Director of Music at Ludgrove School and then St Paul’s Cathedral School.  William has extensive experience of the Prep School sector and has served as a Governor in several schools.  He was Vice Chair of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS) in 2020-2021, sits on the BSA Institute of Boarding Executive Committee and is the IAPS representative on the Independent Schools Examination Board.  Educated at Radley College and the University of Durham, he has an MSc in Learning and Teaching from the University of Oxford.

William comments: “Catherine, Arthur, Patrick, Hamish and I are so excited to be joining the Packwood community in September 2024. We were immediately struck by the ‘Packwood Way’ at the start of the recruitment process and seeing it in action across all areas of school life during our two visits to the school cemented our belief that this is a very special school.”

RSAcademics are delighted with this appointment and are confident that William, Catherine and the boys will be very happy and successful at Packwood Haugh.