The Head of one of York’s top schools has announced his retirement in a letter to parents today.
Chris Jeffery, Head of Bootham School, told of his “very mixed feelings” at sharing the news that he would be retiring from teaching at the end of the 2022-23 academic year, which is also the school’s bicentenary year.
He added “It has been a genuine privilege to have been trusted to lead Bootham since 2016 and to have seen it safely and successfully through some unforeseeable and particularly testing times”.
Chair of Governors, David Stanton said “Chris Jeffery has been an outstanding Head of Bootham. It is fitting that his leadership should be acknowledged in our very latest inspection report with a rating of excellent for both pupils’ achievement and personal development. The whole Bootham Community wish him all the very best for long and fruitful further endeavours when retirement from teaching eventually comes in August next year.”
Mr Jeffery, who is a graduate of the University of York and worked as a singer and songwriter based at St Michael-le-Belfry Church in the city before going into teaching, will have been a Headteacher for more than 18½ years by the time he retires, having led The Grange School in Northwich, Cheshire before returning to York.
In his letter he acknowledged that he was aware that, while a change of school leadership “has the possibility to be unsettling, I cannot think of another school where the embedded values are as strong, as well understood and as enduring; and thus where the continuity of all that really matters most about the education is more assured, whatever might change in the short term.”
He concluded by thanking the parents “for all the support that I and the Bootham Community have received from so very many of you in my tenure here, and I look forward to the rest of my time at this wonderful school.”
The Governors have now embarked on their preparations for the search for a new Head.
Categories: Bootham School School News
