Matthew Higgins will play a vital role in driving forwards the vision for the education delivered at the school. He will lead the academic side of the school and work alongside the leadership team comprising the headmaster, the bursar and the deputy head pastoral.

Mr Higgins, whose most recent role was at Poole’s Magna Academy, plans to focus on developing a blended learning environment to ensure pupils have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and fully utilise the benefits of a technological world.

He said, “My goal is to ensure that Ballard students enjoy learning and become resilient and effective problem solvers, whilst being able to achieve the highest academic results from a strongly embedded growth mindset.

“The recent pandemic has highlighted how quickly we have had to adapt our ways of working and I will guarantee that our community is always future-ready, communicating effectively and prepared for any challenge.”