To everything there is a season...

Confession: until I was well into my 20s, I didn't know that the lyrics to The Byrds song "Turn! Turn! Turn!" came from the Bible. When I finally twigged, suddenly there was an additional depth to it all, followed by a feeling of embarrassment that I'd not know this before.

In the same category as this can be placed:

- not knowing that Garibaldi was anything other than a type of biscuit;

- the discovery that the ship Bismark was named after someone quite important; and

- aged 30 realising that "Summer of '69" was not, after all, a song about Bryan Adams growing up in my hometown of Reading. (Don't ask.)

Not just a biscuit, apparently.

Ecclesiastes 3 1-8 has been going around my head quite a bit the last few weeks as I carried out one of my regular "where am I now? what should I do next?" ponderings.

I have been so very lucky. Getting the chance to set up and then lead a new school in one's own town has been even more amazing that I'd ever imagined. Yes, we've all worked incredibly hard as a team along the way - but we have always recognised the role of luck, and of the kindness of others, in our successes.

In just seven years we've managed to go from an idea among a group of teachers to a popular, oversubscribed, high-performing school, and then most recently we've formed a new multi-academy trust ("Advantage Schools") and got the green light to open a second new school in nearby St Neots. And actually it is because of this success that I have decided that now is the time for people to find my successor and for me to move on.

We've been working hard as a new MAT to have a very clear plan as to what we are going to do over the next few years. As a family of schools, we are looking to build upon what both BFS and Elstow School (our primary partner) has achieved to date, and to grow over the next few years. 

We're in a really strong position for someone to come in and lead. We've accumulated decent reserves as a result of careful management since we opened, and have a pretty healthy financial picture over the next few years too. Student numbers are growing at BFS as our local reputation develops, and our partner primary is consistently oversubscribed. Our St Neots Academy project is going to bring something quite special to the families of St Neots in the next year or so. And linked to the above, we will probably have the strongest set of staff to date next academic year, with potential for further development as we continue our move to a knowledge-based curriculum, and the benefits that brings to everyone.

So considering the above, and the next few years for both Advantage Schools and me, I decided that it would be a good time to have someone else come in and oversee the next phase of our journey.

Right from the start I'd always said that when we reached a point where I felt it was right for someone else to take over my baby, I'd happily move aside. This has always been about trying to improve things for local kids. We've made quite a bit of progress in this regard, and soon it will be someone else's privilege to head up our mission.

If you fancy taking over my hotseat or just to find out more about what we've got planned, drop me a line.

Between now and when I move on, I'm sure there'll be a time to weep and a time to laugh. In the meantime I've got some Year 11s to finish off for GCSEs, a curriculum to finalise for September, and the day-to-day lovely, crazy, brilliant, joyful, frustrating, unbelievable things that go with being Principal of my favourite school ever.