Francine Smith has been named as the new principal of independent Fulneck School in Pudsey from 1 September 2021.
Ms Smith will be moving to Fulneck from her current position as deputy head (academic) at Westholme School in Blackburn. Like Fulneck, Westholme is an independent co-educational school for children aged three to 18.
Prior to moving to Westholme in 2014, Ms Smith was director of sixth form and head of careers at Northampton High School, head of economics and politics at Stowe School and a teacher at Bishop Stopford School. Francine also had a corporate career before moving into education. She said:
“I am very excited to be joining Fulneck School. I have been really impressed by the friendly welcome and family ethos of the school. It is a privilege to be given the responsibility of leading this brilliant school and I am confident that, as we come out of the pandemic, the school will continue to grow and thrive. I am also looking forward to further getting to know the Yorkshire way of life!”
One of Ms Smith’s early tasks will be to appoint a new Head of the Junior School. In the meantime, Kryssy Marlowe will continue as Deputy Head of the Juniors, responsible for driving and developing teaching and learning, the curriculum and our assessment processes, and reporting directly to the principal.
Current principal, Paul Taylor, is leaving Fulneck School to become Secondary Headteacher at Kings’ School Al Barsha in Dubai this summer, said:
“I am really pleased to be handing this very special community over to Francine.
“She appreciates the strengths of the school and will continue to promote our ethos of “Work Hard, Be Kind”.
“Francine is also ambitious for the school and knows that many of the academic processes and extra-curricular initiatives that we have put in place recently must be built upon over the coming years.”
