Iona Napier
HIS new job doesn’t start for over a year.
But the headmaster of Gibraltar’s brand new private secondary school has just been announced.
And Prior Park School Gibraltar’s new head comes straight from prestigious UK school Sherborne which features in the UK’s top 20 boys boarding schools.
Peter Watts is deputy headmaster at the £30,000 per year boarding school in Dorset where he has worked for 20 years.
And after a rigorous selection process that saw eight possibles shortlisted, Watts was chosen to lead Prior Park Gibraltar.
The new co-educational Catholic day school will cater for 240 students and employ at least 25 members of staff with fees of around £10,000 per year.
It is Prior Park Schools’ fourth school and the first outside the UK.
Cultural and linguistic exchanges as well as E-lessons video-linked from the UK are just two of the opportunities both Gibraltar and UK Prior Park students will benefit from.
Watts, a Welshman, is ‘passionate about rugby, singing and border collies’ and will foster Prior Park’s Catholic ethos.
“I am hugely excited and honoured to be given the responsibility to lead the community of Prior Park Gibraltar and believe that this will provide excellent opportunities for boys and girls across the group to gain a first-rate academic as well as pastoral education,” said the married father-of-two.
A team of governors and Prior Park College’s head James Murphy O’Connor were in Gibraltar last week to finalise the recruitment process and raise local support.
“The selection process for a new headmaster is always a thorough and meticulous process and involved a panel drawn from the UK and Gibraltar.
“This process was further shaped by the exceptional calibre of the large number of applicants from both international and UK schools, so we are convinced that we have chosen a worthy man who will lead our new school with vision and integrity,” said Michael King, chair of governors for Prior Park Schools.
The school – located in the Sacred Heart campus in Gibraltar – opens in September 2016, but the registration process has already begun.
2016 will be an exciting year for education in Gibraltar, coinciding with the opening of the very first University of Gibraltar.
