The Board of Governors at Watford Grammar School for Girls are delighted to have appointed Mrs Clare Wagner as the School’s new Head from 1st September 2016.
Mrs Wagner has been appointed following a rigorous recruitment process that attracted senior leaders from the best schools around the UK. She succeeds Dame Helen Hyde who is moving on to new projects after an outstandingly successful Headship of 29 years at the School.
Throughout the process the Board has been assisted by Perrett Laver, one of the UK’s leading executive search consultancies, to appoint a Head who is not only highly experienced and qualified, but who is also a charismatic leader and a strident believer in the value and benefits of single-sex girls’ education.
Mrs Wagner read History at the University of Bristol, and graduated with First Class honours. She also holds an MSc in Teaching and Learning from the University of Oxford and a PGCE in Secondary History from The Open University. Her own academic interests lie in 17th Century England and 18th Century France and she hopes very much to share her enthusiasm for these periods of history with the girls at WGGS.
Mrs Wagner will be joining WGGS from South Hampstead High School for Girls, GDST, where she has served as the Senior Deputy Head since 2013. Having completed her initial teacher training at Upton Court Grammar School, she then worked in both the private and maintained sectors in a range of schools, including Slough Grammar School and more recently North London Collegiate School where, as well as teaching History and Politics, she was also Head of Middle School. She lives in Harrow on the Hill and has two grown up children.
On her appointment, Mrs Wagner said: “It is a great honour to have been appointed to succeed Dame Helen Hyde at Watford Grammar School for Girls. The School has a proud tradition of providing its girls with the skills and confidence they need to love scholarship and to contribute as widely as they can. I am looking forward to working with the whole School community and indeed the wider community to further enhance WGGS’s excellent teaching, caring pastoral support and rich wider curriculum for the benefit of all girls.”
Percy McCloskey, Chairman of Governors, said: “As Governors, we are delighted to have appointed Mrs Wagner as the new Head of Watford Grammar School for Girls. In her we believe we have found a leader who will uphold and enhance the School’s ethos of excellence in all areas of school life, enrich its distinctive culture and build on the outstanding work of Dame Helen Hyde in ensuring its continued position as one of the country’s leading girls’ schools.”