The Governors are delighted to announce, after a very thorough recruitment process, the appointment of Mrs Anne Wakefield as the new Headmistress of St Mary’s Calne and St Margaret’s Prep from September 2024, at the beginning of the next academic year.
Mrs Wakefield brings to our schools a wealth of experience, vitality and a love of working with children. She joins us from Benenden School, where she has been Deputy Head since 2019, with specific responsibility for Boarding and Pastoral Care. She currently carousels numerous committees at Benenden including Marketing, Finance and Safeguarding. Prior to joining Benenden, Mrs Wakefield was Deputy Head Pastoral at Queenswood School where she also managed the school’s co-curricular programme, including the full weekend programme.
Mrs Wakefield currently serves as a Governor at a Prep school in Kent, and is a fully trained and active inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). Mrs Wakefield is married to Ben, and has a young son who will attend St Margaret’s Prep.
Mrs Wakefield said ‘I am absolutely thrilled and feel very privileged to be joining St Mary’s and St Margaret’s as the next Head. I was so impressed with each visit to the school by the warmth and energy from pupils and staff. The values and the ethos of the schools align closely with my own educational beliefs. I am so looking forward to starting to get to know the communities over the next few months and working with the highly experienced senior teams at both schools to build on the phenomenal work to date, as we take St Mary’s and St Margaret’s forward.’
The Governing Body, while looking and planning for the future, were adamant that certain aspects of the culture and ethos of our two schools would be held dearly by the future Head. Mrs Wakefield is demonstrably a passionate educationalist, blessed with the warmth, intellect and vision that the head of a leading school needs in order to take our communities forward.
The Governors will write with further news of the leadership of St Margaret’s Prep, under Mrs Wakefield’s overall headship, next term. There will naturally, be opportunities over the coming months to meet Mrs Wakefield as she prepares to take up the reins next September.