LINDSEY Cooke has been appointed the new headteacher at Winchcombe School with effect from September 2006.

She will succeed John Reilly who is moving to Tewkesbury.

Mrs Cooke, currently deputy head at the Cotswold School in Bourton, said: "I am delighted and honoured to take on the role of headteacher at Winchcombe School.

"Winchcombe has an outstanding reputation. It is an oversubscribed school where teaching is superb. Pupils of all abilities excel, making greater progress than young people in any other comprehensive in Gloucestershire.

"My challenge is to live up to those very high standards and to work with pupils, parents and teachers to improve the school even further."

Mrs Cooke began her career in education as a graduate recruit to the Department of Education and Science, working on assessment and testing for the National Curriculum. She then taught for 15 years, working in four comprehensive schools, three of them in Gloucestershire. At Cirencester Deer Park School she was head of English and assistant headteacher.

Mrs Cooke, originally from South Wale,s is married with two teenage daughters and lives in Bishop's Cleeve.

She is a keen runner, completing this year's Bath Half Marathon raising money for the Gloucestershire Association for the Blind.