Max Haimendorf has only spent three years in the classroom. And he has received just six weeks of teacher training through the Teach First programme.

Yet the high-achieving 29-year-old has been appointed headteacher of a new academy in north-west London.

Mr Haimendorf, who took a year out of education to work with a management consultants, is now preparing King Solomon Academy in Marylebone for its opening in September next year.

“If you want to do something very different, which is what we hope to do, then it may be best to have someone who hasn’t already been the head of a large comprehensive and got used to that model,” Mr Haimendorf said.

The small school is being sponsored by the education charity Ark. Its chair of governors, Ron Beller, said Mr Haimendorf had “valuable management experience gained both in schools and in his business career”. But the NUT expressed concern, saying a Teach First graduate could not possibly have the experience to lead a school.

Only six weeks’ training, page 15.