Mark Gore, Warwickshire County Council’s head of service, has been seconded to lead the Transforming Education team, implementing the county’s main strategy for change and its entry to the Building Schools for the Future programme. Mr Gore was formerly head of education in Warwickshire and has previously worked in schools in Essex, Hertfordshire and Derbyshire.

Ruth Pimentel, former national director for the early years at National Strategies, has been appointed a non-executive director of Child Base, a private children’s nursery company that operates 35 day nurseries across the South East. Mrs Pimentel is a qualified teacher who has owned and managed a pre-school. She has also held posts advising and supporting early-years practitioners.

Angela Barr has been appointed headteacher of Chepstow House School in Kensington, west London, which will open in January. The co-educational school for reception to Year 2 children is part of the Alpha Plus Group. Mrs Barr will join from another of the group’s schools in the area, Pembridge Hall preparatory school for girls, where she has spent the past 16 years, 11 as head of the lower school.

Heather Maxwell is to retire as principal of South Devon College in Paignton. Since joining the college in 2002, Ms Maxwell has lead it from failing to outstanding in Ofsted’s view and it has doubled in size. Ms Maxwell, who was last year made an OBE for services to education, is expected to leave the college in September, although this will depend on the appointment of her successor.

Hilda Clarke will become head of Tiffin School, a grammar for boys, in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, this September. Miss Clarke is currently head of Langley Grammar near Slough, Berkshire, a post she has held for nearly nine years. She has previously taught at Tiffin Girls’ School, where she was deputy head from 1992 to 2000. Pauline Cox will remain the interim executive head of Tiffin School until Miss Clarke joins.

Julian Stanley is to become chief executive of the Teacher Support Network, which provides practical and emotional support, in May. After 11 years in the post, Patrick Nash has left to focus on being chief executive of LTL Connect, a social enterprise company in Cardiff. Mr Stanley joins after eight years as chief executive and managing director of The Cresset, a theatre in Peterborough.

Adrian Hall, a former government programme director, is to join Magic Studio, a social media education technology firm, as a strategic advisor on development opportunities. At the Department for Education and Skills, Mr Hall was responsible for a Pounds 15 million budget to achieve strategic policy aims in relation to the educational software industry. Magic Studio is an online learning platform that offers content from educational publishers and museums.

John Barnes

Delegates who spent last week at the ATL conference bathed in the glow of Ed Balls and Mary Bousted surely could not have thought their celebrity spotting would get any better. Then a frisson of excitement went around as delegates whispered: “He’s here.” John Barnes of Liverpool, England and New Order fame was at a fringe meeting garnering publicity for Show Racism the Red Card. One delegate asked the footballing demi-god whether he would consider teaching. “No,” he said. “I believe in corporal punishment, so I think I’ll have to leave that one to you.”