NEWS

Bishop Strachan head stepping down

The Bishop Strachan School will have a new head of school when classes are in this fall.

Outgoing head Deryn Lavell announced last June the 2016–2017 school year would be her last. During that time, the BSS Search Committee, chaired by Tony Gaffney, sought a replacement.

The result was Judith Carlisle, who will fill the position this August. The educator brings extensive experience in the academic world. She spent six years as Head of Dover Grammar School for Girls in Dover, England, as well as 14 years at King Edward VII School and Whitley Abbey School. She arrives directly from a stint as headmistress at Oxford High School for Girls.

The announcement was made by Bishop Strachan School on Feb. 13.

“I am thrilled and honoured to be entrusted with the leadership of such a highly regarded school as BSS,” Carlisle said, in a press release. “The school’s mastery of inquiry-based learning and emphasis on educating girls to be leaders is renowned throughout the international education community. My own focus, beliefs and values are entirely aligned with the BSS Culture of Powerful Learning.”

Outgoing head Deryn Lavell said it’s a bittersweet moment in an email to the Town Crier. Under her tenure, the school has launched its largest fundraising campaign of $35 million, and a new arts-sciences-athletics wing is set to open in the spring.

“My years at BSS have been the most productive, exciting and rewarding of my professional life,” she said. “I have the people I’ve worked with so closely to thank for that — our board members, staff, parents, alumnae and, especially, our students.”

Lavell is headed to Bermuda, with husband Steve, to take up the mantle of Headship of the Saltus Grammar School.

“It’s going to be an interesting change for me, but I’ll always take a piece of BSS with me wherever I go,” she said.