A LEADING public school has announced the successor to its retiring head.

And the new man at the top says he is looking forward to building on an ‘exceptional legacy’.

Adrian Burn, chairman of governors at the public school in Park Road, has announced that Michael Windsor will succeed Felicity Lusk when she steps down in September 2016.

Miss Lusk announced her retirement earlier this year.

In 2010, she became the first woman to be appointed headteacher of a boys’ public school and will retire at the end of the summer term next year.

Father-of-two Mr Windsor, 46, currently headteacher of Reading Blue Coat School, said Miss Lusk had done a “fantastic job” and added Abingdon School was clearly “thriving and successful”.

“It’s a tough assignment to follow her,” Mr Windsor added. I am really looking forward to it.

“The fundamental values of courtesy and consideration are at the heart of schools like Abingdon – it is the bedrock everything else is built on.”

Mr Windsor said he was delighted to have the opportunity to build on an “exceptional legacy”.

He said: “The school has a tremendous history and is well-placed to enjoy an equally impressive future.

“I very much look forward to guiding that future.”

Mr Windsor was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and at Durham University, where he got a first class degree in German with French. He still teaches German.

The headteacher is also an accomplished musician who played university and club rugby and enjoys swimming and cycling. Mr Windsor said he shared a vision for the school with Miss Lusk, adding: “Music and drama and the other-half (extra-curricular activities) are very important.”

Before he was head of Reading Blue Coat, he was deputy head at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford from 2003.

A former chairman of the South Central division of HMC (the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference), Mr Windsor now serves on the HMC Academic Policy Committee and is currently chairman of the Society of Heads.

Miss Lusk said: “With the appointment of Michael Windsor, I am very confident that when I leave Abingdon in a year’s time the school will be in capable hands.

“It is an exceptional school with very talented staff and pupils and I feel certain that he will enjoy his time here as much as I have.”