Jaideep Barot, the headmaster of Bristol Grammar School has been elected as chair of The Heads’ Conference (HMC) for the 24/25 academic year.
The Cambridge and Durham-educated physicist said he was looking forward to working with colleagues at the HMC as it took on “some of the biggest challenges the sector has ever known.”
Mr Barot started his working life at Goldman Sachs, later becoming a physics teacher at Westminster School, becoming head of physics.
From there, he became head of science at Godolphin and Latymer, then deputy head (academic) at Marlborough College. He took the headship of Bristol Grammar School in 2018.
The current chair of HMC is Melvyn Roffe, head of George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, and Sue Woodroffe, head of The Grammar School at Leeds will take over for 2023/24.
Mr Barot said in a statement to the membership: “Whilst we are all under immense scrutiny, I am hugely buoyed by the strength of purpose of HMC members, by the range of our schools in the UK and abroad, by the breadth and quality of the educational opportunities we provide, and by the dedication and creativity of the outstanding staff we work with.
“Moreover, I am humbled by the determination of each and every head in HMC membership to nurture and develop every child whose care and education has been entrusted to us; it is an unparalleled privilege that I know none of us take for granted.”
A statement from the HMC explained that Mr Barot had himself benefited from financial assistance as a boy to attend Manchester Grammar School, which had made him “a passionate advocate of widening access to the life-enhancing opportunities provided by excellent schooling.”
The HMC added: “He was one of the small group of independent and state-sector heads that set up the Bristol Education Partnership – a cross-city initiative of what is now 17 schools, universities and the city council, working together to improve educational outcomes for pupils across the city.”
Beyond his work at Bristol Grammar, Mr Barot is an ISI inspector, a governor on the boards of Sandroyd School in Wiltshire, Manchester Grammar School, and Bishop Cotton School in India, and a trustee for the Futura Learning Partnership, a sizeable MAT spanning Bristol, Bath and the surrounding area.
He is also a microlight pilot, a PADI divemaster and a long-suffering Liverpool fan, the HMC said.
