Louise Salmond Smith, head of The Prebendal School in Sussex, has been appointed as the founding head of Haileybury Malta.
Salmond Smith says she will be moving to Malta in early September to oversee the development and setting up of the new school, the fourth of Haileybury’s British International Schools and the first in Europe.
She has described it as her “ambition” to set up a new school.
The school will open in September 2023 in the historic David Bruce Royal Naval Hospital in Mtarfa. In the first year, the school will educate children of prep school age, moving up to GCSE, VIth Form and then boarding, over three to four years as more of the site is renovated. Once this is complete, Haileybury Malta will have up to 800 pupils all through.
In a LinkedIn post, Salmond Smith wrote she would be sad to leave “the most wonderful little choir school in the world” but looking forward to her new project.
She wrote: “I was fortunate enough to visit the site shortly before Easter. The building is huge and jaw-droppingly stunning. There’s a lot of work to be done, but I am looking forward to a very different set of challenges.
“I will be very sad indeed to leave Chichester, in particular all my wonderful colleagues in the Cathedral and school community. My governors have been especially supportive over the last five years and it is with their support and blessing that I am able to move on to this unique opportunity.”
According to the website for Haileybury Malta, the school will follow a wholly British Curriculum up until the sixth form, following the guidelines of the various Key Stage initiatives, including a full primary school curriculum.
In the sixth form it will follow the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme once the school has been accredited.