THE head teacher of York’s Fulford+School%22">Fulford School is to take over at Millthorpe School until next Easter, while its own head recovers from illness.

Fulford head Steve Smith says he has been asked by City of York Council to become “executive head teacher” for both Fulford and Millthorpe Schools, with him overseeing work at Millthorpe four days a week.

The Press reported last month that Millthorpe head Tony Wootton was receiving treatment for an illness which meant he would not be returning to school next year, with deputy head Scott Butterworth becoming acting head in his absence.

But now Mr Smith has said in a letter to Fulford parents that Mr Wootton’s illness came at a very unfortunate time for Millthorpe, which was in the process of reorganising its senior management team, with Mr Butterworth having only been promoted from assistant head to deputy head from September 1.

“In addition to this, another member of the leadership team will only take up his post after half-term,” he said.

“Clearly, from this you can appreciate that the issue facing Millthorpe is the need to provide experienced leadership in the school. This is a view that is also shared by their senior leadership team and governors of the school.”

He said Fulford had been approached by the local authority because, as a high-performing school, its additional specialism involved working with other schools, both locally and nationally, which faced a wide variety of challenges.

“However, and more importantly, the local authority recognises and values the leadership capacity that exists here at Fulford School.” He said this was a reference not just to himself but the team work and ability of staff at all levels, and consequently he had no qualms about agreeing to support Millthorpe.

“Neither I nor the governors would have countenanced such a decision unless we were 100 per cent certain that it would cause no disruption to our goals and targets for 2009/10 and beyond.”

Jill Hodges, the council’s assistant director of school improvement and staff development, said: “We are pleased that Fulford School is supporting Millthorpe while Tony Wootton is taking sick leave.”

She said Mr Smith would be ably supported by both sets of leadership teams.