CHIPPING SODBURY School has a new man at the top after going through two-thirds of the school year without a headteacher.

Phillip Lidstone took over the running of the school at Easter, filling the void that had only been temporarily filled since Tom Winskill left to become a schools' inspector last summer.

He said: "I enjoy working with the staff, governors and pupils here and I want to achieve the very best for everyone, building on the success the school has already had since it became a technology college."

Mr Lidstone has been teaching for 30 years and has previously worked in schools in Bristol and Wiltshire.

His most recent post was as head of Manning School, an all-girls school in the centre of Nottingham.

Originally from Burnham, Buckinghamshire, Mr Lidstone attended Nottingham University and studied chemistry, which he has gone on to teach and also write about in a number of science textbooks.

Mr Lidstone is married to Carmel and has two daughters, Angela, 19, and Helen, 17.