THE new leadership team at John Hunt of Everest Community School have taken up their positions.

Julie Rose, 47, is the new acting headteacher at the Basingstoke secondary school, replacing Lesley Phillipson, who took early retirement last week at the age of 55.

Mrs Rose will work alongside John Hunt's executive headteacher Jeffrey Threlfall, who is also head of Wildern School in Hedge End, near Southampton. She will be employed initially on a part-time basis but will take on a full-time role in January.

Mrs Rose is no stranger to leadership. She worked for five years as deputy headteacher at a school in Birmingham before taking charge of Warblington Secondary School, in Havant, where she has been for four years.

Also joining the John Hunt team as an acting deputy headteacher is 52-year-old Mark Duncan, who will be employed on a full-time basis.

Prior to taking up his position at John Hunt, Mr Duncan was dep-uty head at Brighton Hill Community College in Basingstoke.

The two new recruits will remain at John Hunt until the end of August. They will then return to their previous positions.

Hampshire County Council is expected to advertise for a permanent headteacher at John Hunt over the forthcoming months.

It is understood that the new head will be in position when the school moves to its new £26.8million state-of-the-art site on the Merton Rise development in Popley in September next year.

Last week, The Gazette reported how the governing board at the school - which has one of the poorest GCSE results track records in Hampshire - has been disbanded and is being replaced with an Interim Executive Body, which will include Mr Threlfall.

The shake-up is being co-ordinated by Hampshire County Council in consultation with the Department for Education and Skills.

Mrs Rose told The Gazette that, in her short time at the 432-pupil school, she has already seen much potential.

"I'm really happy to be here," she said. "It was a big decision to leave my school for two terms, but I think this is a fantastic opportunity.

"I will be finding out what the school's strengths are and then, hopefully, building upon those strengths."

Mr Duncan added: "Our aim is to maximise the potential of the children and leave the school in better shape than it was when we came. I really believe John Hunt could be one of the leading sch-ools in the Basingstoke area."

Hampshire County Council's executive member for education, Councillor David Kirk, said the council was very supportive of John Hunt and is "100 per cent" behind the new leadership team.

He said: "I would hope that, a few years down the line, John Hunt will be very successful. I am very optimistic for its future, especially with the move to the new school site."