A FORMER deputy mistress at Bolton Girls' School's Junior Division, Miss Alison Wharmby, has been appointed as the new head of the Junior School at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Blackburn.

She will succeed Ian Gordon, who retires this summer after 14 years as the junior school head at QEGS, which became fully co-educational in 2001.

Alison, who is eagerly looking forward to taking up the reins at QEGS in September, has recently been working in independent junior schools in the Manchester area. Prior to that, she worked at two prestigious English-speaking schools in the Middle East.