Mr Simon Dorman has been made the 38th Headmaster of Monmouth School for Boys.

Mr Dorman, who gave 10 years’ dedicated service as Second Master, made an immediate and positive impact as Acting Head.

He is ideally placed to provide the outstanding leadership and continuity of pastoral care as the school looks forward to emerging stronger than ever from these highly challenging times post-lockdown.

“The Governors are delighted to announce that Mr Dorman has been made Headmaster of Monmouth School for Boys,” said Principal, Mr James Murphy-O’Connor.

“I am sure the whole school community will join us in congratulating Mr Dorman on his well-deserved appointment.”

Mr Dorman grew up in Northern Ireland and was a boarder at Methodist College Belfast for seven years, before doing his undergraduate degree in German and Philosophy at Jesus College, Oxford University.

He returned to Belfast to do an MPhil and a PGCE at Queen’s University, while working as a boarding master in his old school and playing rugby for Queen’s.

His first teaching post was at Gordonstoun School, followed by a year in Seville, where he worked on improving his Spanish while teaching English and German.

Mr Dorman then took up a post as Head of German at The Leys School, Cambridge, and became Housemaster of a boarding house.

Working in boarding schools has been an almost unbroken theme of his career, and he is a passionate advocate of the benefits that boarding brings to the whole school community.

Mr Dorman said: “I am very proud of our school and, most importantly, our boys’ achievements.

“When prospective parents come to visit us, they invariably say how impressed they have been by the boys, and how they hope that their sons will turn into the confident but humble, hard-working and kind young men that they meet in our school.

“We have had more than enough change in our lives over the last few months, but I want to assure everyone that there will be a very smooth handover, and that I intend to continue the excellent work that has gone before as well as develop the proud traditions of our school further.”

Mr Dorman is married to Miranda, who hails from Penarth and teaches Learning Support at Monmouth School for Girls, where his two daughters are also pupils.