HEADTEACHER Chris Dark says he does not expect to continue his policy of fining parents of truants when he arrives at Matravers School.

Mr Dark, 50, has been appointed as successor to Nigel Gilhespy and will take over the reins at the Westbury school in September.

The married father-of-three is currently headteacher of Peers Technology College in Oxford where he hit the headlines for his tough stance.

His is the first school in Oxfordshire to adopt powers to levy fines of up to £100 on parents whose children play truant or are late for classes.

Mr Dark said: "I don't think I'm advocating having a tough stance for the sake of it. What we've got here are quite a lot of young people who are regular truants.

"After about 55 letters home and 44 phone calls we said 'enough is enough'. Now I get parents who come in and say we really must do something to make our kids attend school.

"All schools in the UK are now entitled to bring in fines to tackle truancy, but there was a specific need for it here. I've worked in five other comprehensives and to be honest if we had taken that stance in the other four it would probably have backfired.

"It's not something I'm expecting to build in at Matravers. In a city like Oxford it's very easy to set off for school and not arrive.

"What I've seen at Matravers is that they are really efficient at combating truancy. I was pleased when I was there to see everyone get in on time and lessons started right on the button."

In the past five years Mr Dark helped raise attendance at Peers Technology College to 88 per cent, but it still has one of the worst truancy records nationally.

After eight years as headteacher there, he is looking forward to a new challenge in Westbury and said he had considered working in the west country for a while.

He said: "I used to climb a lot back in the 70s in Dorset and I've always been fond of the Wiltshire, Dorset and Avon area.

"I was particularly struck with the community feel of Westbury, being a kind of island town surrounded by farmland.

"I could clearly see a lot was happening at the school. It wasn't just smoke and mirrors."

Mr Dark was immediately impressed by Matravers when he came for interview and is keen to play a role in the community. His wife is head of sixth form at a school in Didcot and they have three daughters, aged 21, 17 and 13. Mr Gilhespy is retiring in July after 19 years at the helm at Matravers to spend more time with his wife Elaine and travel the world.