A NEW headmaster has been appointed at an independent school.

David Ewart replaces Michael Featherstone, who resigned in April after seven years at Barnard Castle School.

School governors met on Wednesday to discuss the appointment and agreed to promote Mr Ewart, who has been second master at the school for the past 15 years and acting head in recent months.

Chairman of the governors Euan Macfarlane said: "We are delighted he has agreed to take on this role. We know he is popular in the school and with parents and we only ever hear praise of David."

Mr Ewart added: "I'm delighted to be offered the post which is a real vote of confidence. It's a great honour to be invited to be the next head and I would like to thank the staff for working so fantastically hard over the past six months."

Born in Fleetwood and educated at Rossall School in Lancashire, Mr Ewart was a student at Durham University where he studied geography. He also took an education law master's degree at Durham before undertaking a diploma in management studies through the Open University.

He was appointed second master at the 695-pupil Barnard Castle School 15 years ago and on Wednesday pledged to maintain its reputation for academic and sporting achievement under his leadership.

"About three years ago we invested heavily in rugby and have enjoyed great success as a result," he said.

"We now want to extend this into tennis, cricket, lacrosse and hockey while maintaining our excellent results in the classroom.

"First and foremost, the school must continue to be a caring community and we need to maintain our strong academic reputation while offering a balanced education. We also plan to invest in boarding education and there will be further developments to enable us to produce first class results with excellent teaching accommodation.

"Finally, we plan to strengthen our links with the local community to provide opportunities to share our resources."