New John Bentley School principal Jason Tudor wants the academy to stand out from other schools in the area with a creative and innovative approach to teaching.

Mr Tudor, 39, took over at the start of the academic year, taking over from acting principal Melanie Sutton who has been filling in since Laura Carleton’s resignation in December last year.

The former deputy head teacher at Archway School in Stroud says he believes the Calne school, which was rated Good by Ofsted in 2013, can be outstanding.

He said: “First of all we want to stand out from other schools in the area by being creative and innovative in teaching and learning.

“We are trying to promote creativity, the risk to innovate in the classroom and learning from that.

“This school has real potential to be an outstanding school rapidly and that’s what we are going to be trying to achieve.

“There’s no necessity to overhaul the school completely, there are subtle changes that will enable the teachers to teach.

“It’s about making sure the systems are in place behind the lessons. When these systems and processes are in place teachers are free to teach, inspire and motivate pupils to learn.”

Mr Tudor started teaching back in 1998 in North Wales and following training moved to work at Bradon Forest School as an NQT. He has also taught at Sheldon School in Chippenham and Lydiard Park Academy in Swindon where he was assistant head teacher.

After six years in Swindon he moved to Archway School which at the time was judged by Ofsted to be requiring Special Measures but was later judged to be good.

In a busy opening few weeks of term, Mr Tudor has already visited many classrooms around the school and, in one example of his brand of creative teaching, seen English students create Facebook profiles for characters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

As well as committing to teach five A Level business lessons a fortnight, the new principal said he was keen to expand links between the school and the community.

John Bentley was recently involved in Calne Heritage Week and will also have pupils performing at Calne Music and Arts Festival in October.

“The community needs to trust the school that, one, the students are going to be well cared for and, two, that the outcomes allow them to go anywhere they want to in the world,” he added.

“I think people will have noticed already the atmosphere around the school is hugely positive.”