Toby Seth is to take over as headmaster of Whitgift School, it has been announced.
Headmaster: Toby Seth, named today for Whitgift School’s top job
The financially challenged Whitgift Foundation, Croydon’s biggest landowners, made the announcement at lunchtime today, with Seth to take charge from September 2025.
The Foundation and the £51,000 per year fee-paying school were left in the lurch in January when the current head, Christopher Ramsey, announced that he was leaving at the end of the school year to take up a headship at an international school in Madrid.
Whitgift in South Croydon, which has nearly 1,500 pupils, boys aged from 10 to 18, is one of three large private schools run by the registered charity the Whitgift Foundation, which last year made the controversial decision to close its girls’ school, Old Palace, by July 2025, claiming that it was no longer viable.
From September this year, Whitgift will have Andrew Halls, a senior member of staff, as its interim head.
According to the most recent accounts available, the Whitgift Foundation has four members of staff paid between £150,000 and £200,000 per year and one who is paid £200,000 to £250,000 per year. It is understood that the three schools’ headteachers are among these five employees.
The Whitgift Foundation has been without a full-time chief executive since May 2023, after Martin Corney went on long-term sick leave, eventually retiring in November last year.
Today’s announcement of Seth’s appointment described a “highly competitive recruitment process” conducted by the Foundation, its Court of Governors and the Whitgift School Committee.
Whitgift claims to be “one of the largest and most successful boys’ schools in the country”.
But last year it was mired in a catfishing and internet sleaze scandal, requiring an investigation by the Metropolitan Police, and the dismissal of at least one senior member of teaching staff, all of which was linked to two, separate, suicides, one of a former teacher, the other a talented 16-year-old pupil.
Seth, 48, went to Dulwich College and studied Modern and Medieval Languages at Trinity, Cambridge. He has been head of The Pocklington School, a boarding school near York, since 2019.
He began his teaching career at Dulwich in 2002, teaching Spanish and French before working at Wellington College, The Godolphin and Latymer School and King’s School, Macclesfield.
“I am honoured and delighted to have been appointed to lead Whitgift School at a pivotal time in its history,” Seth said.
“Throughout the recruitment process, I was struck by Whitgift’s many strengths, including its commitment to excellence, the wealth of opportunities on offer to boys and the deep sense of pride at being part of such a diverse and strong community. I am looking forward to meeting more members of this community and working alongside Chris Ramsey and Andrew Halls to ensure a smooth and effective handover before getting down to work in September 2025.”
Seth will be Whitgift School’s 30th headmaster, in a history that dates to 1600.
Read more: 16-year-old Whitgift pupil’s death is linked to text blackmail
Read more: Police investigated child abuse claims at Whitgift last year
Read more: Head Ramsey’s exit a ‘shame for school’ admits Foundation
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