Sarah Stannard is to take up the job of Principal at City College Southampton from Lindsey Noble who is going to step down at the end of this year to take part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht race.

Ms Stannard is currently vice-principal of Chichester College, said she was looking forward to building on the “fantastic transformation” that Ms Noble had made to the college over the last 12 years.

Ms Stannard, who currently lives in Southampton, said: “I could see City College was doing an amazing job in achieving very high success rates and a great environment has been created for students with the excellent facilities. Similarly, the curriculum has evolved in an exciting way in recent years, most notably incorporating A levels, and I wanted to be a part of the team to build on this. When the job was advertised it was an immediate decision to apply.”