A NORTH Yorkshire college headmaster is stepping down at the end of the year - to go to Oxford.

Ampleforth College headmaster Father Leo Chamberlain will take up the position of Master of St Benet's Hall, Oxford, after ten years as headmaster.

By December Fr Leo, who is 62, will have completed 40 years' service to the school.

He was head of history and housemaster before becoming headmaster in 1992.

He will be succeeded by 47-year-old Father Gabriel Everitt, who is currently the school's third master, a housemaster and head of Christian Theology.

Ampleforth's Abbot, the Rev Timothy Wright said: "By any measure, Fr Leo has been an outstanding headmaster.

"Under his guidance, the school has gone from strength to strength. Its pastoral care, its academic standards and its achievement for students of an exceptionally wide range of ability were all strongly commended in the recent inspection report."

He said: "This record and the school's physical transformation in recent years will be a lasting testimonial to his leadership and vision, and his successful introduction of full boarding for sixth form girls has been marked this year by the achievement of Oxbridge offers for three of them."

Fr Leo was educated at Ampleforth and at University College, Oxford, where he held the Burn open scholarship in History.

Updated: 11:23 Thursday, January 16, 2003