THIS week the well-known former deputy head at The Chase high school, Aydin Onac, was being forced to defend himself, after newspaper headlines about his being paid a £40,000 "golden hello" to take over as headteacher of a school in Haringey, London.

While there is reason to be concerned about this kind of use of public money, it does indicate just how hard it is to find headteachers of sufficient calibre to cope with the demands of the job these days, or perhaps it shows how few are prepared to do it.

We are inclined to celebrate the success of one of our own'. Mr Onac was highly regarded when he worked here in Malvern and we ought to be pleased that is talent has now been recognised by Fortismere School, where the governors paid headhunters £10,000 to find him.

A good or bad headteacher can make or break a school, so for governors to find and reward a good one is money well spent where our children are concerned.

BECAUSE he was in prison, some may find it hard to sympathise with the family of Chris Johnson, who was found dead, hanging in his cell last Friday.

He was 19 and already had three children, the oldest, aged four. Maybe he hadn't lived the most responsible life thus far, but he was a young man with his life ahead of him who deserved the opportunity to learn from past mistakes.

He was only at Brinsford on remand awaiting sentence for relatively minor offences and his family fear he had been the victim of bullying.

The prison service has a duty of care to those under its roof and the family is entitled to a full, honest and, we hope, not long delayed, explanation of the circumstances which led to his death.