William Martin Alastair Land (born 24 September 1971) has been headmaster at Harrow School, since 2019, previously having been headmaster at

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...

. He has taught at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

, where he was Master in College, and was deputy headmaster at Harrow School before moving to

Early life and education

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in 1971, the son of solicitor Martin and Elaine Land (formerly Lightfoot), Land was educated at

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester C ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, where he graduated with

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1994, then gained a

Postgraduate Certificate in Education The Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE/PGCertEd) is a one- or two-year higher education course in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which provides training in order to allow graduates to become teachers within maintained schools. In ...

(PGCE).''The Linnean: Newsletter and Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London'', Vols. 21-24, p. 2 In a

gap year A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is typically a year-long break before or after college/university during which students engage in various educational and developmental activities, such as travel or some type of regular work. Gap yea ...

between leaving school and arriving at Cambridge, Land taught Geography and Science at the Budhanilkantha School in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

, where he developed a love of

extreme sports Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Extreme tourism overl ...

and travel.Alastair Land
Sport for all
at ukbsa.com, accessed 10 May 2019

Career

Land's first teaching job after qualifying was at

, where he was a master from 1994 until 2003, teaching biology, coaching rugby, directing plays, and becoming Commanding Officer of the school CCF. In September 2003 he moved on to Winchester, where he was Master in College and led natural history expeditions, as well as chairing the Adventurous Training Committee, refereeing football, and serving as running coach. Next, from 2012 to 2015 he was deputy head master at Harrow, before being appointed as head of

in 2016.Sue Grief
Repton School's new Headmaster Alastair Land
dated 19 September 2016 at derbyshirelife.co.uk, accessed 9 May 2019 In April 2019 he was appointed as Head Master at Harrow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Land, Alastair 1971 births Living people Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Head Masters of Harrow School Headmasters of Repton School People educated at Manchester Grammar School Schoolteachers from Greater Manchester Teachers at Eton College