IT SEEMS as if the retirement of Kenneth Blackmore from the principalship of Wesley College, Dublin, last July, has inaugurated a case of musical chairs in Dublin school principalships.

Dr John Harris, formerly headmaster of Sandford Park School, Dublin, became principal of Wesley College in August, while Michael Whelan takes up the reins in Sandford Park.

Harris is well known in the education world for his espousal of curricular reform and new approaches to teaching. He was principal in Newpark Comprehensive, Dublin. in the 1970s, but when Gemma Hussey became Minister of Education in the 1980s, he left the chalkface to become her adviser. Afterwards, he returned to Newpark and later he became principal of Sandford Park.

Michael Whelan joined the staff of Sandford Park school in 1971, having spent four years at Brook House School as resident master. He is a graduate of UCD and also holds a Master's degree in education, specialising in guidance and counselling from TCD.

Whelan has played an active part in the life of Sandford Park School. He is senior teacher of history and initiated the school's Transition Year programme in 1989. He has acted as co-ordinator of the programme ever since.

Whelan worked with the Department of Education's in-career development unit as a trainer of teachers for the Transition Year programme in 1993 and 1994. He has been a part-time lecturer in the teacher training department in St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Co Kildare.

He is committed to maintaining the traditions of an all-round liberal education, the family atmosphere of the small school, and its historical position as the Irish State's most prominent non-denominational school".