Two heads, it seems, really are better than one.

A Bedfordshire school has taken on both of its experienced deputies to replace a headteacher who left after suffering a heart attack.

Martin Fletcher and Julia Wynd officially take up their new joint post at Hastingsbury upper school, Kempston, in April. They have been acting heads together since their predecessor, Martin Mathews, went on sick leave last January.

The unusual appointment has won the backing of the county council, which has promoted co-leadership in its own school improvement programme. The Department for Education and Skills said there were no legal objections to the arrangement, but said the governing body should consider what would happen if there was a dispute between the two, or one left.

“The more we talked about it, the more sensible it sounded both for the quality of what we could give to the school and our own lifestyles,” said Ms Wynd, 46.

“We are both really committed professionals and get really involved in the job. We have seen too many heads not make retirement. It’s quite a challenging school and we feel we can lessen our stress by supporting each other.”

Mr Fletcher, 41, added: “We do think it’s a model that can be replicated. A lot of the reasons why it works are because of our characteristics and the fact we do complement each other in our strengths.”

Between them, they have clocked up 12 years as deputies at the 900-pupil 13-to-18 community school, which also caters for around 2,000 adult learners a year. They have already shared out some of their responsibilities, and have joint performance targets.

Arrangements are still being discussed, but the pair expect to share the pay rise that the head’s job offers. Instead of appointing a new deputy, they may add another assistant headteacher to the existing team of four (two are job-sharing).

Chair of governors Chris Black said the pair’s joint application was judged the best against the selection panel’s own criteria for the job and the other candidates.

The experiment is being followed closely by the National College for School Leadership. David Jackson, its director of research and school improvement, used to work with the county on its school improvement programme.