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The last thing Bob Lennox expected as he neared the end of his long career in education was to be headhunted for a job in a country he'd never visited; less still to begin learning to speak Turkish as he approached his 60th birthday.

But that's exactly what has happened to the Warwick Academy principal who leaves Bermuda in August after 11.5 years for a fresh challenge in a foreign land. "I was expecting to carry on here until March 2009 when my contract expired so I hadn't thought about looking for another job," says the 59-year-old Brit. "But I was kind of approached about it by a lady who came here employed by Renaissance to look at the independent schools.

"She does headhunting. She came to look at Warwick Academy and for some reason she seemed to think I was the right person for this particular job. She contacted me the last time it became available but I'd just got another three-year contract in Bermuda.

"I was quite happy to work my time out here so I didn't think twice about it then. But she came back to the Island."

The offer for him to become headmaster of the Koç (pronounced koch) School in Istanbul was made again — and this time Mr. Lennox decided it was one he couldn't refuse. "I hadn't considered pitching in for a job of this kind," he says. "It's one hell of a school. To be offered a job like that at my age is unusual."

He laughs as he recalls how wife Marian was "terrified" at the thought of moving to Turkey but soon came around to the idea.

"They took us out there for about a week initially and she was just completely bowled over by the people that she met. She had some concerns because she is a very strong Christian. She's very involved in St. John's Church in Pembroke here; we both are. She thought that was a problem as Turkey is 99 percent Muslim but it soon became clear that there is religious tolerance there."

He adds: "I'll be the Christian head of a totally Muslim school. I don't think there are many of those anywhere."

Mr. Lennox is expecting something of a culture shock: Istanbul is the world's third largest city with a population of more than 11 million.

Koç School — where half the curriculum is taught in English and half in Turkish — has more than 2,100 students aged four to 18, compared with Warwick's 780 aged five to 18.

But he says: "I see parallels with Bermuda in the sense that Warwick Academy is a totally Bermudian school. This is a totally Turkish school. They both want to be the best for their countries but have an international curriculum that positions them anywhere.

"I think there is a sense in which this school really was looking for someone experienced, especially in IB (International Baccalaureate). We have been running it for six years at Warwick and I introduced it."

It's also not the first time he's led a large school. Before coming to Bermuda, Mr. Lennox, a native of Derbyshire in England who trained as a PE and English teacher, was head teacher at a British comprehensive with 1,500 pupils.

He leaves Bermuda on August 11 and starts his new job just three days later.

But he's happy about the fast turnaround as he's already started to think about how much he'll miss the Island and the friends he and his family have made here.

"I was beginning to feel the loss a few months ago when I realised it was going to be quite final. I think in some sense going to a new place will help take my mind off it a bit.

"I have been here a substantial chunk of my time and two of my kids have been through the school. It's been good for them. We'll all always be coming back because of those friendships we've made."

His time at Warwick, he says, has been a wholly positive one and he's proud of the students he's seen graduate from the school.

He's loved his involvement in sports, teaching theory of knowledge to the IB students and enforcing rigorous academic standards — but also just chatting one-to-one with his young charges.

"The greatest thing is I keep walking round the streets seeing all these Warwick Academy students and some of those guys are in their 30s now. I'm always struck by the type of people they are. I wouldn't want to say the school is responsible for it but if we did anything right at all there might be a little reflection in there. As the head of it I am extremely proud of them."

Mr. Lennox will go to Turkey remembering many such moments of pride in the school — but there will be sad memories too.

Earlier this year, the school lost two students in tragic circumstances in the space of a few weeks: 15-year-old Dakarai Tucker who died after battling an aneurysm of the brain and 17-year-old Miguel Franco who was killed in a motorcycle accident.

"I think it's at times like that that you realise what a school we have got," says Mr. Lennox. "I didn't have to do anything; the kids and the staff did it all for me.

"I don't think I have been in a school where we haven't lost somebody, a pupil, but to lose two people within a few weeks of one another is extraordinary. Both kids loved the school and they were both successful in it. It definitely pulls everybody together. It showed me how cooperative the school was."

He could empathise entirely with the parents of the two boys, as he and Marian lost their 13-year-old son, Anthony, in 1980.

"I really knew and understood what the parents were going through," he says. "There is years of immense pain. It's like part of your heart has been cut away but eventually you learn to live with it, especially when you have got other children."

He thinks the loss of his son partly shaped him as a head teacher and has made him ultra-aware of the immense responsibility that educators have in looking after children.

Having two of his children, Paul, now 23, and Katy, 21, at Warwick also affected him. "Whenever I dealt with anybody else's kids I could say how would I expect my kids to be dealt with? That always gives you a good touchstone."

Dealing with the students and parents at Warwick has been, he says, "a sheer pleasure". "There hasn't been a day when I haven't been more than happy to turn up at school and do what I have to do.

"It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve Warwick Academy and to become part of a very close family. The parent body of the school has been wonderful to me and the board and staff at all levels have given me total commitment and support. I have huge respect for them and the broader Bermuda public."

Moving to Turkey will make it easier to get back to the south of England where Paul and Katy and another son, Matthew, 33, live.

And with the arrival of his first grandchild, Lucy, last August, he could be forgiven for thinking about slowing down a little after his initial two-year contract at Koç.

So is he? He chuckles. "They have talked to me about ideally being there for five years. I'm going with an open mind."