God’s Story: the Vision, Values and Mission of a Catholic School in the 21st Century
My new book - God’s Story: the Vision, Values and Mission of a Catholic School in the 21st Century – is published by Redemptorist Publications in September 2025. Like your own children, or the children you teach, you’re not supposed to have favourites, but I do think this could be my favourite book so far! Look out for more information and pre-orders at: https://www.rpbooks.co.uk/
It’s been an opportunity to draw upon my experience as a classroom teacher, head of department and nearly twenty years of leadership experience as a headteacher and CEO of Catholic multi academy trusts.
I’ve also been able to draw upon my recent experience of freelance work with a range of Catholic schools and multi academy trusts across England and Wales, as well as experience of working with Catholic educators in Scotland, Ireland and in Europe.
One of the highlights of the book for me is the wit and wisdom of the fourteen Catholic leaders I interviewed, as well as interviews with sixth form students and survey responses from secondary school pupils. Quotations from these interviews are gathered at the end of each of the six chapters and are almost a book within a book. You’ll find a lot of gems in there.
My overall framing of “God’s Story” is taken from the new Religious Education Directory for England and Wales which uses the narrative of God’s story – salvation history – as the framework for the directory. This allows us to consider the other stories – such as the ‘subject’ story of the ‘consumer’ story – which compete for the attention of our young people, indeed for our attention.
You’ll find chapters on the history of Catholic education in England and Wales, which is the story of an evolving vision, from educating Catholic children in the Catholic faith in Catholic schools to be good citizens, to educating and forming children in Catholic schools – whether Catholic or not – in the values of the Gospel, inspired by an encounter with God, to be agents of positive change for a better world, more in line with the Kingdom of God.
There is a chapter on how to embed the values of the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching in the leadership, curriculum and social outreach of the Catholic school, something which the new Catholic schools inspection framework is looking for and is recognised by the Oscar Romero Award: https://www.romeroaward.co.uk/
There’s also a chapter which outlines a model for understanding the vision, values and mission of a Catholic school and how to incorporate virtues and the principles of Catholic Social Teaching into any framework. In my own experience and talking to many colleagues, there is often confusion around these terms.
In my freelance work, I’m looking forward to working with one Catholic multi academy trust this autumn on reviewing their vision, values and mission. If it’s a complex process for one school, then across many schools it can be dauting, but the prospect of arriving at a shared sense of vision and mission makes the journey very worthwhile.
If you’re interested in booking me for a day, or a workshop, to review the vision, values and mission of your school or multi academy trust, please get in touch through the Contact form on my website.
I’ve started another new project which also might interest you. With Dr Maria Power, a Senior Research Fellow in Dignity at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, we’re writing homily notes on the Sunday reading for the full three-year liturgical cycle, which will be published in the Pastoral review, beginning with the October/November/December 2025 issue.
Our notes will draw attention to the social dimension of readings, the inspiration we might draw from them today to work for love, justice and peace in our world. We’ll refer to Catholic Social Teaching and inspirational figures in the Church like St Oscar Romero.
These notes may be useful for preachers in church and teachers in school preparing to lead a Celebration of the Word on Monday morning. The Pastoral Review is a quarterly guide to ministry and leadership in the Church and is well worth a subscription. For more information visit: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/pastoral-review/