Reflections
As someone who has spent over two decades in leadership roles in Catholic education and the charity sector, I have had the privilege of learning and growing through countless experiences. In this suite of published articles and reflections, I want to share some of the insights I have gained over the years, as well as some of the challenges I have faced and overcome.
Whether you are a teacher, leader, or simply someone looking to deepen your understanding of Catholic social teaching, I hope that these articles and reflections will be a source of inspiration and guidance.
Recent articles & publications
Catholic Social Teaching: an introduction
“God is love” (1 John 4:8) might be a good starting place for any summary of Catholic Social Teaching. God’s love became incarnate in Jesus Christ, who taught us a ‘new commandment’, to love one another as he has loved us (John 15:12). This love is not an abstract quality to be admired, but a virtue, something we do by the grace of God.
Gospel-inspired servant leadership in a Catholic school setting
In this chapter I pick up on the theme of ‘servant leadership’ which has its origins in the leadership writings of Greanleaf. The central argument to be made is that when it comes to Catholic school leadership, to be a servant leader is to have a set of dispositions inspired by the gospels.
The Social Mission of the Church in a (post-) Covid society
I’d like to begin with some remarks on what strikes me about the Common Good (1996) document, having come back to it after many years.
Renewing Spiritual Capital: the National Retreat for Catholic Headteachers and the National School of Formation: the Impact on Catholic Headteachers in the UK.
First published in International Studies in Catholic Education, 2018 (Vol 10, No. 1)
This paper draws on the findings of a small-scale research study based on interviews with twenty serving Catholic headteachers from the primary and secondary phases and from the maintained and independent sectors.
Catholic multi academy trusts: stronger together?
It’s not uncommon for adverts for the headships of Catholic schools in England and Wales to go unanswered. The biggest challenge we face in Catholic education is finding enough “practising Catholics” to run our schools and Catholic multi academy trusts (CMATs), our RE departments and chaplaincies.
Is the tide of faith ebbing away and about to take our schools with it? With the falling away of Church attendance and what might be termed the “Catholic culture”, the pipeline of leadership seems to be drying up in some places. The Catholic Education Service’s Formatio initiative is doing its best to coordinate the formation of next generation of Catholic leaders, but is it too little too late?
Dynamite in the classroom. Catholic schools and Catholic Social Teaching
This article first appeared in The Tablet on 10 February 2024
Peter Maurin, a co-founder with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement in America, once described the social doctrine of the Church as like dynamite which Catholic scholars had wrapped up in nice phrases, placed in a sealed container and sat on. For the Church to be the dominant social force it should be, he said, we need to blow the lid off.
Author & Contributor
Book review
A Revolution Betrayed: How Egalitarians Wrecked the British Education System.
Peter Hitchins (Bloomsbury Continuum, 224 PP, £20)
In April 2002, I took up my post as the headteacher of a Catholic secondary modern school in a leafy English city. In the first 12 years of my career I had barely registered that grammar schools and secondary moderns still existed.
See, Act, Judge
First published in Catholic Education: a lifelong journey, ed. Gareth Byrne and Sean Whittle (Dublin: Veritas, 2021)
A proposal to adopt the pastoral cycle promoted at Vatican II as a basis for a distinctively Catholic pedagogy in school and the basis for lifelong formation in the faith.
The Benefits and Risks of a Catholic MAT: A CEO’s perspective
Keynote at Network of Researchers in Catholic Education Conference, 4 December 2019, The Woodbrooke Centre, Birmingham
According to the CES 2018 Census, there are currently 2,122 Catholic schools in England. Just over a quarter – 26% - are academies.