Speaking
Do you need a speaker with front line experience of leadership in Catholic education and the charity sector to inspire and re-energise your team?
With over twenty years of leadership experience in Catholic state secondary schools, multi-academy trusts, and charities, I can offer bespoke keynotes and workshops to help teams and individuals rediscover their purpose and reignite their passion for mission.
I want to help those who work in Catholic settings to recover their purpose and recover themselves. Many people at the moment are facing burn out and exhaustion. I will help you to step back, take a look from the balcony and re-discover the energy for mission.
I’m more than happy to work with other faiths and those in the corporate sector who are looking to deepen a values-led approach to the mission. From MAT conferences to retreat days, INSET days, clergy conferences and corporate away-days, I seek to be attentive to your needs and deliver workshops and keynotes that provide inspiration and motivation
Popular themes
When I’m approached by an event organiser, I always take time to find out about the context of the organisation and what the need is from the event. My talks and workshops are always bespoke for each occasion.
These six exemplars are really just a guide to the kind of things I’ve talked about in the past. I enjoy creative dialogue and shaping a session to meet the needs of a community. My approach in these sessions is always to ensure that there is good mix of direct input and interactive discussion and feedback.
The Catholic Life and Mission of the School
With the new Catholic Schools Inspection framework there is a renewed focus on the Catholic life and mission of the school. What is our purpose, what is the ‘why’ of Catholic schools. With reference to the teaching of the Church, the Catholic Schools Inspection framework and, of course my own experience and the experience of the participants, we go back to the foundations of the mission of the Catholic school as part of the mission of the Church. We’ll also cover some of the aspects of the new inspection framework which might be challenging, such as pupil and staff understanding of Catholic Social Teaching, how the whole of the taught curriculum can be an expression of the Catholic understanding of reality.
Catholic Social Teaching: an introduction for staff
This session is aimed at staff and volunteers in parishes, schools or charities who are committed to working in a Catholic setting and supportive of the ethos, but might not know too much about Catholic Social Teaching. With interactive discussion and space for questions, I take the participants through the ‘permanent principles’ of Catholic Social Teaching and what they might look like in their own setting. The new Catholic Schools Inspection framework makes a lot of reference to Catholic Social Teaching, so versions of this session are becoming more popular.
Gospel-inspired servant leadership
A lot of my work is with leaders and aspiring leaders in a Catholic setting in schools, the charity sector and, most recently with the clergy. Leadership is demanding at the best of times, but leadership in a Catholic setting should be distinctive, rooted in the Gospel, while still able to function in the real world of accountability. In this session I develop the concept of servant leadership inspired by the gospels while drawing on the wisdom of other leadership models, especially adaptive leadership. Above all, it has to work on a Monday morning, not just sound good at the conference on a Friday afternoon.
Catholic multi academy trusts: leadership, vision and mission
With my experience as the CEO of two Catholic MATS, I understand what a multi academy trust looks like when it’s working for the benefit of its pupils and I understand how it can go wrong. I firmly believe that the multi academy trust is the best way not just to preserve Catholic education but for it to flourish in ways we have only just begun to imagine. With Gospel-inspired leaderships, CMATs can be forces of transformation in their communities, forming young men and women to be agents of change, builders of the kingdom of justice, peace and love.
Resourcing and sustaining the mission
In recent years, I’ve been asked to give more retreats for school staff and senior leaders. We are facing higher levels of burn out and exhaustion in the education and the charity sector than ever before. Hence the need for more spaces where all staff can step back and breathe, visit the wells of emotional and spiritual nourishment. The content of a day, or days, like this, will be worked out with the organisers depending on the need and context of the group.
Formation of the Heart: the Why and How of Being a Catholic Today
I’ve spoken to a number of parish, deanery and clergy groups about the ‘signs of the times’ and what it means to be a Catholic today. I have experience of dealing with the mixed emotions that days like this can release. I consider myself to be a mainstream Catholic, with no particular agenda or axe to grind. The only point I do try to emphasise is that social action, or social evangelization as Pope Francis calls it, is an integral part of our faith, not just an add on. This doesn’t mean that everybody is called to do the same thing. In the Body of Christ, there are many gifts, many roles to be played.
Selected keynotes 2023 - 2024
Main topics: Catholic Social Teaching, life and mission of Catholic school, leadership
June 2024 - Ursuline Academy, Ilford, INSET day at Walsingham House, Abbotswick
June 2024 - MANCEP Heads and Principals conference, Manchester
June 2024 - Gidea Park, Brentwood Diocese, Catholic Social Teaching study day
June 2024 - Newman Catholic Collegiate, Stoke-on-Trent
May 2024 - St Augustine’s Priory, Ealing, London
April 2024 - Bellerive FCJ Catholic College, Liverpool
March 2024 - St John Paul II Academy Trust, leadership conference, Birmingham
March 2024 - ATCRE (Association of Teachers of Catholic RE), annual conference, London
February 2024 - La Salle RELEM European and Mediterranean Assembly, Rome
February 2024 - Prior Park College, Bath
January 2024 - Westminster Diocese Catholic Life and Mission Conference, London
November 2023 - CHAPS (Catholic Headteachers Association Primary Schools), Glasgow
November 2023 - North West Dioceses, Leadership Programme, Wrightington
November 2023 - South East Formatio Middle Leaders Programme launch, London
September 2023 - Corpus Christi primary school, Bournemouth, social justice conference
July 2023 - St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College, London
June 2023 - Shrewsbury Catholic Heads Association conference, Conwy
April 2023 - Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education, DCU, Dublin, podcast series launch
March 2023 - La Salle Education IGBM Chaplains and Heads of RE conference, Kintbury
February 2023 - Holy Family Catholic MAT, governors conference, Ellesmere Port
January 2023 - Leeds Diocese Headteachers conference, Leeds