The CofE’s Chief Education Officer, the Revd Nigel Genders will be the keynote speaker at a diocesan conference for church school head teachers taking place in Harrogate this Friday, March 10.
Around one hundred head teachers heads will be at Rudding Park near Harrogate to hear Mr Genders and the Chair of the Diocesan Board of Education, Bishop Jonathan Gibbs, set out a new vision for church education which embeds Christian values into the school framework.
Nigel Genders has lead responsibility for the development of the Church’s national strategies and policies for education in schools, colleges and universities, and will be setting out the Church of England’s Vision for Education, recently published in the document ‘Deeply Christian, Serving the Common Good’. The report outlines an educational vision that highlights an emphasis on four principles of wisdom, hope, community and dignity. Underlying the vision is the Church of England tradition of Christian faith and practice and Nigel Genders will be looking at some of the principals and applications in the classroom for this vision.
Diocesan Director of Education, Richard Noake said, “The head teachers will hear Nigel talking very passionately about the Church of England’s vision for education and what the implications of that are going to be. The vision document is going to have an impact. Then Bishop Jonathan will be talking about how as a diocese we are utilizing the new Church of England vision but also how that is going to mesh with the emerging diocesan vision of ‘Loving, Living, Learning’.”
He added, “There is certainly a feeling from the central Church Education Office that the time is right … to rearticulate what the Church of England’s vision for education is … [and] to be a bit more direct in terms of a theological underpinning and grounding for our commitment as the Church of England to education and in some senses to challenge the current narrative in schooling which seems to be fixated on data and metrics and not really considering what a broader and more holistic understanding of education is all about. “
Later in the conference, leadership will be the subject as Phyllida Hancock of Contender Charlie Ltd presents a lively session for delegates based on the leadership of Henry V.
More information about the head teacher conference can be found here