‘Who do you say I am?’ 

On Thursday 26th and Friday 27th September, headteachers and other senior leaders from all our diocesan Catholic schools gathered for their annual conference in Exeter. The title of the conference was taken from Friday’s Gospel reading for the feats of St Vincent de Paul, ‘Who do you say I am?’

We were very fortunate to hear from 4 visiting speakers from other dioceses who spoke about mission and vision in their schools. Ruth Vayro Executive Headteacher at St Ambrose in Manchester and St Joseph’s in Reddish, Stockport, Julie-Anne Tallon Headteacher at Abbey Catholic Primary School in Birmingham, Martin Johnson , System Support and CPDF Coordinator and CSEL for a MAT in Salford Diocese and Clare Hogg Headteacher at St Thomas More Catholic High School in Crewe. Their talks were inspirational, thought provoking and very moving as they spoke with tremendous passion and vision for Catholic education in their schools. They posed some challenging but very credible and incisive questions for our school leaders who in turn responded with great generosity of spirit and openness.

The conference ended with a Commissioning Mass for all our leaders celebrated by Bishop Mark O’Toole and concelebrated by Canon Mark O’Keeffe Episcopal Vicar for Schools, Fr Jonathan Stewart, Fr Petroc Cobb and Fr Cyriacus Uzochukwu.