Director of Education moves to London post

Director of Education for the Church of England across Nottinghamshire, the Revd Dr Howard Worsley, has been appointed as the new Director of Education for the Diocese of London.

Howard Worsley, who has been in his role for the past five years, said he is looking forward to the new challenges the post will bring and being more able to engage with national policy makers.

He said: “The past few years working with churches and school across the diocese have been challenging and rewarding and have left me convinced that Church Schools are the most strategic zones of ministry that the Church is currently involved in. I’m looking forward to having a strategic impact in the new post and being involved on the national scene.”

Howard will take up the new role on 1st March 2010.

Chief Executive for the Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham, Nigel Spraggins said: “Howard has been a stimulating colleague, who thinks outside the box, and is also a very caring person. Here in Nottinghamshire he has overseen some major developments in Education with the first Church Academy in Mansfield, new affiliations with community and private schools, the development of school chaplaincies and the beginning of Further Education chaplains. Young people’s work has also been pushed forward with a network for youth workers across our parishes and the development of a youth website. We know he will have great things to contribute to his new post and wish him well for the future.”
Howard was brought up in London, and after university he taught as a secondary school teacher, both in Egypt and in this country, before taking up a post as schools trainer for Scripture Union in the North West of England. From there he was ordained and served as a curate at All Saint’s, Huthwaite, before taking on parish ministry in urban Nottingham at St Peter’s Church, Old Radford, in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham. In both posts, ministry in schools and amongst children and young people was the key element of his ministry and in addition to learning fire-eating and various other ‘magic tricks’ he also researched a doctorate investigating how children come to faith and what influence this has on their development across life. In 2000, he became Director of Studies at St John's Theological College in Nottingham teaching education, mission and ethics to people preparing for ministry in the Church of England. He was also vice chair for the Diocesan Board of Education and became a project officer to a new 'Dearing school'. He was appointed as Diocesan Director of Education in 2004 and is currently chair of the National Association of Church Directors of Education. Howard has been involved in contributing articles and papers on education and children’s spirituality in the past few years – including the book ‘Through the Eyes of a Child’. More recently he published his own book ‘A Child Sees God’, which researched and examined the ways in which children of different ages and backgrounds responded to stories from the Bible.

He is a keen sportsman and when he is not out in schools, in the parishes or at the diocesan office, he likes to play squash, take part in water sports, or go camping in the hills. He is also chaplain to Nottingham Rugby Club who he enjoys watching. Howard is married to Ruth Worsley, Priest-in-Charge of St Christopher’s, Sneinton and Dean of Women’s ministry. They have three sons - two at university and one who is studying for his A levels.

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