fbfe council members
Dr Ann Limb
Co Chair fbfe
An educationalist, charity entrepreneur and businesswoman, Dr Ann Limb was born in Moss Side, Manchester in 1953. A former Board director and Group Chief Executive of the University for Industry (Ufi Ltd), she was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the UK government’s e-flagship projects ‘learndirect’ and ‘UK on line’ - national networks of supported e-learning and e-services centres. Ann is now Vice President e-learning with the international strategic management consultancy gov3 as well as working as a government adviser both in the UK and overseas. She holds a number of public and private sector non-executive directorships. She was a member of the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s Digital Inclusion Panel and sat on the Education Committee of David Cameron’s Public Services Improvement Policy Group.
Ann spent the first half of her career working in education including 14 years as Principal and Chief Executive of Milton Keynes College and Cambridge Regional College. She writes and publishes widely on strategic leadership and corporate culture change and features amongst the top UK executives in the innovative 50 LES50NS portfolio. Ann was a finalist in the Cambridgeshire Businesswoman of the Year in 2000 and sits on the National Council of the Institute of Directors.
As a non executive director of the main board of DRS Data Research and Services Group, Ann chairs the Remuneration Committee. DRS, is a plc that designs, manufactures and distributes scanning technology which captures data electronically. Ann is also a non executive director of Entrepreneurs in Action a social enterprise company which trains young people to aspire to move from the classroom to the boardroom. In 1991 Ann founded a social enterprise charity the Network for Women Managers.
Ann holds a number of public appointments. She is a Non Executive Director of HMGCC and of English Partnerships serving as Chair of the Milton Keynes Partnership Committee, the public body charged by the Department of Communities and Local Government with overseeing the sustainable growth of Milton Keynes over the next 30 years. In July 2005, the Department of Media Culture and Sport appointed Ann as the first Chair of the Legal Deposit Advisory Panel, a new non departmental public body charged under the Libraries Act of 2003 with the task of making recommendations to the Secretary of State on future legislation relating to the legal deposit of digital material.
Ann undertakes a significant amount of voluntary and charitable work. Since 1998, she has been Chair of the National Extension College and the Helena Kennedy Foundation, the charity she founded that promotes social inclusion and widening participation in further and higher education. Ann is also Chair of fbfe and the Anne Frank Trust UK and Milton Keynes Arts for Health
Ann has been awarded an honorary Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute and a doctorate from Anglia Ruskin University in recognition of her contribution to the learning and skills sector. She also holds an honorary Professorship in Leadership and Management at Thames Valley University.
Ann lives with her partner in Milton Keynes and enjoys the theatre, opera, walking and spending time with her niece and nephew. A linguist by degree, who is also trained in psychodynamic counselling, Ann works voluntarily in her local community as an active member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Dr Husna Ahmad
Co Chair, fbfe Council
Chief Executive, Faith Regen Foundation
Dr. Husna Ahmad is the CEO of the Faith Regen Foundation. With a PhD in Environmental Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University, Dr. Husna Ahmad has held the role of Deputy Chief Executive of the Forum against Islamophobia and Racism and was a Principal Officer in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. She sits on the Black and Minority Ethnic and Refugee Forum (BMERF) of the Government Office for London and the Department for Works and Pensions’ Ethnic Minority Advisory Group (EMAG). She is also on the Community Development Forum of the London Health Commission and is a trustee of the newly formed Muslim think tank – the Centre for Muslim Affairs. She has recently been to Iran as part of a British Muslims’ delegation, organised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Dr. Ahmad has been appointed co-chair of the National Council of Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education, a national independent inter-faith charity working with the learning and skills sector, faith and local communities and national and local faith/belief based groups. She has also been invited to be part of and contribute to a Ministerial Working Group under the auspices of Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP (DCLG) and Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP (DWP) looking at how to reduce child poverty in London.
Andrew Copson
Chief Executive , Education and Public Affairs
British Humanist Association
Andrew Copson is director of education and public affairs at the British Humanist Association (BHA), which he came to in 2005 from the Citizenship Foundation. He leads the BHA’s work on education and public policy and is also a trustee and director of the Religious Education Council and a former Chair of the Values Education Council as well as a trustee of the South Place Ethical Society and chair of their education committee.
Faith and Belief Community Members
Jon Reynolds
Diocesan Director of Education, St Albans - CHURCH OF ENGLAND
Jon Reynolds went to school in Kent. After Science A levels, he was a student at the local FE college before going off to train at Christ Church College, Canterbury where he did his first degree. He has an MA from King’s College, London and is currently a research student at St John’s College, Durham. He taught Religious Studies and Physics at schools in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. He was a Head of Sixth Form and liaised closely with the local FE colleges. He was an Adviser and Inspector of Religious Education and Science in Buckinghamshire, and joined the Diocese of St Albans as their Director in 1999.
Rev Ian Millgate
Ministry Department - BAPTISTS
BUGB
Simon Goulden
Education Consultant
United Synagogue
JEWISH
Following a successful career in local government engineering departments, Simon spent the next twenty two years of his working life in the not for profit Jewish community education sector, initially at Jews' College and subsequently at the United Synagogue Agency for Jewish Education, where he was Chief Executive. This led to him organising a number of high profile conferences, both here and in Europe as well as events in the regions.
Involved at high levels in setting strategic goals, he has acted as consultant to a number of schools and communities in the UK,helping them to set their own strategies, a role he continues in a consultancy capacity.
Simon has broadcast on BBC, Sky News and LBC and has written for newspapers, as well as journals and several education books. He continues to lecture and has spoken in a variety of educational settings in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America.
His work beyond the Jewish community led him to be a National Judging Panel member for the Teaching Awards and chair of the Faith School Providers Group, on which sit representatives of all the faith groups promoting schools in England today, as well as government representatives.
For many years he was on the national executive of a number of charities.
John Wilkins
Project Officer
Methodist Church
John retired early from the Civil Service in 2005. His roles have included responsibility for careers education in schools and colleges, and developing the Connexions Service in Sheffield. His last task included leading the reform of college teacher training in the Department for Education and Skills. John is now working with the National Council of Faiths & Beliefs to encourage more Methodists to play an active part in chaplaincy in colleges. The Methodist Church has a strong tradition of chaplaincy in prisons, hospitals, workplaces and universities, but so far little involvement in colleges. John has been a Methodist local preacher for 30 years, and is currently a circuit steward in Sheffield. He has recently completed a Masters degree in Theology at Cliff College in Derbyshire.
Rev Clare Suzanne Davison
Minister of the United Reformed Church
Clare has been in ordained ministry for the last 4 years. Previously to that, she has been in youth and community work, and then, after staying at home with young children, as a lay leader in the Church for over 7 years. For her first degree she gained a BA (Hons) in Psychology, in which she majored in child development and educational psychology.
She has a budding interest in FE, with 2 of her 3 children now within the FE sector as students. As a Church Minister, she has concern for the faith and beliefs of all ages being encouraged. At present in the URC there is very little active involvement with those within FE, outside of the Church setting. Clare hopes to encourage the denomination to develop its understanding and involvement in this area.
Toni Coulton
Evangelical
Festive
I have been involved in the support of Christian ministry within the Further Education Sector for over 15 years. I have worked within a local college and then on a national basis with Uccf (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship). I joined the National Council of NEAFE in 1996 and have been part of the growth and transformation of the work until now with the establishment of fbfe. I come from an evangelical perspective and am part of an independant Welsh Church family. I am committed to the best relationships possible between the faiths based on respect and mutual understanding. My other work in FE is with Dare 2 Engage, a group exploring new ways to develop Christian input in 16 - 19 education, The West Midlands Churches Further Education Council, and I am a founder member of Festive, and FE and Sixth Form Initiative.
Amaranatho Samanera
Buddhist
Buddhist Monastery
Venerable Amaranatho was born and brought up in the Jewish faith, and in his late teens had severe doubts about Judaism and left all religion behind him. He went on to work within the computer industry and took a degree in computing and artificial intelligence. He then travelled around the world for four years, where he learnt about meditation and the thought began, to become a monk. He has been a Buddhist monk for nine years and lives at Amaravati Monastery near Hemel Hempstead.
He leads residential family, young people and creative retreats for adults at the retreat center at Amaravati. These events are based on co-exploration, creativity, fun and a willingness to honestly look at oneself. The main emphasis is on a contemplative or reflective attitude towards understanding who we are.
This is based on accepting or welcoming the way life is and allowing our natural wisdom to arise.
Amaranatho has recently trained to be a Source Process breathwork therapist, which uses the breath for healing any life limiting decisions we made when we took our first breath. Part of this training is understanding the birthing process, which for some couples can be a very spiritual experience, when done in a conscious way.(www.sourcebreath.com and http://www.fatherstobe.org/). He is also deeply influenced by Ken Wilber's integral approach and shadow work.
He has edited two books of Ajahn Sumedho, the Abbot of Amaravati, one called Intuitive Awareness which is available for free distribution and has been translated into several languages, and another called The Sound of Silence available from Wisdom Publications.
Anthony Harmer
Learning and Work Director
BAHA'IS
Dr Deesha Chadha
The Hindu Forum
Dr. Atul Keshavji Shah
Founder and Chief Executive - JAIN
Diverse Ethics Ltd
Dr. Atul Keshavji Shah is a creative social entrepreneur with distinguished skills in education, business and media. He is author of the highly acclaimed book ‘Celebrating Diversity – How to live, enjoy and benefit from Great Coloured Britain’. Atul was born in Kenya and migrated to the UK in 1980 to study at the London School of Economics, where he obtained a BSc, MSc and PhD. Atul is also a qualified Chartered Accountant having trained with KPMG and has worked for various charities and public institutions. He has lectured at the University of Bristol, University of Maryland – USA, and University of Essex. He is the founding editor for the distinguished Jain Spirit international magazine and transformed the global awareness and perception of the Jain culture. Atul is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and BBC Asian Network and helped launch the BBC website on Jainism. Among his qualities are service and accuracy, and he works on any assignment with passion, diligence and application. Through his media work, Atul has developed exceptional contacts in the UK and around the world. Atul was short-listed for the UK Asian Achievers Media Award in 2005. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Presently he is founder and Chief Executive of Diverse Ethics Ltd, a training, research and consulting social enterprise and also writes a blog on diversity.
Prudence Jones
Writer and commentator - PAGANISM
Prudence Jones is a writer and commentator on the Pagan traditions of Europe and associated spiritual systems. A History of Pagan Europe, co-written with Nigel Pennick, is a standard textbook in the field. Her current publications concern the historical roots of the New Age Triple Moon Goddess. Beginning as an academic philosopher at Cambridge, Prudence later taught there and at the University of Alberta, where her research was in ancient and mediaeval logic. Her interest in other esoteric systems, particularly astrology and archaeoastronomy, led to a series of lectures, articles and translations in small-circulation periodicals, then to other publications, some of which are listed below. In this area she has taught in FE in addition to her university teaching. Prudence also trained as an integrative psychotherapist at the Women’s Therapy Centre and the Minster Centre. She is a past President of the Pagan Federation and now chairs the East of England Faiths Agency. She contributed the Pagan history section to the BBC website, and Contemporary Paganism: a Guide for the Perplexed appears in vol. 1 no. 2 (2005) of the Journal of New Age Studies. A Goddess Arrives, Nineteenth-Century Roots of the New Age Triple Moon Goddess, is in vol. 9 no. 1 (2005) of Culture and Cosmos.
Representatives from Sector Stakeholder Organisation
Lynne Sedgmore CBE MSc, BA, PGCE, MCIM, FRSA, FIoD
Executive Director
157 Group of FE Colleges
Lynne is currently Chief Executive of the 157 Group and is advisor to Whitehall on a range of projects including leadership, innovation capability and community cohesion. She is also a consultant and coach in public and private organisations.
Lynne was Chief Executive at The Centre for Excellence in Leadership, the national leadership college for the learning and skills sector. Prior to this role Lynne was Principal of Guildford College, Vice Principal of Croydon College, Head of Croydon Business School, and Head of Curriculum Services at Hackney College following a range of Marketing and Curriculum posts in Further Education. She is passionate about leading learners and learning, and has worked also in higher education, the adult, community and voluntary sectors and in secondary schools.
Lynne has held many non-executive posts including Vice-Chair of Croydon Health Authority, and Chair of the UK Interfaith Seminary. She is currently Director of four Educational Companies, the Talent Foundation, the National FE Faith Forum and the City and Guilds Quality and Standards Committee. She was a Council member of the University of Surrey of which she is a Senior Fellow. She was a member of the FE National Bureaucracy Review Group, chaired the FE Success for All National Advisory Group and has sat on numerous national Public Sector Committees.
Lynne has an MSc in Change Agent Skills and Strategies. She is a Chartered Marketer and was awarded the CBE in 2004. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Bernadette Joslin
Project Manager
LSN
Bernadette Joslin has worked in the post-16 education sector for over 20 years mainly as a teacher of history and archaeology in further education colleges and schools and latterly as a tutor manager. Bernadette has worked on the Post-16 Citizenship Development Programme since its start five years ago firstly as a development adviser and since 2003 as the overall project manager. She is now the programme manager of the newly set up support programme for post-16 citizenship run by the LSN on behalf of the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA).
Evan Williams
Director of Professional Services
Association of Colleges
Ben Whittaker
Vice-President (Further Education)
NUS
Chris Taylor
Development Officer (Literacy, Language and Numeracy)
NIACE
Chris joined NIACE as the Literacy, Language & Numeracy Development Officer in March 2001. Since then she has worked on a wide range of projects for NIACE, including the Sure Start audit, Basic Skills in local communities evaluation, the Evaluation of the Step in to Learning Training and Development programme and RETRO, the Recruitment and Training project. Most recently, Chris led the ESOL citizenship project, funded by the Home Office, to develop the language learning materials for citizenship. The pack, Citizenship materials for ESOL learners has been widely distributed throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Over 3,000 English language teachers have been trained to use the materials. NIACE published her book, ESOL and Citizenship: a teachers’ guide in February 2007. She has extensive experience in the teaching and managing basic skills and ESOL programmes for adult learners. From 1998 to 2001 she was Head of the Training and Employment Section at the Refugee Council. During this time she was member of the REEF group at DfEE, chaired by Margaret Hodge, a member of the Basic Skills Agency Advisory Committee and a member of DfEE working group on ESOL for the response to the Moser Report. From 1994 to 1997 Chris was Project Director of Language 2000, a large inner city basic skills programme, in Bethnal Green. The project delivered ESOL, basic skills and IT training to local adults as part of a government regeneration programme. Prior to that she worked as Open Learning Centre Co-ordinator at Tower Hamlets College. This was an ALBSU national development project, one of 11 inner city open learning centres specialising in Information Technology to support ESOL and basic skills. Chris has worked in West Africa, the Caribbean, USA, Malta and the Soviet Union. She lived in Nigeria for two years, teaching English in a secondary school in Gboko, Benue State.
Co-opted Members
Revd Dr John Breadon
Liaison Officer
Churches National Adviser FE
Church of England
Born and grew up in Northern Ireland, educated a the universities of St Andrews and Birmingham. Trained for the Anglican ministry at Westcott House Cambridge, served as Assistant Curate in the Black Country, Chaplain at St George's Post-16 Centre Birmingham for 4 years.
Married to Alison, who is a Quaker; one child, Ridley. Interests include the relationship between theology and literature in the middle decades of the 20th century, psychotherapy, the spiritual and moral development of young people, the relationship between religion and secularism in modern Britain. And seeing Wolverhampton Wanderers back into the Premiership.
FE Officers
Revd Mike Ward
Chaplain
After working with the Church of Scotland for some twenty years following ordination in 1983, Mike returned to his native England to take up the post of full-time ecumenical chaplain at Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education. Whilst with the Church of Scotland, Mike had spells working in broadcasting as a producer of religious programmes for radio, as a college tutor and latterly as a community and NHS healthcare chaplain. A graduate of Edinburgh University where he won the Natural Theology Prize and gained a ‘first’ in Systematic Theology after working with a Carmelite priest on the theology of Gabriel Marcel, Mike returned to Edinburgh to study, where his thesis on “Spirituality and Ethics in the Work of Arthur Koestler, 1937-1959” was awarded a Ph.D. in 1997, before going on to further postgraduate study in the School of Healthcare at Leeds University. Mike has published widely in theological and healthcare journals and has been the editor of the Journal of Chaplaincy in Further Education since its launch. As well as being in charge of a degree programme in Psychological Studies at Grimsby Institute, Mike started the “Starfish Project” in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, giving Grimsby students the opportunity to help with partners in India in the regeneration of fishing villages in Tamil Nadu. A frequent visitor to India, he was guest preacher at the Christian Medical College, Vellore for the Holy Week services in 2004, which Mike followed up by the publication of the book Black Rooks in Rainy Weather. Mike’s interest in all forms of spirituality and the psychology of religious belief extends to his research in learning disability. A Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society and a member of the British Institute of Learning Disability, in his spare time he enjoys opera and is a member of Lancashire Cricket Club.
Andrew Morton
College Chaplain
Coleg Gwent
Andrew is Incumbent of a group of parishes in Monmouth diocese, and a lecturer in RS, Citizenship and Ethics at Coleg Gwent, where he has also been Lead Chaplain and Diocesan FE Officer since 1993. During the existence of the Council for Mission and Ministry of the Church in Wales, he was Provincial HE and FE Officer, initiating and supervising the setting up of a number of FE Chaplaincies throughout Wales and raising awareness of spirituality within the FE sector both with the Bench of Welsh Bishops and in the Province as a whole. He’s been in some kind of ‘specialist’ ministry virtually all his ordained life, including a spell in what was then called Feltham Borstal, and has been teaching in a number of secondary and post-16 settings since before ordination. While in the Rhondda, he was Director of Studies for the Llandaff Ordination Course, vicar of Maerdy & Ferndale, helping to pick up the pieces after the Miner’s Strike, and completed his MPhil at Cardiff University. In what passes for spare time, he fronts a jazz quartet, runs two choirs, sings bass in a third and tends a large and slightly unruly old-style Rectory garden.
Revd Naomi Nixon
College Chaplain
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College
Revd Naomi Nixon is a Church of England Priest she was ordained in Hereford diocese in 2001 where she served as curate in the Ludlow Team Ministry. The team there had a particular emphasis on education and having caught the vision there she moved to be Chaplain of North Warwickshire & Hinckley College in 2004. This year she has been joined by A Chaplaincy assistant thanks to a funding commitment from the two dioceses in which the college is located; Coventry and Leicester. Naomi’s role has included the coordination and delivery of the college’s youth work courses over the last four years but as of September 2008 she will be focusing entirely on the Chaplaincy work which has grown considerably since she was first employed.
David Capey
Company Secretary
East of England Faiths Agency C.I.C.
Born in Cheshire just south of Manchester, David studied chemistry at Birmingham University before becoming a member of staff at Essex University in 1965. He married Brenda in 1965 and they had 3 children before she died of a brain haemorrhage in 1973. In 1976 he married Cynthia who had 4 children and their eighth child was born in 1979. To date they have 12 grandchildren. A life-long Anglican, he became involved with the Anglican Chaplaincy at Essex in 1974 and was a member of the Appeal Trust which led to the formation of a Multi-Faith Chaplaincy there in the early 1980s. He was a founder member of its Committee of Management of the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy and still serves as its treasurer. Since retirement in 1997, he has become a Trustee Director of Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource and is presently its Treasurer and Hon Executive Officer. He has been a member of FIFEF since its inception and is an Area Officer for NEAFE / fbfe. Together with his wife, Cynthia, he was involved in the establishment of the East of England Faiths Agency in 2001. David and is now Company Secretary of the East of England Faiths Agency C.I.C. Though retired and living in a very rural part of Suffolk, David enjoys the voluntary inter-faith work he is involved in and rejoices in the fact that as he learns more of other faiths, the more he gains insights into his own faith.
College Managers
Marion Plant
College Principal
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College
Marion is Principal and Chief Executive of North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, an outstanding college of General Further Education. Before joining this college 4 years ago Marion had 6 years senior management experience in Birmingham colleges. A commitment to building a self confident culture of improvement is characteristic of Marion’s leadership and has resulted in significant success. At present this includes the leadership of a radical strategy to rebuild the college in two town centre locations and to develop a joint campus with the local sixth form college. The college’s chaplaincy is one of the many features highlighted as outstanding in the college’s recent Ofsted inspection report. Marion came to Further Education from a successful career in the Health Service. She serves on several national committees including the Learning and Skills Council External Advisory Group, and is a member of the Church of England Board of Education, a governor at Coventry University and a regional champion for World Skills.
Sujinder Singh Sangha
College Principal
Stockton Riverside College
Sujinder Singh Sangha is the Principal/Chief Executive of Stockton Riverside College. Previously, he was the Deputy Principal of City College, Birmingham, Vice Principal at Handsworth College and he has been associated with further, adult, sixth form, community and higher education for 40 years. Sujinder’s career developed from industrial relations in the 1970s. He founded and led community, cultural, faith and literary events for the British Punjabi/Indian community. He has written and published two books, established a publishing company and edited a bi-lingual fortnightly journal between 1987 and 1994. Sujinder gained his BA (Hons) Degree from the Open University, did an RSA Diploma in Teaching and completed his MSocSc Degree with the University of Birmingham. He completed his PG Certificate RM qualification in 2003 and is registered for a Doctorate research degree in Leaders and Leadership in Education at the University of Birmingham. He has served on a number of England’s local, regional and national advisory/executive bodies, relating to Further and Higher Education, the National Health Service and the BBC. He has also done some field research for the Commission for Racial Equality with the Social and Community Research Institute, London. He has been a member of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership’s national advisory group, the Association of College’s National Review Group, the National Council of Faiths and Beliefs in FE and the Minority Ethnic Group of College Chairs and Principals. Sujinder is a member of the Professional Council of Principals, British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society, the North East Higher Skills Network Council and the North East Regional Council of the Prince’s Trust and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In May 2006, Ofsted/ALI inspectors judged the college’s leadership and management to be outstanding and in May 2007 the college was awarded Learning and Skills Beacon status by the British Government’s Department for Education and Skills, in recognition of its excellent inspection outcomes and continuing achievement and performance.
Observers
Nick Rousseau
FE Policy Team Leader
DIUS
Nick Rousseau is the Team Leader for the Further Education Policy Team at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. His responsibilities cover a range of policy areas including leading work on the role of FE providers in promoting community cohesion, fostering shared values and preventing violent extremism.
Dan Simons
Provider Performance Manager
Equality and Diversity
Skills Funding Agency
The Learning and Skills Council exists to make England better skilled and more competitive. The LSC has a single goal: to improve the skills of England’s young people and adults to ensure we have a workforce of world-class standard. The LSC is responsible for commissioning high quality education and training for everyone in England other than those in universities. Dan Simons is a Policy Manager for Equality and Diversity at LSC National Office in Coventry. Dan is jointly responsible for the development and implementation of the LSC’s Single Equality Scheme. The Scheme represents the LSC’s commitment to ensuring that in transforming the learning and skills sector, chances are transformed for all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, faith, sexual orientation or any other characteristic.
Peter Green
Ofsted
Peter has been an HMI with Ofsted since 2005. He had responsibility for FE Strategy and Quality, Equality and Diversity in a local Learning and Skills Council from 2002 to 2005. Previous experience includes working as a consultant, managing quality and equality in an FE college and teaching in a grammar school and being head of department in comprehensive school, pioneering distance learning and peripatetic specialist teaching across four schools in the 90s. He has been chair of a local race equality council, chair of school governors and other voluntary work includes involvement in mediation and with CAB. Peter is actively involved as a Methodist in his local church.
John Keast
John Keast was a teacher of Religious Studies in secondary schools for 15 years. He then became an adviser and inspector of Religious Education. In 1996 he joined the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in London as professional officer for Religious Education. Whilst at the QCA, he became Principal Manager for RE, Citizenship and PSHE, in which capacity he also supervised the introduction of Citizenship Education into the curriculum. He left the QCA in September 2003.
John is currently contracted to the Department for Children, Schools and Families as adviser on religious education. He also acts as a consultant to the Council of Europe, and has led training courses for many teachers across Europe and the Mediterranean. He is Chair of Examiners for the Advanced Extension Award in Religious Studies. He is also Deputy Chair of the Religious Education Council. John works with schools and local authorities as an adviser from time to time, and for the University of Exeter as a moderator of teacher training.
John has also completed a Masters degree in Inter Religious Dialogue at London University.
Harriet Crabtree
The Inter Faith Network for the UK
fbfe Staff
Dr John Wise
Chief Executive
fbfe
John Wise has worked in post-compulsory education since 1979. From 1985 to 1997 he was Vice Principal at Stanmore Further Education College in North-West London. In 1997 he left the College and joined the Corporation of London Education Department as Executive Officer for FELORS, a small education charity that provided services for local authorities and their partners in post-16 and adult education. FELORS managed support networks in student awards, special educational needs, lifelong learning and e-learning, and delivered an associated programme of seminars and conferences.
In 2005 he set up his own education consultancy and shortly afterwards became Treasurer and then Executive Director of the National Ecumenical Agency in Further Education (NEAFE). He has been working for the past few months to bring NEAFE and Faiths in FE Forum together into the new National Council of Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education (fbfe) and is now the new council’s Chief Executive.
Gurdev Singh Bal
Regional Development Officer (NE, NW and Merseyside and Cumbria)
fbfe
Jafar Mirza
Regional Development Officer (SE, SW and East of England)
fbfe