Booking are open at the following link for our Diocesan Headteachers’ Conference 2019:
https://courses.rcdow.org.uk/event/headteachers-conference-2019/
Registration will open on the day at 16:00 on Wednesday 6th February. Departures will be following lunch on Friday 8th February.
When making your booking please purchase the ticket corresponding to your preferred tour option and programme option.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could make your booking by no later than 18/01/2017 so we can give the hotel our numbers. Tickets are priced at £450.
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Fr Tim Byron SJ
Tim Byron SJ is a Jesuit Priest from Liverpool. He is currently working in Wimbledon as part of the Jesuit Institute. He is a teacher. He has been a Chaplain to schools and Universities in Manchester. A wilderness seeker, amateur Astronomer and a lifelong LFC supporter.
“Where did my vocation come from? Well growing up in a big family, in a comfortable suburb North of Liverpool, I was always interested in the big questions. I think I viewed religion in a very positive way because of the faith and commitment of my parents. I remember Dad letting me have a (very small) glass of wine when I was about 11 or 12 and telling me that it was in the Bible – St Paul said to Timothy (my name) have some wine for your stomachs sake! My two younger brothers and two older sisters were very jealous! I remember thinking maybe I should take this Bible a bit more seriously.
My Father was a great man and my hero – holding positions is business and charity of local, national and occasionally international importance. He was incredibly generous with his time, often coming to watch me play football and then shooting off for some important meeting. So when he died when I was 17 it was probably a turning point in my life. I took my faith a lot more seriously and starting thinking about a call to the priesthood. After an experience as a student living and working in the shanty towns in Peru I decided it had to be the Jesuits.
And since then – apart from a crisis in my first year as a novice – I have never looked back. Jesuit formation is an incredible experience, spending time in prisons, schools, with lepers, living in Madrid and later the Philippines. But most of all it was the experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius – a thirty day silent retreat, that I look on as my foundational experience, helping me overcome the crisis and taking my prayer and my experience of God to a whole new level. When I entered the Jesuits I was a happy lad – but since my vows I have experienced Joy, at different levels and it is something I will always be grateful for.”
Sheila Farmer
Sheila Farmer is a Catholic lay woman. She started her working life by spending four years in residential youth retreat centres; St Cassians in Kintbury with the De La Salle Brothers and Savio House in Bollington near Macclesfield with the Salesians.
She Studied as a mature student and received her degree in Theology and Education. She then went on to train as a Rogerian Counsellor. She has spent all her working life in Catholic Education as a School Chaplain and School Counsellor. She has worked in both State and Independent Schools.
She is also an Ignatian Spiritual Director, a Spiritual Accompanist, a Vocation Guide and a Veriditas Trained Labyrinth Facilitator. Having left full time employment in December 2017 to care for her Mother, she is currently working freelance using these skills and qualifications and her school experience to offer Inset for school staff, working with School Chaplains, giving talks and workshops, facilitating quiet days, and helping support and encourage others on their spiritual and faith journeys.
Danny Coyle
Danny Coyle has taught in Catholic schools in London since 1989.He was educated at De La Salle College in Salford and studied History at the University of Kent.
He was Deputy Head teacher at St Aloysius, Islington until 2010 and is currently Head teacher at Newman Catholic College in Harlesden, London, NW10.
Danny’s presentation will focus on Newman Catholic College’s ongoing quest for the “Common Good” and particularly the work of the school with disadvantaged, largely immigrant children.
David Hutchings
David Hutchings is a Physics teacher at Pocklington School near York. He holds a First Class Physics degree from the University of York and lives in the city with his wife Emma and two young daughters. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and has run multiple training events for many teachers of the subject since 2007. A committed Christian and church leader, David also preaches, leads Bible study groups for both adults and teenagers, and seeks to encourage people to think more about Christianity – whatever their current position. His first book, Let There Be Science, was co-written with Professor Tom McLeish FRS. It addresses their shared desire to demonstrate the profound relationship that exists between ultra-modern science and the timeless teaching of the Bible.
Fr John Moffatt SJ
John Moffatt SJ is Jesuit priest. He has worked in the two Jesuit state schools in London as a teacher-chaplain. He has also spent time in university chaplaincy and adult education. Currently he is working on a PhD on the topic of causality in medieval Islamic theology.
John Moffatt studied Classics at University and joined the Jesuits in 1982. He was ordained in 1992. His main work in the UK has been in the Jesuits’ two state secondary schools in London, where he has worked as teacher and chaplain. He has also had a brief spell as a university chaplain. He has become particularly interested in questions surrounding faith and reason and in developing a positive dialogue between traditional Christianity and secular culture.
He has a lifelong interest in music and theatre, plays the viola and is working on tenor sax. To help those who have intellectual difficulties with their faith. He has written Beyond the Catechism and The Philosopher’s Friend and Tales of Detection. Now the former has been extensively reworked into The Resurrection of the Word, available from The Way Publications since November 2013. He has a further online collection of informal essays on religion, reason and culture on the website Letting the Porcupine out of the Bottle