Moral, ethical and compassionate leadership and leadership for well-being

We are delighted to welcome Professor Mick Waters and Professor David Woods CBE to lead on our first seminar of the semester

Mick and David will discuss compassion as a key organising principle in school leadership promoting and embedding the highest collective values. Leaders should strive to develop a compassionate school community and curriculum that ensures everybody’s well-being with a compelling and inclusive moral purpose driving the school forward based on equity, social justice and unshakeable principles to be shared and acted upon by everyone.

This seminar will be chaired by Ava Sturridge-Packer CBE former primary head in Birmingham and currently DfE and Birmingham Education Partnership adviser.

A Q&A session will follow the seminar.

View The Nine Pillars of Great School Leadership. David Woods (PDF)

About the speakers

Professor Mick Waters

Mick Waters works with the schools in several parts of the UK and abroad. His previous work at Wolverhampton University with the Black Country Challenge has extended and developed innovative approaches to learning and initiatives to push the boundaries for making learning better.

During his career, Mick has been a teacher and head teacher before working at senior levels in Birmingham and Manchester Local Authorities. He worked at a national level with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority where he was Director of Curriculum. Over several years he has been asked to work in countries across the globe either with national governments or directly with schools to develop revised policy and practice for leadership, governance and classroom teaching. Recent involvement has seen Mick working at national policy level with the Welsh Government offering advice and support to the education reform agenda. He is an Honorary Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity St David.

Mick chaired an Independent Review of School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions for the Welsh Government with some exciting new proposals for teachers’ careers and professional learning. This followed on from work he did in helping to produce new Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership…and more recently, Assisting Teaching. Recently he has been chairing a panel to produce early recommendations about the way the system needs to amend habits, routines and traditions to enable more family friendly approaches for the modern age: ‘Schooling re-imagined’. He has also carried out a review to provide advice on the arrangements for the induction period for newly qualified teachers and how best to support their professional learning. The report is called ‘Learning to Be a Teacher In Wales’.

Professor David Woods CBE

David Woods has been a teacher and senior leader in schools, a teacher trainer in higher education and a local authority adviser in two LAs.

He was the Chief Education Adviser for the City of Birmingham before joining the Department for Education in England as a Senior Education Adviser working closely with Ministers to develop educational policy and subsequently becoming Head of the Department’s Advisory Service. He joined the London Challenge programme from the beginning as the Lead Adviser and then became the Chief Adviser for London Schools and the London Challenge. From 2011 to 2019 he chaired the London Leadership Strategy as an Education Trust as well as co-leading the Going for Great programme for schools. From 2015 to 2021 he chaired the Birmingham School Improvement Advisory Committee as part of the Birmingham Education Partnership.

He has written and spoken extensively on educational leadership, school improvement, and related education matters. His latest book co-authored with Rachel Mcfarlane and Damian McBeath is The Nine Pillars of Great Schools (John Catt Publications, 2018). Currently he is an Education Consultant working with schools, local authorities and Multi-Academy Trusts, as well as being a school governor, MAT Trustee and Trustee of the Compassion in Education Foundation. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, University College, London.