The following speech was giving at a reception to give thanks for the work and leadership of Nicholas Soar, Executive Headteacher of Bishop Challoner Schools, as he moves onto a new role elsewhere.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Service is the key to discipleship. That’s the message Jesus wants us to take from the Gospel which we heard in today’s Mass. ‘The one who rules is to be the one who serves,’ he says. And ‘I am among you as one who serves’.
And service has been the key to Mr Nick Soar’s achievement here at Bishop Challoner. Always motivated by his discipleship of Christ, Nick (if you don’t mind my addressing you so) had already served with distinction in another Catholic school, St Dominic’s Priory in Staffordshire, when he was appointed to lead Challoner Girls in 2010. Keenly aware of the challenges before him, his leadership in assiduous service over three years and the most rigorous professionalism which he demanded of himself and inspired in his staff, produced for his pupils a school raised from an Ofsted ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’; not only outstanding in any one category but in all four; and so outstanding that, based on results, the DfE placed the school first out of the 55 similar schools in the country. In GCSE results between 2011-13 the school was ranked 23rd Most Improved School in the country.
With Mrs Johnson’s departure last year, Nick’s remarkable leadership, dedication and service were wisely recognised by Ms Gail O’Flaherty, the Chair of Governors, in her appointing him Interim Executive Principal, while the task began of recruiting a future Catholic head. In the executive role, more of Nick’s qualities, placed at the service of the whole pupil body and the federation, were clearer for all to see. Fr Michael Dunne, the Chair of the Governors’ Catholic Life Committee, says he could not have hoped for greater or more magnanimous support for the Church’s mission in Bishop Challoner, than he found in Nick.
Today’s Mass, as well as the existence of the new school chapel of Our Lady of Mercy which I have just blessed, is evidence of that. In this time of rapid education policy change and academisation, Nick’s strategic vision, management and achievements also had the confidence of the diocesan Director of Education, JP Morrison, who appointed him to his Headteachers’ Academies’ Working Party and where his contribution is greatly valued. Nick is a regular speaker at national educational forums concerning school development and improvement. Indeed, among the accolades he has secured even in his one year as its Executive Principal, is that the federation has World Class School Status.
And all of this, all of these extraordinary achievements wrought through an extraordinary service, have borne their fruit, reaped their harvest, in the pupils whose development has been the focus, indeed the mission of Nick Soar, our departing Executive Principal, and Christian disciple. Thus, Nick, on behalf of our pupils, parents, staff and Governors, on behalf also of the Diocese and His Eminence the Cardinal, and on my own behalf as Area Bishop, I thank you for your leadership in service here at Bishop Challoner and I ask God to bless you abundantly in your future.