FED Advisory Council: Peter Kent was headteacher of Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby (an 11-19 school with approximately 1000 pupils, including a sixth form of 380) from 1999 until his retirement in December 2021. Throughout his 23 years as headteacher the school maintained an Ofsted grading of outstanding. Lawrence Sheriff became a National Teaching School in 2012 and was named as one of the government’s National Teaching School Hubs in 2021.
Having completed his doctorate in school culture during the early years of his headship. Peter worked part-time for the UK National College for School Leadership for several years and was one of the team of authors who prepared their modules on Personalising Learning, Closing the Gap and reducing in-school variation. He also wrote some of the modules for the UK National Professional Qualification for Headship.
Peter was President of the Association of School and College Leaders from September 2014- August 2015, having first served as Treasurer and Chair of both the Education and Professional committees. In subsequent years he became a member of the UK Ethical Leadership Commission and contributed to their 2019 report Navigating the Educational Moral Maze.
As a result of his work with ASCL, Peter joined the Executive of the International Confederation of Principals, the representative body for professional leadership associations across the world. Having served as the European member of their Executive, he was elected President during their convention in Shanghai in 2019 and took on the role from 2022-2023. As Past President of ICP he continues works with school leaders from across five continents as well as a range of governments and international organisations such as the UN and OECD.
In recognition of his contribution to education, he was made an Honorary Professor of Practice by the Centre for Education Leadership, Institute of Education, University College London, in October 2022. He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Warwick University in January 2023.
