The Diocese of Lichfield has appointed a new Director of Education to take up the post in September 2006. Colin Hopkins, who is currently the Innovation and Partnership Officer with the Diocesan Board of Education, was elected by the Bishop of Lichfield.

|TOP|Hopkins will succeed the post from the current Director, Rev Peter Lister, who will retire in January 2007. The appointment process has been designed to allow a period of transfer and handover.

Responding to the appointment, Hopkins said: "I am delighted to be taking up the post of Director of Education for the Diocese of Lichfield. This is a very large and diverse diocese with many contrasts. I am looking forward to working with the head teachers and governors of the Diocese's many schools, and with the parishes that support them. I am also committed to working in partnership with the local authorities and other local education agencies. It will be a privilege to serve the communities within the Diocese.

"I am very strongly committed to the view that Church of England schools should be both distinctively Christian and inclusive institutions, serving their local communities. At a time when many people are asking questions of faith communities, and debating the role of faith in education, Church of England schools provide a model of how a faith community can make a genuinely lasting and positive contribution to society and to the common good.

|AD|"This is a time of welcome to the Church in education, when government policy is supporting the development of more Church schools. Many parents, too, see the benefits of an education that has a secure basis in values. In partnership with the local authorities I hope that the Diocese of Lichfield will be able to establish more Church schools, where there is a clear local need for this provision, and where the Church can fulfil its mission to serve the whole community."

Hopkins grew up in Crewe, south Cheshire, and went on to study at the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge. He began his career as an English Teacher in secondary schools in Berkshire and Lincolnshire before moving to London to work in Church of England administration at the national level, for both the Church Commissioners and the Archbishops' Council.

In 2000, Hopkins was appointed to be Secretary to Lord Dearing's Commission on Church of England schools, which culminated in the publication of The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium in 2001.

Subsequently he was appointed National School Development Officer for the Archbishops' Council before taking up a senior post at Southwark Diocesan Board of Education in 2003.

Currently, Hopkins helps to support the Diocese of Southwark's 106 Church of England schools and he is currently working on the development of a new Church of England Academy in the London Borough of Merton.

Hopkins is the Chair of Governors of an adult education college in central London and a Foundation Governor at two Church of England primary schools in inner city areas of south London. He has just completed an MBA in Education by distance learning at Keele University, and will be graduating this summer.