Mark Pike

Professor Mark Pike MA, PGCE, PhD provides strategic leadership for the Trust which he has seen grow to provide high quality ‘Christian-Ethos Schools of Character’ for eight thousand children and young people in disadvantaged areas of Yorkshire and the North-East of England.

Mark was the first in his family to attend University (his mum was a school dinner lady; his dad was an electrician). His first degree at Leeds University, on a full grant, was followed by a PGCE at Nottingham University and an ESRC-sponsored PhD at Southampton University, where he researched how to improve the engagement, thinking and attainment of 14-16-year-olds.

As ESF’s Chief Executive Officer since 2017, Mark is passionate about students achieving a personal best regardless of background. His high aspirations for children and young people, and his high expectations of them, are founded on the belief that they are precious, gifted and morally responsible, being ‘made in God’s image’. He believes providing high-quality character education enables children and young people to practice the virtues that ensure success at school and in life.

Mark has had the privilege to serve as a teacher and curriculum manager in schools (for over ten years), a local school governor, Vice Chair of a MAT and a Trust Member. He is Visiting Professor of Education at the University of Leeds where he was Head of the School of Education for several years, and where he still supervises the research projects of leaders in schools. He is the author of several books including Teaching Secondary English (Sage), Citizenship and Moral Education (Routledge), Ethical English (Bloomsbury), Mere Education and Narnian Virtues (Lutterworth) as well as numerous articles on schooling in journals such as Management in Education, Journal of Curriculum Studies and the Oxford Review of Education.

Mark enjoys travelling in the UK, US and Germany, walking British coastal paths, black and white photography, reading good books (especially C.S. Lewis’ fiction, theology and ethics – he recommends The Abolition of Man, That Hideous Strength and Mere Christianity), cycling, keeping fit, supporting his local church and spending time with Babs (to whom he has been married for thirty years), their children, and good friends.