SARAH Shreeve has been an active worshipper at our cathedral for many years and has been part of the teams that lead Pompey Sundays on a Sunday morning and the monthly evening Taizé services, and is now about to start work as the new Head of Education Policy for the Church of England.

Sarah grew up in Norfolk and initially started teaching in Germany, in both grammar schools and schools for children with special needs. When she came back to the UK she trained formally and then taught in Portsmouth, rising to senior leadership before moving into teacher education. She became lead designer of all teacher education programmes with Teach First, a national training organisation who equip teachers and school leaders working in some of the poorest areas of the country to give children with the fewest opportunities access to a great education.

A few years ago she had the opportunity to work on the Rural Teaching Partnership alongside the Church of England’s education team, and really enjoyed the experience. Sarah said: “This was a really lovely group of people and a really exciting way of working. I loved how they were going back to their experts in the classroom and using them as subject matter experts.” When the opening for a new Head of Education Policy came up, Sarah knew she had to go for it.

Sarah’s new role will see her overseeing a policy team that “will look at making sure that circumstances and the policy landscape around education are set up as well as possible to support Church of England schools to thrive and to be able to meet their goals of everybody flourishing within the school system, and making sure that supports all of our diocesan Boards of Education in their ways of working in the broader education legislative landscape.” Her part home-based, part London-based role will bring her into working relationships with government officials in the Department for Education, MPs, members of the House of Lords, and Church of England schools across the country, as well as working with the teams who are leading the Growing Faith and Flourish projects.

Sarah’s own journey of faith brought her to the cathedral a few years before the pandemic, where she was part of the team that started the fresh expression that eventually became Pompey Sundays. Each Sunday morning in the cathedral nave, over 40 people from the local area gather for an informal multi-generational time of worship with songs where adults and children join in musically together, prayers, and informal chat and discussion, and refreshments. Sarah said, “It has grown and become the loveliest and most diverse worshiping space to be in. We’ve even had our first set of baptisms this year, too. It’s an authentic, relational community doing life together.”

She is also part of the team that runs the monthly Taizé services at the cathedral and plays in the music group that accompanies the singing. “I really love how meditative it is, and how it holds space for people who may not necessarily be Christian but want that kind of Christian-influenced meditation and spirituality. It’s a great example of the diversity of offering from the cathedral.”

Sarah lives in Portsmouth and is due to be married to Tom, who is a campaigns manager for a political party in the southern region. She begins her new role in August. You can find out more about education in our diocese here and nationally here.