About Chris Curtis
Born 19 January 1958 in Paddington, London, UK.
Moved at age 1 to Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. About 50 miles north of London. Bletchley was then a small market town in the countryside but later became part of the new city of Milton Keynes, which grew up as I did.
I am the oldest of six children (plus one brother who died soon after birth). In age order they are (David),Ann, Maria, Joe, Mark and Bernadette
I went to four different primary schools, then to Bletchley Grammar School which was amalgamated with Wilton School to become the Lord Grey Comprehensive. I gained 11 O levels, including astronomy. I gained A levels in Biological Science, Geography and Sociology
I went to Reading University to read Psychology, Philosophy and Sociology after 6 months I decided to study Theology instead. This gave me a gap of six months, during which time I worked with the “Cor Community” a Christian community based at Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire.
I was at Heythrop College London from 1977 to 1980 where I gained a Bachelor of Divinity(honours) degree - special subjects were Liturgy, Ecclesiology (Christian thinking about the Church) and “Christian Anthropology” (Christian Thinking about humanity).
In September 1980 I married Patricia.We moved back to the Milton Keynes area.
After about a year working as a social worker and ecologist I trained as a Religious Education teacher.
I worked for two years at Northampton High School for Girls during which time our first son, Nathan, was born.
I then became Head of Information Technology and Business Studies at Stantonbury Campus (long story!) Stantonbury was then the largest school in the UK and was known as a centre of innovation.During that time Thom was born and somehow I found time to gain a Masters in Education (computing in education).
After eight years there, I went to be Deputy Head at Thomas Becket RC Upper School, Northampton. Among other things, I helped to run the Diocesan programme of adult education. I became temporary Head of that school following the previous Head’s retirement and was force to see through a number of radical and difficult changes before a new permanent Head took over.
In 1997,I was delighted to be appointed as Headteacher of St Bede’s School in Redhill in Surrey (South of London)and we moved to Horley near Gatwick Airport.
Nathan is now studying Medicine at Southampton University and Thom is reading Philosophy at Edinburgh.