Gary Lewis was Headteacher at Kings Langley School in Hertfordshire for 18 years and has led two other secondary schools in Ofsted difficulties. Kings Langley School was presented with a national character award by the Secretary of State for Education in 2015 and has been considered a leading proponent in character education since 2006. Gary has been a policy advisor to the Department for Education and was the Chair of the national Association for Character Education (ACE) since its inception, stepping down in September 2024 to take on the role of “Director of External Affairs”, a post which amalgamates his work with ACE with his responsibilities as an Honorary Research Fellow at the Jubilee Centre, Birmingham University.

Gary read Physics at Nottingham University, and has taught in a wide range of both state and independent secondary schools since 1980. Gary presents regularly on a variety of aspects of Character Education and related training and together with his close colleagues, Prof Tom Harrison and Tom Hague (CEO of ACE), has assessed many schools both in the UK and abroad for the “Character Quality mark”.

Since stepping down as a school Principal, Gary has for the last 7 years provided Character Leadership Training to a variety of schools throughout the UK and abroad. Gary has regularly been a “keynote speaker” at conferences worldwide, including in Sweden, Austria, Mexico, Argentina and Chile.

Over the past 24 months, Gary has produced a training module for presentation to school leaders which focuses on practical methods to integrate a character education programme within the wider range of school development priorities which ensures detailed character experiences for teachers, students and parents. In particular, work with parents has received particularly positive reviews from schools in the UK, Sweden, Vienna, Madrid, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico, all of whom have been keen to realign relationships with parents, particularly since the disruption of Covid.