Dr. Tom Harrison gave the keynote address at the Church of England South West Dioceses Leaders Conference. The conference, which was held at Exeter Racecourse on Friday 24th March, focussed on character education and leadership. Dr. Harrison’s presentation was entitled Virtue, Religion and Character Education; Common Purpose for a Common Cause. In the presentation he explored the commonalities and differences between philosophical and theological understandings of character and the implications of these for school based character education practice. Nigel Genders, the Chief Education Officer for the Church of England, also presented on the links between leadership and character education. During the event 6 schools from the South West region presented inspiring case studies of their work on character education.