Damian took up post with Dales in September 2017 having previously been the Development & Standards Officer and central team lead for a similarly sized faith based Multi Academy Trust.
A later entrant to the teaching profession Damian completed his PGCE at the University of York in 1995 and for 17 years taught science and held various middle and senior leadership posts in five different schools in Yorkshire, both independent and maintained. Soon after being designated as a Specialist Leader of Education for Science and CPD he was appointed Director of a cohort 1 Teaching School where he established a successful School Direct provision for ITT students destined for both mainstream and special school settings which had at its core a wide range of placement based learning experiences. In addition to the delivery of CPD for Alliance schools, Damian also planned and led on a number of DfE funded projects in such areas as Succession planning, Children Looked After, Early Years and Special Educational Needs, as well as coordinating a wide range of school to school support activities through the deployment of NLEs, LLEs and SLEs.