I have been writing about education for more than a decade, initially focusing on classroom practice and Religious Education, and increasingly on Catholic education, school leadership, curriculum, social justice and the wider purpose of education.
Alongside my own books and blogs, I have written for a range of education and Catholic publications and have contributed to wider debates through interviews, features, conferences and professional commentary.
What follows is a selected chronology rather than a complete bibliography.
Recent writing has increasingly brought together Catholic education, leadership and some of the wider questions facing schools.
In Magnificently Human: Catholic Education in the Age of AI, Andy considered artificial intelligence through a distinctly Catholic lens: human dignity, wisdom, relationships and the common good. AI may help schools and teachers, but the question is not simply what technology can do. It is what education is ultimately for, and what should remain irreducibly human.
He also wrote for RE about St Carlo Acutis, exploring how the life of a modern young saint can help pupils connect Catholic faith with the digital world they actually inhabit.
Selected links: Magnificently Human: Catholic Education in the Age of AI · St Carlo Acutis — RE
A major theme in 2025 was the relationship between Catholic education and the world beyond the school gates.
Following years of community organising at St Bonaventure's, Andy was part of a delegation of Catholic school leaders and organisers who met Pope Leo XIV in Rome. He subsequently reflected on the experience for Networking, connecting local action in East London with Catholic Social Teaching and the life of the universal Church.
Elsewhere he wrote about the relationship between religion, education and government in Britain and the United States, reflected on the new Religious Education Directory, and contributed to national discussion about the removal of the RE teacher-training bursary.
Selected links: A Summit of Hope: Catholic School Organisers Meet Pope Leo XIV · Catholic school community organisers meet Pope Leo XIV · The ‘special relationship’ — Teach Secondary · Reflections on the RED
Writing in 2024 returned to two long-standing interests: what makes Religious Education intellectually rigorous, and how Catholic Social Teaching becomes something lived rather than simply taught.
For Teach Secondary, Andy responded to Ofsted's description of weaknesses in RE. He argued that the answer lies in stronger subject knowledge, coherent curriculum thinking and specialist teachers rather than lowering expectations for the subject.
He was also quoted in coverage of Called to Action, a project bringing together Catholic Social Teaching and community organising, and in The Tablet discussing the development of the Source to Summit curriculum resources.
Selected links: Religious Education — Is it really a subject ‘not fit for purpose’? · Called To Action: Catholic Social Teaching and Community Organising
The publication of the new Religious Education Directory marked an important moment for Catholic RE.
Andy was quoted extensively by the Catholic Herald on the opportunities and challenges it presented. He welcomed the increased academic and theological ambition while also highlighting the need for high-quality resources, teacher subject knowledge and realistic support for implementation.
This period also coincided with work as series editor on Oxford University Press's Source to Summit resources for Key Stage 3.
Selected link: Bishops launch new ‘academically rigorous’ Religious Education Directory
As schools and communities emerged from the pandemic, a growing focus was the practical application of Catholic Social Teaching.
The Diocese of Brentwood reported on work bringing schools, parishes and Citizens UK organisers together in response to the ‘Cry of the Poor’. Andy argued that listening to families, identifying shared concerns and acting together should be understood as part of Catholic education rather than something separate from it.
Selected link: Community organising alliance responds to ‘Cry of the Poor’
In an interview with The Review of Religions, Andy discussed fasting within the Catholic tradition, explaining its relationship with prayer, almsgiving and the re-ordering of priorities.
He also edited Catholic RE in 2020 for the Association of Teachers of Catholic Religious Education, bringing together reflections on how Catholic RE departments had responded to an extraordinary year.
His books were also recommended by Tes as resources for developing teachers' RE subject knowledge.
Selected links: Fasting in the Catholic Faith — An Interview with Andy Lewis · Tes: How to improve your subject knowledge
Writing in 2020 became noticeably broader.
For Schools Week, Andy and Sebastien Chapleau argued against proposals to remove free travel for young Londoners, highlighting the disproportionate effect on disadvantaged pupils.
He also wrote about pupils successfully using community organising to improve local bus services, explored what Catholic ethos actually means in the daily life of a school, reflected on Rosenshine and research-informed teaching, and argued that religious literacy should not be confined to the RE department.
These pieces increasingly brought together curriculum, leadership, disadvantage and Catholic identity.
Selected links: Removing free travel will hurt those who need help most · Sorting the Buses · What is Catholic Ethos? · Whole school RE
Leadership within Catholic education became an increasingly explicit theme.
Andy wrote about the intellectual, professional and spiritual dimensions of Catholic school leadership, arguing that Catholic leadership cannot be reduced to either management competence or visible religious practice: theology and mission should shape everyday decisions.
He also contributed to a Catholic Herald feature examining academisation, diocesan structures and the future governance of Catholic schools.
Selected links: Intellectual, Professional and Spiritual Challenges · A power struggle is growing over England's Catholic schools
2018 was a particularly significant year for writing and speaking about the future of RE.
Andy wrote for Schools Week defending Catholic RE within the national curriculum debate, arguing that reform should improve the subject without using Catholic schools as a problem to be solved.
He was quoted extensively by Tes in its long read, The battle for the soul of RE, discussing theology, scripture and the intellectual ambition of the subject.
For Teach Secondary, he challenged the idea that teachers are entertainers, arguing instead for lessons built around strong content, explanation and genuine intellectual engagement.
Selected links: Let's not turn RE into a weapon in the war against Catholic schools · The battle for the soul of RE — Tes · Engaging Lessons? We are Educators, not Entertainers
Much of Andy's work around this period explored what pupils should actually know in Religious Education.
A public challenge he posed about defining substantive RE knowledge became the starting point for Charlotte Vardy's article Religious Education: What do students need to KNOW?
At St Bonaventure's, his work was also increasingly connected with practical social action, including campaigns supporting refugees and CAFOD.
Selected links: Religious Education: What do students need to KNOW? · Our pledge to help refugee children
By 2016, Andy's work increasingly combined classroom teaching, writing, publishing and teacher-led professional development.
He was shortlisted in the Tes Schools Awards for Teacher-blogger of the Year, was involved in organising TeachMeet London and continued developing the London RE Hub.
An exchange with Catholic RE teachers in New Zealand also led to an external reflection on Imago Dei and the distinctive foundation of Catholic education.
Selected links: TES Schools Awards 2016 shortlist · Introduction to Religious Education: NZ–UK Connection
2015 was a particularly busy period in the national RE conversation.
Andy wrote for UKEdMag about the future of RE and the importance of subject knowledge, contributed to discussions about SACREs and national curriculum reform, and spoke at conferences about religious literacy, Catholic education and the future of the subject.
He was also part of the team behind the first London RE Hub conference and the growing network of teacher-led professional development around RE.
Selected links: In Praise of Curiosity — RE · #rethinkRE — RE · Standing Up or Falling Down — RE · TeachMeet London reflections
Some of Andy's earliest external writing focused very directly on classroom life.
For UKEdMag, he wrote about reducing teacher talk, using social media professionally, recruitment and teaching the Nativity differently. He was also quoted by The Guardian on classroom disruption and by Teach Secondary on helping pupils use Wikipedia critically rather than simply banning it.
This was also the year of his first published book contribution, in Don't Change the Light Bulbs.
Selected links: Using Wikipedia effectively in schools · The Guardian: Is low-level disruption really such a problem? · Schools Week review of Don't Change the Light Bulbs
One of the earliest surviving external references appears in Tes in 2013.
For A Teaching Moment in Time, teachers around the world were asked to capture what was happening in their classrooms at exactly 11am. Andy's contribution described a Year 13 philosophy lesson in Essex — an early snapshot of the classroom teaching that remained at the centre of much of his later writing.
The same period also saw @TalkingDonkeyRE recommended in Ross Morrison McGill's 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding Lessons as a useful source for teachers exploring classroom blogging.
Selected link: A Teaching Moment in Time — Tes
Articles are only part of the picture. Andy has also written and edited textbooks, revision guides and professional books for publishers including Oxford University Press, Collins, John Catt and Bloomsbury.
These are collected separately on the Books page.
For longer personal reflections on Catholic education, leadership, teaching and faith, visit The Blog on a Hill.
Earlier writing and resources from Andy's years as an RE teacher and subject leader are preserved through his previous education blogs.