Nowadays styling himself writer, musician and educationist, Bernard read music at Oxford before becoming a music teacher. In 1990 he was appointed head of an independent school in Wolverhampton, moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in 2008, chaired the leading independent schools’ organisation HMC in 2007-9 and retired in 2017. In 2018 he served as interim principal at The Purcell School. He has advised both UK government and the Council of Europe on democratic approaches to school governance, the subject of his doctoral research. He still writes on education and more widely, and has published two novels and some choral music.