Quaker Education Conference

On Friday 9th June four students and four members of staff, including the Head, Matthew Judd, travelled up to Bootham School in York to attend the inaugural Quaker Education Conference.

The event was hosted at one of our partner Quaker schools, as the final part of their themed programme around ‘How can education create a better world?’. The Quaker Education Conference is intended to be an annual event aimed at students in the Lower Sixth and this first event certainly attracted plenty of interest.

Student, William, remarked “The Quaker Education Conference was truly a great experience. From think tank leaders to CEOs to former members of government, the speakers were insightful within their fields and provided valuable advice and information. A speaker from where I live in The Gambia was also there which made it very personal! What made the conference so special, however, was that students were divided and were encouraged to derive their own opinions and thoughts on education as the conference progressed. The students from LP definitely took away valuable lessons that we can transfer to the Park and beyond.”

Bootham School announced their aim to launch “an annual conference programme which will pose questions in a spirit of openness and desire to learn from, and share with, others around the world.  We believe everyone has something to contribute and we can all learn from the experience of others.  The conference will encourage participation across the world and age range, whilst giving our young people, in particular, the opportunity to lead on the questions that will shape their futures.

In addition to the live conference in June, there have been a series of online talks and discussions between January and February and a collection of 30-second online video posts which have shared views from the global Quaker school community.

Assistant Head of Sixth Form, Richard Duckett, commented “What I loved most about the conference was the variety of inspiring speakers who were carefully selected to really enthuse the students with a sense of agency.  The message was loud and clear; your voice in the world matters if you want it to, it can be heard in spaces where you might think you don’t belong, and here is how to do it.  It was this last bit, here’s how to do it, that was so powerful, actually equipping students with both confidence and strategies to become real change-makers.”

‘We may not all be teachers, but we are all communicators, and we all need to be learners.’

Quaker Faith and Practice, 23.84