Thinking About... 2020/21
Thinking About... is a joint project between Dulwich College and the SSLP which ran on Tuesday afternoons over the course of the year. Each week we welcomed a different guest speaker to present via Zoom webinar to Year 11+ students. Over the 24-week series we attracted 1,257 live viewers (students, staff and parents) - an additional 57 students took on a leading host role. Alleyn's School, James Allen's Girls' School, Kingsdale Foundation School, Queen's College London and St Saviour's & St Olave's have all hosted a talk on behalf of the SSLP, and students from these schools plus St Michael's Catholic College, The Charter School East Dulwich, The Charter School North Dulwich, The Elmgreen School, UAE South Bank and Westminster City School have all co-hosted with Dulwich College.
Our most popular talk was David Lammy MP thinking about Identity. Other popular talks were Professor Duncan Wheeler thinking about Spanish National Cultures, Lord Peter Hain thinking about Sport and Apartheid and Daniel Hanna OA thinking about Sustainable Finance. Many of the recordings can be accessed via the SSLPs YouTube channel.
Aims
The Thinking About series aims to bring a broad range of guest speakers to an SSLP audience, especially for students in Year 11 and above.
An online format increases the accessibility in regards to attendance as students can watch from their own devices without the need to travel. This format also aims to encourage students with a passing interest in a subject to tune in and learn something new without having to make a commitment.
Having a trusted format and providing a coordinator for the programme aims to encourage other schools to take a hosting or co-hosting role providing greater opportunities to develop public speaking skills for students.
Background
Dulwich College has a long history of inviting students from nearby schools to our society and careers talks but geography and timing are often barriers to attendance.
When the first lockdown was experienced we looked at ways we could continue with these extracurricular activities and so in the summer term of 2020 we piloted a series of eight webinars. The format worked and so we continued the programme in 2020/21 encouraging more schools to take a hosting or co-hosting role.
Resources
We have been using the Zoom webinar function as this provides privacy to participants but is also readily accessible. Student hosts are the only ones who appear on camera and this can be done using school facilities and equipment if necessary.
Our partnership coordinator spends approximately one day per week on delivering this programme.
Impact
All participants are sent a link to an online questionnaire at the end of the Thinking About talk, completing this is optional. There have been one thousand two hundred and fifty seven live viewers for this series, one hundred and nineteen people completed a survey.
80% of respondents said that they learnt something new from the talk that they attended.
98% of respondents rated the success of the event as 4 or 5 stars (out of five).
Pupil Involvement
Of the 1257 live viewers, 746 self declared as students upon registration. 56% of respondents to the questionnaire declared at students.
The talks are aimed at Year 11 students and above but open to all who are interested. We have had pupils in all year groups attending, especially years 11, 12 and 13. 78% report watching alone, whilst 19% watch with family or friends.
A further 57 students took on host or co-host roles. This is a very responsible role involving appearing on camera to interview the guest and to manage questions from the Q&A.
Frequency
This academic year we organised twenty four Thinking About talks which all took place on Tuesday afternoons at 5pm during term time.