Tuesday 8th November 2022
Speakers:
Rabia Nasimi – Human rights activist and former child refugee from Afghanistan.
Suha Abdui – Economics team at the TUC
Eleanor Shearer – Senior Policy Analyst at the Tony Blair Institute, and author of “River Sing Me Home”.
Dr Kristian Niemiet – Head of Political Economy at the Institute of Economic Affairs
Siobhain Mc Donagh MP – Labour Member of Parliament for Mitcham & Morden.
Hina Bokhari – Liberal Democrat member of the London Assembly.
Stephen Hammond MP – Conservative Member of Parliament for Wimbledon.
Report
This conference was for 145 students from eight different schools (all were year 12 apart from ten of our year 11s)
We focused on having a much more diverse range of speakers, thinking of their careers (so not all MPs), their age, gender and ethnicity.
Of the seven speakers invited we had five female speakers and two male speakers and all three of the keynote speakers were female as well as the chair. It was also much more diverse on ethnicity than in previous conferences. The speaker body therefore much better represented our student body. The three keynote speakers were all in their twenties.
The students rated the conference 4.7 out of 5 (compared to 4.0 out of 5 for last year’s conference).
The teachers from the visiting schools were very positive about the conference and the impact on their students.
Student comments included “Please can this happen again”, “Do this more often”, “I now have a better idea of how to be politically active”, “I have taken away a more advanced understanding of politics as a whole” and “I have learnt that young people should have a voice and should stand up for our beliefs.”
Aims of conference:
To help the year 12 students engage with the issues of inequality from both a national and global perspective, and to understand the link between historical injustice and present-day inequality.
To help the year 12s understand that it is not only politicians who are politically engaged- there are many people who work to make an impact politically including trade unions, those working in the civil service, members of the London Assembly and local councillors.
To encourage year 12s to think about how they can engage politically to make a difference and to help address inequality.
To provide role models to students who might more closely represent their own identity, in particular thinking of gender, ethnicity and generational identity.