I decided to sit down with (or, rather, phone) the individual members to get an insight into their thinking, their visions, and their expectations of the year ahead. It was a truly eye-opening experience, and I’m thrilled to present the outcomes of the discussion with Leyla, the new EDI rep.

I decided to sit down with (or, rather, phone) the individual members to get an insight into their thinking, their visions, and their expectations of the year ahead. It was a truly eye-opening experience, and I’m thrilled to present the discussion with the Heads of Houses below.

During the recent handover assembly, I remember catching myself in awe of the poise, enthusiasm, and thoughtfulness with which both the outgoing and the new teams spoke about their role. It was clear that every single person was there for a reason, and that they all have something to bring to the literal and metaphorical table.

Having read Ms Kennedy’s WimLearn article on civil discourse (which is really rather good – click here to read it), and with this week marking the launch of the civil discourse programme at WHS, I thought I’d quiz our headteacher on what ‘authentic encounters between enquiring hearts and minds’ really means. We touch on teachers at WHS, culture wars, feminism, ad hominin, the state of the British press and of course, the infamous “school of woke” comment, courtesy of Giles Coren. What struck me throughout our conversation was this concept of a ‘dialogue’; that the problem is really us jumping at each other’s throats when we disagree or feel offended at something. It is this that obstructs constructive, useful and mutually respectful conversations. ‘There’s more that connects us than divides us’, as Jo Cox, head of co-curricular at WHS, reminds us at the end of this interview.

In April of this year, I sat down to interview Edward Chancellor, who offered me his view on the response to COVID-19 as a financial historian, which challenged more mainstream ideas around lockdown. As I sat at my desk to discuss the topic (the interview was conducted via Zoom, of course), Chancellor’s ideas around the influence of behavioural psychology on the global reaction, stood out to me. In drawing parallels between the disease cycle and financial cycle, Chancellor touches on crowd behaviour and cognitive dissonance to explain the reaction to COVID-19, and why extrapolation errors are so dangerous. We also discussed Johnson’s government’s imitative behaviour, and the importance of truth-seeking.