Festival of Ideas 2022

How do you fight ignorance?

DO WE ADAPT

mental

TO PARENTS AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE WIDER CANFORD COMMUNITY

If you would like to attend a particular talk, please get in touch with Head of Enrichment Jamie Ings ji@canford.com, as he will be able to advise as to whether there will be space.

TO PUPILS

You are expected to attend the events that are allocated to any groups to which you belong. You are extremely welcome to attend further events outside your regular school commitments/timetable. Day pupils are not required to attend evening events (beyond 6pm) but are most welcome to attend them.

TO CANFORD STAFF

You are welcome to all events. If as a teacher you have a class attending a talk, please could you check that all the pupils are present.

THURSDAY 13TH OCTOBER

8.45AM - IAN B DUNNE, LAYARD THEATRE, SHELLS AND FOURTH FORM

9.00AM - EMMA HENDERSON, MBE, ASSEMBLY HALL, SIXTH FORM

9.00AM - COLIN STUART, MUSIC SCHOOL, FIFTH FORM

10.15AM - LOUISA ADJOA PARKER, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

10.30AM - IAN B DUNNE, LAYARD THEATRE, SIXTH FORM

10.30AM - ONYINYE UDOKPORO, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

11.30AM - JAZ O’HARA, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

11.45AM - GEORGE OBOLO, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

12.00PM - DIPO FALOYIN, ASSEMBLY HALL, SIXTH FORM

5.00PM - AARON RIDLEY, ASSEMBLY HALL, FIFTH AND SIXTH FORM

ACADEMIC SCHOLARS (ALL OTHER PUPILS AND STAFF WELCOME)

FRIDAY 14TH OCTOBER

8.45AM - LUCY SHEPHERD, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

9.00AM - JOHN BIRCHALL, ASSEMBLY HALL, SIXTH FORM

9.00AM - ALEX LEWIS, LAYARD THEATRE, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

10.15AM - ANNA MCNUFF, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

10.30AM - STEPHEN VENABLES, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

10.30AM - ALEX LEWIS, LAYARD THEATRE, SIXTH FORM

11.30AM - CANFORD UPPER SIXTH SCHOLARS, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

11.45AM - ANNA MCNUFF, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

12.00PM - LUCY SHEPHERD, LAYARD THEATRE, SIXTH FORM

CHANGING PEOPLE, CHANGING PLACES

As humans we seem to be hard wired to be drawn towards people who behave like ourselves. Numerous studies have shown that when presented with a range of equally competent and well qualified candidates, employers will, statistically, lean towards selecting those who see the world as they do. This mirroring, as psychologists refer to it, is a form of validation. The employer is subconsciously looking for employees who will validate their ideas, outlook and world view.

The journalist Matthew Syed has researched this further. He suggests that brain scans show that when others reflect our own thoughts back to us, it stimulates the pleasure centres in our brain. This bias extends to the way we establish our social groups and even our relationships. And this trait makes sense from a purely evolutionary perspective; shared characteristics lead to shared values and this in turn gives a group cohesion. Cohesion makes the group stronger and more likely to defend one another.

On the whole, when the problems we face have been straightforward, such as lighting a fire or building a shelter, what social scientists term, “linear problems” this model has proved more than adequate. It has allowed us as humans to evolve from tribes, into towns, and then cities, developing over time into countries and nations. However, we are victims of our own success; the world we live in is no longer neat and linear. The world is three dimensional, global, interconnected and multi-cultural, and so too are the problems we face. The problems of countries like China or Japan are no longer confined to the other side of the world, and in such a world the human tendency towards homogeneity is at best a disadvantage and at worst, dangerous. The problem is that when all the people in a group think the same way, it creates collective blindspots. We all have these blindspots in our perspective, and the challenge with them is that we are rarely even aware we have them until our viewpoint is challenged by a perspective or opinion beyond our everyday frame of reference. A lack of diversity in the ideas we consume is dangerous, because we never question our blindspots.

The past three years have been more turbulent than any other trio for a number of decades. The world has had to deal with a seemingly endless string of globe altering issues. Something that is undeniable is that adaptation has been essential in order to ensure that that global society is able to continue to function. The world has changed, and so have we. I hope all Canfordians will approach this year’s festival with the curiosity to embrace new ideas, the enthusiasm to share and discuss these ideas with their friends and teachers and the resilience to have their ideas challenged in turn.’

Jamie Ings, Head of Enrichment

Ian B Dunne

SCIENCE MAGIC...MAGIC SCIENCE

8.45AM, LAYARD THEATRE, SHELLS AND FOURTH FORM

ON THE FRINGES OF SCIENCE

10.30AM, LAYARD THEATRE, SIXTH FORM

The information and demonstrations Ian B Dunne presents are entertaining, engaging, amusing and inspiring. Ian’s well known Shows include “Science Magic...Magic Science” and “Science...The Best Bits” which appear at schools and festivals all over the place.

Science Magic...Magic Science

Featuring all demonstrations, strange and wonderful noises, levitating objects, flash bang and big sparks and the occasional funny smell, all done with some fantastic and rare equipment. You won’t believe your eyes. Now with added Robots. Hugi, Tibbles and Ani. Even some “Real” Magic Tricks.

On the Fringes of Science

Some ideas in science last and prove their worth, others are shown by time to be downright dangerous and some are just plain wrong, or quite possibly insane. And then we have the con men and the frauds.

There are just so many things to say. The people of the past were no dafter than we are but some of the things they believed and did were just hilarious.

A show played for laughs, it is cheap shot to mock the past but some of it really does deserve it.

THURSDAY 13TH OCTOBER

Emma Henderson, MBE

PROJECT WINGMAN

9.00AM, ASSEMBLY HALL, SIXTH FORM

There are (far) more endangered Bengal Tigers in the world than there are female airline Captains - about four times as many Until September 2020, Emma Henderson was a member of this rare and special club, flying thousands of passengers all over Europe safely every day over an 11 year career with easyJet.

Emma grew up loving all things that flew, but didn’t know that she wanted to fly for a living until she turned 30 and was living in New Zealand with her husband and young family. Emma’s journey to the flight deck was far from straightforward, and she faced many challenges along the way including the kidnap of a family member, an accident which left her brother with life changing injuries, escaping a house fire, and surviving her own life-threatening illness which resulted in her failing one of the biggest challenges of her entire career. By 2019, Emma had been nominated as easyJets Captain of the Year, was a Peer support mentor, a Fearless Flyer presenter, and had starred in the ITV Documentary “Inside the Cockpit” gaining a large following of fans who know her as “Captain Emma”.As the world began to stop in March 2020, having operated her final passenger flights to Luxembourg and back, Emma knew she would not be flying again for some time. With her deep understanding of, as well as loyalty and appreciation to, her industry

Emma sought an opportunity to support the NHS when they were going to need it most whilst giving her colleagues a much-needed sense of purpose. Thus, the latest chapter of Emma’s journey began as she founded Project Wingman, uniting the airline industry to provide well-being support for frontline NHS staff in what became known as “First Class Lounges” across the UK and with a brief foray into the United States. Emma’s story is one of self-reliance, humility and determination which she is happy to deliver to audiences across the world in the hope it can educate and inspire. Her message fundamentally delivers a lesson that everyone is capable of far more than they feel or realise. Calling on her experiences as a source of learning whilst recounting them with her typical compassionate, anecdotal style and wry sense humour result in a fascinating, emotive experience from a powerful role model.

THURSDAY 13TH OCTOBER

Colin Stuart

HOW WE’LL LIVE ON MARS

9.00AM, MUSIC SCHOOL, FIFTH FORM

Colin is a multi-award-winning astronomy author, writer and speaker who has talked to over half a million people about the universe, including schools, the public and businesses. His twenty books have sold more than 400,000 copies worldwide and been translated into 22 languages. He’s written over 200 popular science articles for publications including The Guardian, New Scientist, The Wall Street Journal and European Space Agency. Today’s schoolchildren are the Martian explorers of tomorrow. The first person to walk on the Red Planet is probably already alive and under 18 years old. Are they at Canford? In this aweinspiring talk, packed full of stunning visuals and the latest scientific thinking, Colin will take you on a journey to Mars.

Based on several of his books, including The Astronaut Selection Test Book with Tim Peake, you’ll hear just what it’ll take to achieve the most audacious feat of exploration ever attempted.

Louisa Adjoa Parker

DORSET & THE SOUTHWEST’S BLACK HISTORY –EXPLORING 400 YEARS OF THE PRESENCE OF THOSE WITH AFRICAN/CARIBBEAN HERITAGE

10.15AM, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

Louisa Adjoa Parker is a writer of EnglishGhanaian heritage who lives in South West England. Her first poetry collection, Salt-sweat and Tears, and pamphlet were published by Cinnamon Press, and her third poetry collection, How To Wear A Skin, was published by Indigo Dreams, and her debut short story collection, Stay With Me, was published by Colenso Books in 2020.

Louisa has written extensively on ethnically diverse history, and set up the Where Are You Really From? project. Louisa also works as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion consultant, and, along with Louise Boston-Mammah, is co-director of The Inclusion Agency. She is a sought-after speaker on rural racism, black history, mental health and marginalisation.

Her fourth poetry collection, a pamphlet entitled, She Can Still Sing, is published by Flipped Eye in June 2021. Find out more about the collection and order your copy here: She Can Still Sing - Flipped Eye Publishing. She is currently writing a coastal memoir, to be published by Little Toller Books in 2022.

OCTOBER

George Obolo

FROM WORDS TO ACTION

11.45AM, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

George Obolo is an award-winning social entrepreneur, leader, builder, creative, public speaker and polymath. He is a 21 yearold medical student at The University of Manchester.

George is the co-founder of The Black Excellence Network, which challenges the racial disparities within UK higher education between black students and students of other ethnicities. We also support current black university students’ professional and personal development nationwide onward to their future careers.

Jaz O’Hara

TRANSCENDING BORDERS, NATIONALITIES, RELIGION AND LANGUAGE - STORIES FROM THE REFUGEE CRISIS

11.30AM, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

Motivational speaker and podcaster Jaz O’Hara is the founder of The Worldwide Tribe, an organisation and online community supporting refu-gees and asylum seekers globally. The Worldwide Tribe was born from a life-changing Facebook post Jaz wrote about her first trip to the Calais Jungle in July 2015. Jaz’s authentic account went viral, raising £250,000, reaching over 13 million people and sparking the collection of physical donations by the tonne - filling warehouses across the country. Jaz has worked tirelessly in refugee camps across Europe and the Mid-dle East ever since, telling the stories that too often go unheard. As a writer for The Huffington Post, winner of Marie Claire’s ‘Future Shaper’ award and member of Amnesty International’s ‘Collective’, Jaz has become a leading voice on the topic of migration, speaking eve-rywhere from TedX, to the United Nations in NYC.

Jaz’s work comes from a personal place, and dates back to early 2015 when her parents began fostering an unaccompanied minor named Mez from Eritrea. Mez made the journey across the world as a child refugee, and was the first of four new brothers to join Jaz’s family, also from Afghanistan, Sudan and most recently, a 13-year-old boy from Libya. The Worldwide Tribe is the continuation of this global family. Jaz and her team are dedicated to challenging the fear-based narrative of today’s media and society and do so through film, talks and an extremely popular podcast. Jaz’s natural gift for storytelling has pow-ered many projects on the ground including installing WiFi in camps in France and Greece, running art projects in Za’atari camp in Jordan, supporting a Search-and-Rescue in the Mediterranean and many more.

Onyinye Udokporo

NEURODIVERSITY IN A CHANGING WORLD

10.30AM, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

Onyinye is an entrepreneur, educator, dyslexic author, neurodiversity consultant and content creator. She was diagnosed with dyslexia aged 11 and using her lived experience has been an advocate and campaigner on all things neurodiversity for over 10 years. Onyinye also started her first business, Enrich Learning, aged 12. She is now a serial entrepreneur.

In 2022 her debut book Dyslexia and Me: How to Survive and Thrive If You’re Neurodivergent was published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers & Hachette. In this book, rising star entrepreneur Onyinye Udokporo shares her story of growing up dyslexic in a society where neurodivergence was always presented as a white male issue. Onyinye shares the tips she picked up over the years for thriving with dyslexia The book is an empowering story of surviving and thriving in the face of adversity.

Dipo Faloyin

AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY

12.00PM, ASSEMBLY HALL, SIXTH FORM

Dipo Faloyin was born in Chicago, raised in Nigeria and currently lives in London. He is a senior editor and writer at VICE, where his work has a specific focus on race, culture, and identity across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Dipo’s writing has also featured in Dazed, i-D, The Huffington Post, Refinery 29, Huck, Highsnobiety, Prospect, and others.

His debut book, Africa Is Not A Country, offers a fresh, realistic and comprehensive view of the world’s second biggest continent, pushing back against stereotypes through an exploration of an eclectic range of subjects. It was published in 2022 by Vintage in the UK and W.W. Norton in the US.

Aaron Ridley

NIETZSCHE AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY

5.00PM, ASSEMBLY HALL, FIFTH AND SIXTH FORM ACADEMIC SCHOLARS (ALL OTHER PUPILS AND STAFF WELCOME)

Aaron Ridley is an academic philosopher who studied at the University of York (BA) before completing his PhD Cambridge; His books include: Music, Value and the Passions (1995), Nietzsche’s Conscience: Six Character Studies from the ‘Genealogy’ (1998), The Philosophy of Music: Theme and Variations (2004), Nietzsche on Art (2007), The Deed is Everything: Nietzsche on Will and Action (2018) and Singularities: Essays in Aesthetics (forthcoming).

OCTOBER

Lucy Shepherd

HARNESSING AN EXPLORER’S MINDSET

8.45AM, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

12.00PM, LAYARD THEATRE, SIXTH FORM

As genuine travel has become easier and easier, true adventure has inevitably become ever more elusive. Enter Lucy Shepherd.

Shepherd is the real deal and at the forefront of modern exploration. From mountain ranges to tropical rainforests, to the Arctic tundra, she is plotting a thrilling, inimitable path for herself.

Her message? Adventure is a mindset, not a moment.

Lucy made a mark on the global stage after successfully completing her recent jungle expedition across an isolated part of the Amazon. Lucy and her team of indigenous Amerindians spent 50 days moving through uncharted and untouched jungle, facing dangers every single day. In this talk we hear what it takes to build an explorer’s mindset and why it is important in everyday life.

OCTOBER

John Birchall

IT MAY BE A LONG TIME AGO, BUT IT’S STILL FRONT PAGE NEWS

9.00AM, ASSEMBLY HALL, SIXTH FORM

John has over 30 years experience of working in Africa and in the member States of the EU – where he has specialised in teaching geo-politics and its economic, political and social influences.

He regularly works in Brussels in various EU institutions and assists in developing greater global awareness amongst students in member countries. He is an Honorary Lecturer in the Economics Department, University of Sierra Leone. In Zimbabwe he lectured at the Universities of Bulawayo, Harare, Solusi and the Management School of the National University.

John has over 20 years of experience working with the European Union and has worked in schools and colleges in nine different EU member states. He teaches business people, diplomats and UNICEF Directors at The School of Oriental and African Studies, London, who are to work in African countries. He writes expert witness statements for citizens from African countries wanting to seek permission to remain in the United Kingdom. He has worked extensively in a number of African countries and is an Associate Professor at two African Universities.

FRIDAY 14TH OCTOBER

Alex Lewis

A MINOR SETBACK

9.00AM, LAYARD THEATRE, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

10.30AM, LAYARD THEATRE, SIXTH FORM

Alex was a regular guy with a partner and a two year old son. He was running the Kings Arms in Lockerly and was also a stay at home dad. In early November 2013 he caught what he thought was man flu, he moaned continuously for ten days until he started to deteriorate. On the 17th November he woke in tremendous pain, his skin had started to turn purple and he was in a semi conscious state. He was rushed into hospital and within hours of his collapse, his vital organs were being supported mechanically, his blood forced around his body with noradrenaline. His chances of survival given by the consultants for the first 3 days was less than 3%. He had contracted Strep A. For most of us this would be nothing more than a sore throat. For Alex it took a more sinister path to Strep A Toxic Shock Syndrome, leading to Septicaemia. Over the course of the next seven months Alex was to go under life saving surgery resulting in the loss of his left arm above the elbow and both legs above the knee and sadly six months later he was to lose his right arm below the elbow. He was also to under go facial reconstruction as the infection ravaged his face and mouth as well as his limbs. Alex is still a work in progress … and Alex now lives an extraordinary life in a different body.

Anna McNuff

TRAINERS, TYRES AND A QUEST FOR ‘MORE’

10.15AM, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

11.45AM, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

Anna McNuff is an endurance athlete and adventurer. On a mission to explore the limit of her own potential, she works to help others unlock theirs too. Named by the Guardian as one of the top female adventurers of our time, Condé Nast Traveller have also recently included her in a list of the 50 most influential travellers in the world. She is the UK ambassador for Girl Guiding, and the co-founder of Adventure Queens; the UK’s fastest growing women’s adventure community. Background: The daughter of two Olympians’ Anna grew up in a family where the pursuit of physical and mental excellence was encouraged, and harboured ambitions from an early age to be an Olympian herself. By aged 16 she had taken up the sport of rowing, and went on to represent Great Britain. During her time in the Great Britain squad, Anna became a World Champion at the University Games in 2006, and won a Bronze medal at the 2007 European Championships. Dogged by injury in her twenties, Anna made the difficult decision to retire from the sport and to let go of her Olympic dream. She then embarked on a new life as an adventurer - darting around the world on the hunt for new and exciting endurance challenges.

Stephen Venables

FOUR MEN ON A MOUNTAIN – EVEREST THE HARDEST WAY

10.30AM, ASSEMBLY HALL, FOURTH AND FIFTH FORM

Stephen Venables, mountaineer, writer, broadcaster and public speaker, was the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen. He reached the summit alone, after climbing with a small AmericanCanadian team, by a new route up the gigantic Kangshung Face.

Everest was a thrilling highlight in a career which has taken Stephen right through the Hima-laya, from Afghanistan to Tibet, making first ascents of many previously unknown mountains. His adventures have also taken him to the Rockies, the Andes, the Antarctic island South Georgia, East Africa, South Africa and of course the European Alps, where he has climbed and skied for over forty years.

Canford Upper Sixth Scholars

CONCUSSION IN SPORT, NATURE VS NURTURE, AND PERCEPTION OF SHARKS

11.30AM, MUSIC SCHOOL, SHELLS

At Canford our Sixth Form scholars’ programme sees our talented scholars deliver talks to various groups of Canfordians on topics that interest them. In a first for the Festival of Ideas, three of our Upper Sixth scholars will speak to the entire Shell year group in a set of microtalks.