A Western professor in Japan has set up a “free speech” zone, and written into his course intro that “free speech” will be maintained, that all students can voice their opinions and views without being called “racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic etc or violating a safe space”.

This is after Dr Jordan Peterson, the canadian academic, had his planned two month fellowship at Cambridge University cancelled. Having controversial thoughts about not using preferred pronouns with transgender people and a dislike for political correctness, he is seem as a problematic figure, one that Cambridge University didn’t want to have around.

I’m not going to beat about the bush – I think that universities (and places of education in general) should not block, cancel or refuse controversial voices. I think it’s a real shame that time and time again right wing and controversial people are prevented from speaking at places that were set up to expand people’s knowledge.

Recently I attended the Voxburner Youth Marketing conference in London, where I was picking up marketing tips that are used with young people, to use to sell better futures for the students I work with.

Within the talks were two by a chap called James who works at Microsoft. I first came across him in a search engine panel talk where they were discussing, amongst other things, how young people don’t tend to type to search for things, they just verbally ask their Siri, or Alexa etc. We even saw a cute video of some British kids talking about tech, with one showing how, despite his dyslexia, he’s able to easily search for his favourite show to watch.

I think a lot of people take for granted how much of an art revision is. Especially for parents going through their first round of exams with their children, it can be a tricky time as it’s hard to know what to advise.

Learning from institutions who have revision sorted is really useful, which is why I’m really glad that the Taunton Sixth Form in Somerset have provided these great tips for anyone approaching exams this summer!

Happy International Women’s Day 2019. I’d like to talk about boys.

Hear me out.

I’m currently running a mini experiment at work. In one of my schools, I’ve been running a boys’ club where every week over pizza, we discuss things like mental health, next steps and finance. I ran it with 9 students and it’s been really successful. I had almost perfect attendance and when I see the boys in the corridors they beg for more sessions (even requesting what they’d like to learn about next, proving that it’s not just about pizza). Through evaluation forms, they told me that it was a safe place for them to discuss things, and that they feel more confident as a result of the club.