All Our Histories is an innovative Exhibition in a Box exploring Black history, Camberwell and Southwark, and the legacies of enslavement – through powerful artwork by Sokari Douglas Camp and local research. It tells a story from Africa’s rich ancestral life through to the present day, and recognises the bravery, dignity and strength of the people who endured enslavement and fought for freedom.

There are plenty of resources to download, films to watch and audio podcasts to listen to.

SSLP have been delighted to have the opportunity to partner with NMC Recordings and the composer Julian Philips to offer a music composition project to Year 12 students. The starting point for the project is Philips’ NMC album, Melodys of Earth and Sky, and the ‘found’ material that has inspired the music: the fiddle tunes found and notated by John Clare from the Northampton countryside where he lived.

The project got off to a fabulous start this week with the first two workshops. Joined by composer Amy Crankshaw and musicians from Guildhall School of Music, the workshops started with the students hearing live performances of parts of Phillips’ composition on violin and clarinet. The SSLP students were then able to closely study and talk through the score and pick out different composition techniques. This then led to them starting to create ideas for their own compositions

The students were able to learn a great deal not only about composition itself but also further insights about the relationship between composer and performer.

The project will continue with further workshops to support developing the students’ own compositions, as well as them being able to have a mentoring session with Julian Philips. We look forward to sharing a performance of their compositions supported by Guildhall musicians and other SSLP students.

Our thanks to NMC Recordings, Julian Philips, Chiara Calastri, the wonderful team of composers and musicians that led the workshops, and to JAGS and Dulwich College for hosting the first two workshops.

Julian Philips is a distinguished composer, whose works have been performed nationally and internationally, at the BBC Proms, Tanglewood, the Wigmore Hall, the Southbank Centre, and by the BBC orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic and Aurora orchestra.  He is Head of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and was Glyndebourne Opera’s first composer-in-residence. His album, Melodys of Earth and Sky, was released on NMC Recordings in 2022.

Following on from their in-school, six-week programme of training with Debate Mate mentors, schools joined together at Kingswood Arts for the Grand Final of the SSLP x Debate Mate competition. The day started in the spirit of collaboration across schools with students considering a range of motions together – including topics from banning AI in schools, to preferences for McDonald’s or KFC! There was also the opportunity to consolidate the debating skills that they had learnt with their mentors such as using PEEL, with a particular reminder to use evidence and examples to support their points.

It was then time to split up from the main hall and spread out across the beautiful rooms and outdoor spaces of Kingswood Arts to compete in the debating rounds. The motions considered in each of these rounds were: Round 1 – this House believes that the UK should be entirely self-sufficient in energy production; and Round 2 – this House believes that professional athletes should be paid the same as public sector workers (nurses, doctors, teachers).

As each round went on, it was fantastic to see the students developing in their confidence and oracy skills, with a range of brilliant, mature and inspiring debating skills being demonstrated.

After lunch, the student ‘drum roll’ heightened the anticipation and excitement as the two teams that had made it to the Grand Final were announced… St Saviour’s and St Olave’s were facing Kingsdale Foundation school! The motion to be debated was: this House believes that politicians should not have personal social media. Whilst the two teams in the final had time to prepare, the other students spent some time working together to think of questions that they could pose to each team.

It was a fiercely contested final with a range of excellent, thoughtful and brilliantly supported points, as well as thought-provoking questions from the audience. The guest judges – members of our generous supporters, the Worshipful Company of International Bankers (WCIB), and leads from Debate Mate – were out for quite some time trying to make a decision; there was little between the two excellent teams. Finally the announcement came… Kingsdale Foundation School were named the winners! There was also a third place prize for Charter North School, and also ‘Best Question from the Floor’ prize for a St Michael’s Catholic College student.

There was a huge amount of respect shown between all of the schools with congratulations and encouraging support all round. It was a fantastic day. Watching the students across our different partner schools both debate each other and also support each other was encouraging, and a reminder that our future is in very safe hands!

Well done to all of the schools involved. With thanks to the leads and mentors at Debate Mate, and our thanks to WCIB for their generous support.

Exactly 182 days from the November conference launch event, the SSLP Student Voice group were back at Kingswood Arts to share their projects! It has been seven months of collaborative, dedicated, hard work – as well as fun and making friends along the way.

The day started with final presentation planning time for each of the four groups. This also provided the opportunity to remind the students about good presentation and public speaking skills. There was a buzz in the atmosphere of a combination of excitement and a few nerves!

By mid-morning, the special guests had arrived and were seated, and it was time for the students to finally share their projects.

The first group with students from St Saviour’s and St Olave’s, and Kingsdale (having been supported by students from QCL throughout the project) presented with the focus on AI and student wellbeing. They had designed the ‘Safe Space’ app  – using skills learnt at the workshop event in February – to support with monitoring students’ digital wellbeing by filtering harmful or extremist chats and/or comments. As part of the presentation, the group shared a step-by-step guide to each part of the app and how it worked towards supporting overall wellbeing and healthy responses to difficult online comments and AI use. They were highly praised by the audience for the thought that had gone in to the different functions of their app, including a mindfulness section to support with improved mental health, and also a teacher/parent section so that content could be monitored.

The second group with students from Streatham and Clapham High School, and Charter North Dulwich (having also been supported by students from St Thomas the Apostle College) presented with the focus on AI and learning. This group had designed and created a website: Klassified Hub. They started their presentation by using the design of their website logo as an example of one of their main learning points: that AI alone had not been able to create the logo that they wanted; it required the starting point of AI followed by the personal, creative development of a human to produce the best logo! The overview of their website Klassified Hub is to: include various interactive activities like scheduling and joining study sessions with other students over zoom, as well as mentorship programs; included a study playlist  that students can listen to of carefully selected accompanying music while doing work (also with the option of adding songs of their own); developing shared access to the website so that the links can be  shared between different schools; and discussing possible reward systems. The group shared that they hope that one of the main legacies of their project is to unite different schools and instil a positive approach to education.

The third group with students from Dulwich College, Charter Bermondsey, and Westminster City School presented on their focus of AI and ethics. They had carried out some excellent research and interviews to develop their understanding and awareness around this important area, including interviews with teachers at their schools about the pros and cons of AI use in education, and also award winning writer on AI (and guest speaker at the November conference), Dr Kitty Hung. Excerpts from these video interviews were shared during their presentation. The group also shared a beautiful poem that sensitively captured the tender balance between AI and the interaction of humans and humanity. It included the line, ‘to lead with care and grace’ and this was something that this group – and all of the groups – exemplified in their enhanced awareness around AI. They also highlighted the well-known quote from Spider-Man: ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ as a reminder of our role in harnessing AI.

The final group with students from St Michael’s Catholic College, and James Allen’s Girls’ School presented on their focus area of AI and Creativity. They exemplified their theme through a visually engaging and interactive presentation (which led one of the guests to comment that the presenters should be on television!). Following on from the excellent presentation from Tony Guillan from Southbank Centre back at the November conference, this group picked up the discussion and raising awareness around to what extent can AI enhance or hinder human creativity and the production of art. They challenged the audience to select which of two art works had been created by AI, and which had been created by a human (as well as showing a very entertaining video of them asking students in their schools the same question!). They also shared art works submitted for a competition that they had led as part of their project. The group were delighted to share the high engagement that the competition had, surpassing the number of entries that they had predicted. The group shared that in the end, it was an AI generated artwork that won the competition – much to their surprise. Interestingly, several human-made pieces were mistaken for AI, often because they appeared more
complex (i.e. too difficult for a human to make). On reflection, the group shared that they ‘felt that AI art forces us to reconsider the very essence of creativity – whether it lies in the hand that creates it, the process of creation, or the emotion that the piece evokes.’

Following the project launch and presentations, it was celebration time with pizza, a disco (with a playlist created by the students), and even an unexpected collaborative event of a highly enthusiastic game of musical chairs!

Each group excelled and shared brilliant projects. They also demonstrated a range of skills that they have learnt over the course of this project and – perhaps most importantly – an informed, sensitive, and inspiring awareness around AI in education. As student ambassadors for each of our SSLP schools, they have – and will continue to make – an invaluable contribution to our partnership’s ongoing discussion and development of resources around AI. We look forward to sharing their resources more widely across the schools and raising awareness of their projects through assemblies.

A huge well done and thank you to everyone involved!

SSLP students took part in a series of excellent careers events over the last two terms. The first was aimed at Years 7-9 with the So You Want to Be… A Filmmaker with  Kyoka Seguchi. Kyoka is now a Camera Assistant, starting as a Camera Trainee on projects like Call The Midwife and Bad Education, to a commercial for TUMI and a music video for Bombay Bicycle Club. There were a range of brilliant questions from the SSLP student audience that covered areas of study and work ethic, what a day on a film set was like, and the joys and challenges of the job.  

Years 10-13 students had the opportunity be audience members at the in-person event for Life as a Barrister. Freddie Onslow and Helen Morton – both from Essex Court Chambers and commercial barristers – shared invaluable insights about the different types of law, the difference between the roles of solicitors and barristers, how to progress in your career, and achieving a work-life balance as a barrister. We are very grateful to our guest speakers and also to JAGS for hosting the events.  

Our thanks also to Markus Mikkola for joining us for our final So You Want to Be careers talk for this academic year. Markus is Regional Sales Executive for the Nordics at Polar Capital. Markus started the talk by sharing his somewhat unconventional route into his career. He referenced the book ‘The Third Door: The Mindset of Success’ by Alex Banayan as inspiring him to persevere in trying to gain employment with Polar Capital. The book shares that you should try to find ‘the third door’ – a different, unique approach and way of thinking that will represent a reflection of who you are to employers and help you to stand out from the rest. Having not succeeded with the more conventional approach of emailing, Markus recorded a 5-minute video about himself that he shared with Polar Capital. He posed the question to the pupil audience: if there is a role that I am really interested in, what can I do to stand out? There were a number of excellent questions posed by the SSLP pupils including, exploring the differences between investment management and investment banking; considering the impact of AI on investment management; and useful subjects and degrees to study.  

A huge thank you to Markus for his time and sharing his career overview, tips and advice with such clarity, warmth and humour. We also thank Westminster City School for hosting such a brilliant event. 

If you have any ideas for particular careers that you would like to hear more about or you could offer a talk about in next academic year’s SSLP careers events, please share these with coordinator@sslp.education  

Over seventy pupils from eight SSLP schools met with great anticipation on Thursday 13^th June for the SSLP Debate Mate Final at Kingswood Arts. Many of the schools taking part had previously had the opportunity to work with a designated Debate Mate mentor in their schools over the last few months. They were adept at techniques such as PEEL to develop their arguments, and POI to request an interruption to the speaker to make a point.  

The day started with some practice motions with the pupils having to move across the room to show their own standpoint on the issue in question. It provided an energetic warm up to get them ready for the start of the competition. In the first few rounds of the competition, there were three motions debated: this house would break the law in order to save the environment; this house believes everyone should go to university; and this house believes that humans should focus on building a civilisation on another planet.  

After a tense wait as the points for each round were added up, it was announced that the two successful teams to reach the final were The Charter School North Dulwich and Westminster City School. The final motion was: this house would use AI to make political decisions. There were fantastic listening, debating and oracy skills on display by every pupil as well as a wonderful atmosphere of respect towards each other. In the end, the opposition team, The Charter School North Dulwich were declared as winners. Congratulations to their team! Pupils from St Joseph’s and The Charter School East Dulwich were also awarded prizes as ‘Questions From the Floor’ winners. One of the pupils said, ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed the event. The evident hard work of everyone is really commendable and the standard of debating was so high. It has been great to connect with other schools and we are suggesting a few friendly re-matches with them at some point. Please do wish us luck!’ 

We were delighted to be joined by guests Jean Stevenson, Ali Miraj and Carole Seawert from the Worshipful Company of International Bankers (WCIB). Sharing closing comments Mr Miraj said ‘I hope that everyone that has been here today regards themselves as a winner because what you have done here is going above and beyond. This will actually count in your futures and it will count in your careers – the public speaking skills that you’re getting, the knowledge that you’re developing, the team work and camaraderie is something that will set you apart from your peers as you go forward in your lives.’  

We also thank the fantastic team at Debate Mate for all of their support of debating in SSLP schools this year.