On Thursday 30 November, John Lyon School’s third TEDx event – titled TEDxJohnLyonSchool – saw pupils and subject experts explore diverse and complex topics at the School’s Harrow-on-the-Hill campus. 

Organised by Dr Florence Weinberg, Assistant Head (Admissions and Scholars), and her staff team, John Lyon School’s stellar pupils Eric (Year 10), Madisan (Year 11), Yash (Year 11) and Sarim (Upper Sixth) delivered outstanding talks and were also joined by expert speakers. 

The external speakers were made up of Chana Hughes, a psychologist who works for both the NHS and has her own private practice; Shaun Flores, an acclaimed speaker, mental health advocate and catalyst for change; Agathe Lemaitre, an author who has written about and is leading awareness events on preventing bullying; and Julien Andre, who has talked about how education transforms lives at the House of Lords, on ITV’s This Morning and in The Sunday Times. 

Talks covered a broad range of topics, from genetics and the future of humanity to bullying at school, and from mental health and living with OCD to vaccinations and climate change. All filming, sound and editing was done in-house by John Lyon pupils and staff. 

Mrs Rose Hardy, Head, John Lyon School, said: “To have hosted TEDx talks at John Lyon School for the third time is a great achievement in itself. I would like to thank our tremendous pupils, dedicated staff and incredible community speakers for delivering, in equal measure, such inspiring and thought-provoking talks. It was a privilege to be in the audience to witness the discussions. I look forward to rewatching the talks when the videos have been published.” 

As its name suggests, TEDx is an offshoot of the world-famous TED Talks, created to be a programme of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience in the spirit of ideas worth spreading. This event was part of our John Lyon Excellence Programme, which provides an opportunity for all pupils to maximise their learning potential and to discover their passion, regardless of age or academic ability. All TEDxJohnLyonSchool talks are available here on our School’s YouTube channel @johnlyonharrow and on the TED website.