The Harmony Project Education Podcast

In this podcast, Richard Dunne speaks to Nizam Uddin, former Senior Head of Mosaic and Community Integration at The Prince's Trust. Nizam shares his experience of education as a young person growing up in East London, as well as his fascination with StarTrek and a growing ambition to "cultivate environments that encourage young people to innovate a far more sustainable world". Richard and Nizam also discuss the work of The Prince's Trust's Mosaic initiative and how Harmony in education might help to support disadvantaged young people.

In this episode, Richard Dunne speaks to Headteacher and CEO of Values Based Education, Bridget Knight, about what lessons we might learn about education during this time of coronavirus, and why a values-based approach to Harmony in education offers a solution.

Bridget is currently working with The Harmony Project and schools in Herefordshire as part the Harmony in Herefordshire initiative, which aims to expand the number of schools delivering the Harmony approach to education across the county.

In this week's podcast, Richard Dunne speaks to an important guest - Lord John Bird, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Big Issue, who in 2015 became a people's peer in the House of Lords. Richard is particularly interested in speaking to John about his current campaign around the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill. His own experiences have led John to believe that ultimately, a good education is critical to successful life chances.

'I don't want to leave the next generation, and the generation after it, having to suffer the problems that I went through', he explains. 'This, to me, is about education.' With the Future Generations Bill, he hopes to further improve education, and introduce a new kind of pedagogy – one which fosters children's innate curiosity and passion for knowledge, and nurtures our environmental, social, cultural and economic wellbeing.

In our second podcast, Richard Dunne talks to Forest School Association Director and trainer Sarah Lawfull about the importance of bringing nature into children's learning. Sarah shares her own experiences as a child growing up in rural Devon, being able to explore the wilderness beyond her home, and explains how this shaped her as an early years teacher and later Forest School leader.

"Forest School is about learning how we are, learning to look after ourselves, learning to look after and care for other people, and learning to care for the planet" says Sarah. It is about encouraging children to "understand the ecology and ecosystem we are in, whether out in a woodland or in our school's grounds".

In this first episode The Harmony Project's Director of Education Richard Dunne speaks to Sir Anthony Seldon, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, contemporary historian and public educator. During the conversation, Richard and Anthony discuss the importance of valuing wellbeing in the classroom and how we can create a better education system for the future.