Podcasts about gcses

SummaryIn this episode of the Downe House Podcast, Simon Jones explores how Downe House School supports multilingual learners, particularly those for whom English is an additional language. He is joined by Mrs Nicola South-Kline, teacher in charge of EAL (English as an Additional Language), along with two pupils, Angel and Angela, who share their personal journeys.Nicola outlines the school's comprehensive EAL provision, including assessment, one-to-one lessons, academic writing support, and preparation for IELTS – an internationally recognised English proficiency test essential for university applications, especially in the UK and US.Angel, from Shanghai, explains how EAL support helped her gain confidence in English Literature during her GCSEs, while Angela, originally from Nigeria, discusses her use of the IELTS course to secure a place at the University of Michigan, with offers from other top US institutions as well.TakeawaysEAL support is offered to all multilingual pupils and tailored to their needs through testing, one-to-one tuition, and academic writing assistance.Pupils studying on a Tier 4 visa are prepared for the IELTS exam, which is critical for university admissions abroad.Downe House celebrates its diverse school community, with over 40 languages spoken and many cultural traditions represented.Angel credits EAL lessons with boosting her academic English, particularly for English Literature.Angela used her IELTS preparation at Downe House to secure multiple offers from prestigious US universities.The school encourages girls to immerse themselves in English, while also embracing their own cultural identities.Pastoral care plays a key role in helping international pupils settle in and thrive – emotionally, socially, and academically.Pupils are urged to seize every opportunity, from sports to new social connections, to get the most from the Downe House experience.LinksDowne House online Website: www.downehouse.net

Today, June 27, 2025 is national PTSD Day in the United States. It is a timely day to release this episode as you will see.   As a result of my appearance on a podcast I had the honor to meet Kara Joubert and invited her to be a guest here on Unstoppable Mindset. She accepted. Little did I know at the time how unstoppable she was and how much she has faced in life even only at the age of 21. Kara tells us that she loved to draw and was even somewhat compulsive about it. At the age of seven she was diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum. She speculates that her intense interest in drawing came partly from autism. However, fear not. She still draws a lot to this day. What we learn near the end of our time with Kara is that her father was a graphic artist. So, drawing comes, I think, quite honestly.   While Kara does not go into much detail, she tells us she experienced a severe trauma as a child which led to her having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She did not receive a diagnosis of PTSD until she was seventeen when she began seeing a therapist. By the time her condition was identified she had to leave school and went into home schooling.   As we learn, Kara did well in her exams after home schooling and went onto University in England where she was raised. After her first year studying journalism and unofficially studying film making Kara was selected as one of three students to take a year abroad of learning in Brisbane Australia. We caught up with Kara to do our podcast during her time in Brisbane.   Already as a student Kara has written three short films and directed two of them. Quite the unstoppable mindset by any standard.   Kara willingly shares much about her life and discusses in depth a great deal about PTSD. I know you will find her comments insightful and relevant.     About the Guest:   At 21 years old, Kara Joubert is a keen advocate for the power of storytelling. Based in the UK, she is a journalist and filmmaker who has written three short films and directed two of them. Her academic journey has taken her to Australia, and her enthusiasm for filmmaking has led her to Hollywood film sets.    Kara is drawn to the stories of others. She believes that everyone carries a “backstory” and values the strength it takes to overcome personal challenges. She thinks that a victory doesn't have to be dramatic, rather, it's any moment where someone chooses courage over comfort. Her own greatest victory has been learning to overcome anxiety.    Throughout her life, Kara has faced significant mental health challenges. She developed post-traumatic stress disorder at a young age, which went undiagnosed until she was 17. Later, she was also diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder. Her teenage years were filled with fear and isolation, sometimes resulting in her being unable to leave the house.     Today, Kara lives with a renewed sense of freedom. After undergoing cognitive behavioural therapy, she now embraces life with a confidence and courage her younger self never could have imagined. She is now a successful university student who has travelled far beyond her comfort zone, with the intention of sharing hope and her enthusiasm for filmmaking.  Kara's mission is to inspire others through journalism, filmmaking, and podcasting. Ways to connect with Kara:   Website: karajoubert.com On social media: kara joubert media   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:16 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to have a conversation with a person who clearly, by any means and definition, is unstoppable in a lot of ways. Kara Juubert is 21 she says, so who's going to argue with that? And she has already written three films, directed to she's very much into film and journalism and other such things. She is from England, but she is now in Australia. She has faced major trauma and challenges in her life, and she has overcome them already, and I'm not going to say more until we get into a discussion about it, but we'll get there. So, Kara, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're   Kara Joubert ** 02:15 here. Thank you so happy to be here. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:19 it's our pleasure and our honor. So why don't you start by telling us a little bit about kind of the early car growing up. You know, you obviously were born somewhere and and all that sort of stuff. But tell us a little about the early Kara,   Kara Joubert ** 02:34 oh, the early days. Kara, season one. Kara, sure, you was in the beginning, yes, she was an interesting child, and I look back with a degree of fondness, she was quite a creative individual, and I enjoyed drawing obsessively and all things creative and expressive, even in my younger days, I was sort of brought up in around the London area, or I say London, which is more of a generalization, to be specific, which is a place not many have heard of. And within that space, I grew up in a loving family and had supportive parents. I've got two younger siblings as well. And yes, early days, Kara, she was someone who really loved her family. I still love my family, happy to say. And yeah, grew up in this supportive environment, but she had a few things to work through, as I'm sure what   Michael Hingson ** 03:43 we will get into. So when did you start? How old were you when you started drawing?   Kara Joubert ** 03:49 Oh, um, since I could pick up a pencil,   Michael Hingson ** 03:54 she could pick up a pencil. So pretty young, yeah,   Kara Joubert ** 03:57 very young. I can't, I can't give you the exact timestamp, but it was very early on, and it was very obsessive. And in part, the obsession here is what got me into my autism diagnosis. Funnily enough, it's not your standard obsession related to autism, but I was always occupied with drawing something somewhere, and in my very young days, that would have been the walls. Thankfully, my parents managed to move me to paper. And   Michael Hingson ** 04:33 yes, that's fair. So what did you draw?   Kara Joubert ** 04:37 What kind of pictures? Yeah, everything that I could see really, and I was a perfectionist from a very young age, and I'm sure there were several tantrums tied to the fact that I couldn't quite get something right. But yes, I thoroughly enjoyed drawing what I saw around. Me, and I would say, yes, with that obsessive mindset does definitely come a degree of perfectionism. And look, I love drawing to this day, certainly. And I wouldn't say I'm terrible at it, but it was something, yeah, that really, I think, liberated my younger self, because she did struggle that season one car with socializing and drawing was just this amazing escape.   Michael Hingson ** 05:25 Well, you had 19 or 20 years to practice drawing, so hopefully you would be pretty good.   Kara Joubert ** 05:32 Yeah, I should hope so have something to show for it.   Michael Hingson ** 05:36 So you kind of, to a degree, sort of hid behind or within your drawings, or around your drawings, and you let them kind of be your voice, definitely,   Kara Joubert ** 05:47 absolutely. And that did move on to writing further along the line, where poetry became a massive form of self expression. And at times that did get me into trouble, but again, it was that creative outlet that really does help, I think, someone understand their own feelings the world around them. There's a great joy in being able to do these things. So   Michael Hingson ** 06:19 what kind of trouble did it get you into or, how did it get you into trouble, just because you focused so much on it? Or,   Kara Joubert ** 06:27 um, well, there was, there's a specific example I'll give. When I was in secondary school, it wasn't a great time of my life, and the school itself was quite problematic. And I was told, you know, I need to create something for a showcase, which takes place, I think, every spring. And I was told I need to make a poem, because apparently I was reasonably good at that, and I did. But the thing is, I couldn't force any feelings of, I suppose, happiness or joy that I didn't feel because at the time, I was being bullied by both teachers and students, and I didn't have any friends and felt very isolated. So I created a poem, which is, you know, which discussed my feelings here, and I did throw a happy ending to that poem, because I think even then, I understood that there's always hope for a better day. So it was, however, the, I suppose, depiction of my negative feelings at the time, the fact that I was quite openly saying I don't fit in the school, and I feel unaccepted, in so many words that eventually I would say was a massive catalyst in getting me not kicked out of the school. Socially, kicked out of the school. I kicked myself out at a certain point because the teachers had said there was no hope I was going to need to be put into an special education stream. And my parents took me out. But part of the reason for them taking me out was this isolation, and the isolation did increase after I'd read this poem aloud. It was at that point where the community, I think, decided that I was and my family were not welcome.   Michael Hingson ** 08:28 How did your parents cope with all that?   Kara Joubert ** 08:31 My parents, they took it head on. And you know, I will say that Sure, there are two sides to every story here. And I don't know under what pressures the teachers were under, but certainly they did make life quite difficult, because it wasn't just me, it was my youngest siblings as well who were going into this school, and I think they tried to keep the peace for so long, but there was a point where they realized, actually, it would be better for all of us as a unit, as a family, to try other schools would go, you know, further outside of this community, and we couldn't get into the School, or I couldn't get into the school that I wanted, which led into homeschooling, so I was electively homeschooled.   Michael Hingson ** 09:30 Well, you talked a little bit about in our previous conversations and so on, the fact that you had some PTSD. What caused that?   Kara Joubert ** 09:41 So the PTSD was caused by a trauma in my youth. I was around 10 years old, and that led to, I suppose, even more anxiety than perhaps I'd felt in my younger days. And I was a very anxious kid from the onset. Yeah, but then this trauma occurred, which did involve the fear of dying. It involved a lot of things among that, and it was a lot for me to process. And I'll admit, it took a long time for me to be able to get to a point where I could say, All right, I need any therapy. And that was the best change I've ever made in my lifestyle. Was moving into therapy. But I think the PTSD did by the time I moved into therapy, it did have a negative impact in quite a few aspects of my life, and I think my schooling was one of them. Looking back, teachers saw someone who might have been a little distracted at times, who might have zoned out every once in a while, and seemed overall very anxious, and they could have read that as anti social. And I wanted to socialize. I really did. It's just there were things going on in my mind which I didn't realize as having such a strong hold over my life as it did.   Michael Hingson ** 11:13 And then the result was all that you were viewed as different,   Kara Joubert ** 11:19 yes, and the feeling of being different is something that stuck with me for I think, all of my life, even now, it's just when I was a child that was more of a negative thing, and in my teenagehood, I think every teenager feels different, but when I was a young kid, I can recall feeling with this autism like I'm living in a glass box, unsure of how to interact with people on the other side. And with the PTSD, that box felt like a cage. It was just an extra layer of fear put onto my I suppose, social anxiety, which made it even more difficult to connect.   Michael Hingson ** 12:00 So how did the PTSD manifest itself?   Kara Joubert ** 12:05 Right? So, PTSD has a lot of symptoms that can come with it, and it's different for every person. For me, this was a lot of nightmares. You know, it got to a point where I was actually afraid to fall asleep, but so tired that it was difficult to cope in any case. So nightmares was a big one, intrusive thoughts is another, and this accompanied a diagnosis of OCD. So with PTSD comes other sort of baggage, and that can be social anxiety, that can be OCD, a lot of people talk about this experience of reliving the trauma, or at least being in this overall sort of heightened sense of anxiety and fear, apprehension, I think is probably a good word, just being on edge, on the lower, I suppose, end of the spectrum, although dreadful though it is, and then on the higher end, feeling as though they are actually physically reliving whatever the trauma was that first occurred to them. And trauma can come through a variety of ways. I mean, one thing I would say to people about PTSD is never assume someone's trauma, because it can lead from physical abuse to emotional abuse, to sexual abuse, accidents, illness, and there are other things as well. You can get secondhand trauma from someone else, and that can develop PTSD as well. But in my case, yeah, it was a variety of symptoms, but the massive one, I would say, was extreme anxiety and fear.   Michael Hingson ** 13:55 What caused that?   Kara Joubert ** 13:57 What caused that? So PTSD is, and I can say this as someone who has,   Kara Joubert ** 14:06 and I believe being healed from PTSD, it no longer impacts me the way that it used to is it impacts the brain in very interesting ways. And once you start to look into the science of it and understand it, it makes sense. So within the brain, there are different sort of segments that deal with different aspects of life. And the part of the brain, the amygdala, I believe that deals with extreme, you know, fear, anxiety. It deals with sort of traumatic instances. It is perhaps not as I don't want to say developed. It takes these experiences and stores them, but it doesn't do much good for the timestamp. It doesn't understand. Of the fact that this has passed, it sort of holds on to this memory as if it's in the present, which is why you get these sort of reliving experiences as someone with PTSD, and why it can be quite difficult to move away from a trauma. Because in a sense, it feels like you're still reliving it.   Michael Hingson ** 15:20 Were you able to talk about it at all, like with your parents?   Kara Joubert ** 15:24 Yeah, absolutely. Um, I've already said, you know, had a very supportive family, and although they didn't quite understand it as I also didn't understand it. I mean, I was undiagnosed for a number of years. For a reason, they were always happy to support and offer hope, and it was that hope that I really had to cling on to for so many of my teenage years, because when you're stuck in that really dark place, it's difficult to fathom something that you can't see. Yeah, they took to the diagnosis very well. I think if anything, there was a sense of relief, because we understood what was going on at that point, and then it was a case of, okay, now, now we can work around this. And that's one thing that I think is so important when it comes to diagnosis, a diagnosis, is, is the start of something. There are cases where you can actually mitigate the effects of whatever that diagnosis is. And in such cases, it's great to be able to pursue that. You know, a diagnosis isn't the end. It's not a case of, I've got PTSD. Oh, well, I guess I'll live with that for the rest of my life. No, because there are ways to resolve this. There are ways to work through it.   Michael Hingson ** 16:50 So you mentioned earlier you were also diagnosed with autism. Did that contribute to all of the the PTSD and the obsessive compulsive behavior. Do you think I   Kara Joubert ** 17:03 think there might have been some crossover, and I don't know as to how much of an effect the autism had on my PTSD, because PTSD is born of a trauma response, and anyone can experience that and react adversely to it. It isn't dependent on autistic factors. I mean, I'm sure there is some research into this, and it'll be really interesting to look into, but I didn't, at least see it as a correlated sort of diagnosis, I think with OCD, though, there was definitely some crossover. And I do remember my therapist discussing this very briefly, that there is, you know, when you when you have one diagnosis, sometimes you get a few in there as well. And the full reaction was the OCD, social anxiety disorder and autism. So I almost had the full alphabet for a while.   Michael Hingson ** 18:03 Yeah, definitely, in a lot of ways, definitely. So how old were you when the autism was diagnosed or discovered? For sure,   Kara Joubert ** 18:15 I was seven years old, and that diagnosis was difficult to get. My mom had to fight for it, because a child who draws isn't your standard example of someone who was autistic, right? It was probably more obvious in how I handle social interactions, which was I handle social interactions I did have the tools, didn't understand sort of the almost unwritten rules of socializing, where I'm sort of expected to just know how to socialize, how to interact, and I think younger me would have benefited from a how to guide. But yeah, that's probably evident.   Michael Hingson ** 19:01 Unfortunately, a lot of these things exist, and nobody's written the manuals for them. So what do you do?   Kara Joubert ** 19:09 Yep, that's it. Get an autism guide.   Michael Hingson ** 19:12 An autism guide. Well, maybe AI nowadays can help with that. Who knows? Movie maybe. But   Kara Joubert ** 19:19 AI's got a few things to say about you, and I can't say they're all accurate. It says your first guide dog was Hell,   Michael Hingson ** 19:25 yeah. Well, it doesn't always get things exactly right. Roselle was number five. Squire was number one. So you know, hopefully, though, over time, it learns and it will not exhibit trauma and it will not be autistic, but we'll see   Kara Joubert ** 19:44 we shall. We shall destroy us all. That's the other hope. Well, there's   Michael Hingson ** 19:50 that too. So how old were you when you were PTSD was actually diagnosed.   Kara Joubert ** 19:56 I was 17.   Michael Hingson ** 20:00 So that was a long time after the the autism. So how did you finally decide to go see a therapist or or go down that road? I   Kara Joubert ** 20:14 think it just got bad enough, and we know a therapist through a family friend. And you know, I was having all of these symptoms. And I think it was my mum who reached out on my behalf and said, Look, is this is this normal at all for someone in her position, to which the therapist replied, Yes, actually. And you know what that first confirmation that I am, I want to say normal. Let's not overuse the word, because, I think, considered, it's probably the incorrect term to use. At least the symptoms were persistent with someone who had gone through what I had. And, yeah, I mean, all in good time. I think there will be a time where I can explain the trauma in greater detail. But today, at least, it's just a case of, you know, this is PTSD. This is what it feels like. And this, I am living proof that there is light on the other end of the tunnel. Because for a long time, I knew what that dark place looked like, and being able to live free of that, you know, just on a day to day basis, I can't help but be completely overwhelmed with gratitude.   Michael Hingson ** 21:44 So I think from what you've said, There was a time when you really felt that you were different from the people around you. When was that? At what point did you feel that way?   Kara Joubert ** 21:57 I do think this would have been i I can, I can recall two separate times. The first would have been when I was much younger, and I felt like I was living in that glass box. I didn't know how to cross the bridge. And it did feel like there was this barrier between myself and other people and that social, I suppose anxiety I knew was not normal, and I didn't feel as though, I suppose, had the tools. I didn't know how to use them, I think even if I was given them, and I for that reason, I did have to be taken out of school, because my anxiety got to a point where it was just completely overwhelming. And in my teenage years, I think it was probably standing among peers, seeing all these people interact, and I'm thinking, why aren't they afraid? Is there something so inherently different about me, that I'm constantly living in this state of fear.   Michael Hingson ** 23:08 Yeah, but at some point you realize that while there was a difference and it wasn't normal, you must have figured out that's something that you can address and hopefully resolve, I assume,   Kara Joubert ** 23:27 yeah, and it was that hope that carried me through. I would say I am a Christian, and within sort of the Christian sphere, you hear a lot about God's good plans, and although I didn't see it at the time, I had to put hope and faith that one day things were going to get better. I don't know where I would have been otherwise   Michael Hingson ** 23:57 So, but you must have at least also assume that things would get better, that that is, in part, comes from your faith, of course,   Kara Joubert ** 24:07 yeah, absolutely. And I didn't know when that was going to be, and I didn't know what that was going to look like. It looks a lot better than I thought it was going to be. And I'm happy to say that as far as fearing, anxiety is concerned, it's very rare I'd feel either these days that's I mean, people define miracles in all sorts of ways, but considering where I was, I do consider that a miracle.   Michael Hingson ** 24:42 Well, when you were diagnosed and so on, how did the people around you react? Or did you tell them? Or other than, obviously you your family knew, Did did you use that information to help you with others? Or how did all that go?   Kara Joubert ** 24:59 Yeah, I. Um, so I, I didn't have many friends in my teenage years, so there wasn't that many people to tell, to be honest. But certainly, as I have grown older and been able to be surrounded by more human beings and socialize with them and interact with them, I'm actually finding that this is this is a really beneficial experience two way, because I'm able to have the joy of interacting with others, and in certain cases, I will share the PTSD and the you know, corresponding perhaps experience with trauma, which had elements of both a fear of fear of dying and sexual trauma as well. So a lot of people undergo, unfortunately, these sorts of things at some point in their life. The current stat in the UK is one in 13 children have PTSD, and one in 10 adults will at some point experience PTSD. That is quite a high portion of the population. So, yeah. I mean, I have, yeah, absolutely. And it's something that I do wish people would talk about more because you get perhaps more attractive diagnoses. PTSD isn't one of them. It's quite ugly from at least that point of view. But look, I'm a firm believer in the potential that a human being has to overcome their trauma and to be liberated from the past. So I will share my experience with some people. It tends to be select audiences, because I understand that it's quite difficult for some people to hear and I look I always want to approach it with a point of view of uplifting someone in and imparting hope and support, because hope is good and all. But sometimes support is just as important, and being able to tell people to get help, find help, find therapeutic help, is very important,   Michael Hingson ** 27:24 since you come from a background of faith, which I think is extremely important. But can you absolutely really cure PTSD? Or is it something that will always be there, or because you have faith in the knowledge that you do, you can truly say I've cured it.   Kara Joubert ** 27:44 Well, I will say this, the faith kept me hoping for a good future. Therapy gave me the healing, and then to go full circle, faith also gave me peace. Closer to the end, it's as far as time loose ends, emotionally speaking and in therapy, you're taught to deal with the trauma as it is currently known, or at least I was, through a cognitive behavioral therapy, which is sort of a talking based therapy. And there are some triggers that might come through every once in a while, but it is completely possible to be healed, to be cured from PTSD, and this is generally through therapy,   Michael Hingson ** 28:32 as it was for me, right? And it's ultimately, although through therapy, it's a growth issue, and you've obviously grown a lot to be able to deal with this.   Kara Joubert ** 28:45 Yeah, absolutely. And I will say one thing about people with or who have overcome PTSD that I have seen is they have, I suppose, automatically been put through quite a lot, but then the growth journey is something that you know gives that person quite a lot more courage, perhaps, than someone else in their ears, just based on experience and life experience. I will say to people you know, it wasn't the trauma that made me strong, it was, it was the healing afterwards, because former itself can be pretty dire, but then on the other end of that, I'm able to take this experience and help others who have experienced something similar, and also go through life on a day to day basis, perhaps more aware of the hidden battles that people face, and that degree of empathy is quite important, I think, for someone of my position, who it loves to write, who loves to make films, it's all about telling the human story, and sometimes that means. Going down a layer or two,   Michael Hingson ** 30:04 yeah, well, but I think the ultimate thing is that you did it. You chose to do it however it happened. You eventually gave thought to this isn't the way it really should be looking at everyone else and you made a decision to find a way to go forward.   Kara Joubert ** 30:26 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, humans are amazing creatures at adapting, but I think sometimes that can be to our own detriment, where we adapt to what is a bad situation, and we live with that, thinking this is the norm. This is the standard that we've got to endure when actually, if things aren't good, it's well worth looking into a better future, a better alternative. Because, look, you can view this from a faith based point of view, or you can view this from a more therapeutic science back point of view, I think everyone is capable of healing with the right tools, and that's worth investing,   Michael Hingson ** 31:13 yeah, well, and the reality is that it should probably be some of both, because they're, they are, in a sense, related. The science is great, but ultimately you have to have the conviction. And as you point out, you you have it from faith, and there's, there's a lot of value in that, but ultimately it comes from the fact that you had the conviction that you could deal with it. And I think however you were brought to that place, and however you actually worked to make it happen, you ultimately are the one that made it happen   Kara Joubert ** 31:54 that's very well put. No, I appreciate that. Yeah, it's been quite an experience, but I know that it's one that has the potential to show others exactly that, that through hope, through therapy, no one is broken beyond repair. That's my belief, at least   Michael Hingson ** 32:24 well, so I assume you are not in therapy today.   Kara Joubert ** 32:29 No, I am not. Sometimes I'll catch up with my therapist, though he is such a decent guy and therapists, they're there to help you out. So automatically, I think they're quite invested, shall we say, in your life story. So I will occasionally catch up with him, but not necessarily, because I absolutely have to. Every once in a while, I might book a session, just because I say this to everyone I meet. I think everyone needs therapy to an extent, and it's good to check in every once in a while. But as far as necessity is concerned, no, I tend to be pretty okay these days.   Michael Hingson ** 33:11 Well, there you go. So what is your life like today?   Kara Joubert ** 33:15 Oh, today it is, can I say it's incredible, is that, all right, sure,   Kara Joubert ** 33:23 you get people, you ask them how they're going, they say, not bad. You know what? It's more than not bad. It's actually pretty good on this end. And I am, as you've said, I'm in Australia. I'm actually studying abroad, which is something I would never have imagined being able to do previously, as someone who was terrified to leave her house. And yeah, I've just finished my studies for my second year, and it's been a wonderful year, which has included a few lovely surprises along the way. So yeah, things are going pretty well.   Michael Hingson ** 33:55 Well is, is this the time to say that we're having this conversation. And for you down in Brisbane, it's 604, in the morning. So Good on you for being awake early. I mean, I know the feeling well,   Kara Joubert ** 34:12 Ah, man, it's all good. It's all good. I was saying to you before the podcast. Are no better reason to wake up bright and breezy than to be on your podcast here today,   Michael Hingson ** 34:21 listen to her spokes well. Thank you. Well, I, I get up early. My wife passed away in November of 2022, I was the morning person. She was more of an evening person. And we, we had a we worked all that out. So we, we all did well. But since she passed, and I do tend to do a lot of work with people on the East Coast looking for speaking engagements and so on. I get up at 430 in the morning, and I'm slow at it, at deliberately slow at getting up and getting dressed, feeding the dog, Alan. And feeding our kitty. Stitch, my kitty now stitch, and then I eat breakfast. So I spend a couple of hours doing all that. And it's neat not to have to rush, but it is nice to be up and look at the morning. And so when I open the door and let Alamo go outside, by that time, usually, at least in the summer, in the late spring, and in the fall, the autumn, the birds are chirping. So I'll go, Hi birds. What's going on, you know? And it's fun to do that sort of thing.   Kara Joubert ** 35:32 Yeah, it's nice to be up before the world is awake. I will say that I'm not normally a morning person, but I'm considering converting because this is actually lovely and quiet. It feels quite peaceful. I mean, yeah, the birds are Troy, but I will say this, Michael, I think the Australian birds sound quite different to your birds, because I'm sure saying, I don't think it's good morning. Well, that   Michael Hingson ** 35:57 or maybe we're doing something and you're disturbing us, but it's still still good to talk to them and tell them hello. No, they respond to that. I had a job working for a company once where I was the first into the office, and it was all selling to the east coast from the West Coast, so I got up at like four in the morning. And for six months, my wife Karen had to drive me 45 miles because we hadn't moved down to it yet, 45 miles to go from home to where I worked, to be there at six. And then she came back up and she did that, and it was great because we also read a lot of audio books as we were going down the freeway. That was relatively empty. But yeah, it is nice to be up in the morning, and that is what I tend to do, and I enjoy it. It's it's fun to be up playing with the puppy dog and and, and the kitty as well. But, you know, it's just part of what makes the day a good day. And they, they're definitely part of what brighten up my day. I have to say,   Kara Joubert ** 37:10 that's fantastic. How do they brighten up each other's day? A cat and a dog? Do they get along pretty   Michael Hingson ** 37:15 well. They get along well, but they, I don't know that they brighten each other's day. Other than that. They know each other exists, and they're happy about that. They rub noses occasionally. They talk to each other, okay, all right, I would never want a guide dog that had any animosity toward a cat, and I've always said that whenever I've had to to deal with getting a new guide dog album is going to be around for quite a while yet, but I've always said I do not want an animal that hasn't been raised around a cat. They have to do that because I just don't want to deal with that. I've seen some guide dogs that were absolute cat haters, and I would never want that.   Kara Joubert ** 37:57 No, of course. So to all animals, and also, I can imagine, from a practical point of view, he taking Alamo on a walk, and Alamo sees a cat and bolts off. That's going to be very inconvenient for all parties concerned.   Michael Hingson ** 38:11 Well, he could try to bolt off, he wouldn't succeed, but he but he doesn't, so it's okay. My fourth guide dog, Lenny, loved to chase rabbits and not to hurt them, but they're different. She wants to play with them. And you know, so this, it's cute. Well, so you You've talked a lot about having PTSD and so on, but what are some misconceptions that people typically have? You've talked about it being crazy and about it being misunderstood. Tell us a little bit more about how to understand and what, what are the misconceptions, and how do we deal with that?   Kara Joubert ** 38:48 Of course. So most of the times we see PTSD betrayed, it's on the television, and really only see two symptoms, at least from my viewing, which are flashbacks and nightmares. But PTSD can look different for different people. And although, yes, these are symptoms, and they are quite common symptoms, there are plenty of others. So anger, depression, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, OCD, these are all symptomatic of PTSD or an unresolved trauma. So I would recommend people doing some more research, perhaps into PTSD if they are curious about the full list of symptoms, certainly. But yeah, another misconception, I would say, lies in the assumption over what that trauma was. I would say assumption is the enemy of wisdom and the food of ignorance. And people can get PTSD for a variety of reasons. We've talked a little bit about those. You can even sort of get it from knowing someone who's experienced a trauma.   Michael Hingson ** 39:56 And I like that. You know, assumption is. Say that again,   Kara Joubert ** 40:02 assumption is the enemy of wisdom and the food of ignorance,   Michael Hingson ** 40:07 enemy of wisdom and food of ignorance. Yeah, there you   Kara Joubert ** 40:11 go. I won't even copyright it. It's all yours.   Michael Hingson ** 40:17 That's okay, yeah,   Kara Joubert ** 40:18 okay. Well, that's good to hear. No. The other thing is, PTSD can go away. It's not a lifelong mental health condition, or at least it doesn't have to be. And people who have PTSD, I think there's more awareness of this now, but sometimes long standing prejudices can can linger. And people who have PTSD, I mean, it seems obvious to say, but they're not weak. They are traumatized, but this is just one part of their story, and it's a part that can, through therapy, through the right sort of support systems, be healed. All humans are complex, and I don't think anyone should be solely defined on their diagnosis, because a diagnosis isn't an identity. It's a part of the identity. But sometimes this is a part, and in the case of PTSD, it's a part that can be healed. The last thing is, you know, it affects a massive number of the population. We've spoken a bit about the statistics before. PTSD, UK says that one in 10 people are expected to experience PTSD in their lifetime. That's 10% which is pretty high for something that, in my mind, at least, isn't spoken about as often as other conditions, such as autism, such as ADHD, that tend to get a lot of the talking points spotlight that we see in media. So those are a few of the misconceptions. I would say,   Michael Hingson ** 41:59 when you meet or encounter someone, how do you know whether they're dealing with PTSD or not? Or is that something that people can tell and kind of the reason for asking that is one of the questions that basically comes up is, what are some good and bad ways to deal with someone who has PTSD? But how do you even know in the first place?   Kara Joubert ** 42:21 That's a good question. I think sometimes it can be a little more obvious. Again, I would avoid any assumptions. Even if someone has experienced something traumatic, it doesn't mean that they will automatically get PTSD. This doesn't affect everyone who's gone through a trauma. It does show through in some physical ways. In my experience, someone who is quite perhaps disconnected and among the more obvious symptoms, perhaps panic attacks, relating to triggers and these are some of the ways you can see someone who has PTSD, but generally, the only way you will truly know is if that person says, or you're a therapist and you're able to do a diagnosis, there's that duration, but that would be quite A challenge, I think, for any therapist to undertake So certainly it can show through, but I do think the only way you'll really be able to know is if a person discloses that information with you.   Michael Hingson ** 43:35 So if there are people listening to us today who have or think they have PTSD. What would you say to them?   Kara Joubert ** 43:45 I would say you are not broken beyond repair. And it's so easy to take blame upon yourself for the trauma that we carry, and it's easy to think that this is just a part of yourself that you you need to hold on to, as in, internalize in such a way that hopelessness can sometimes be, unfortunately, a part of that. But maybe you are. You know, going back to it's easy to take blame upon yourself, it's undeserved, because maybe you were at the wrong plane place at the wrong time, or you trusted someone and they betrayed that trust. But the power of hindsight comes only after, not during. Is one thing I will people with PTSD, and then was a time of survival. You know, you did what you could to the best of your abilities at the time, but now is the time for healing, and it can be scary opening up, but in doing so, particularly through therapy, you realize just how normal you are, no matter how different, how ice. Related sort of these thoughts and feelings our emotions are, I mean, to go back to my story, I genuinely felt like my head was imploding every single day, and the only time of peace I really got was between waking up that split second after waking up and realizing I had another day to get through. That was the only time where I truly felt at ease. And you know, going back to you are not broken beyond repair, the brain is amazing. And I would say to people with PTSD, yes, your brain is amazing, but it's been holding on to the survival mechanism, and if it's been causing you pain and fear, then I, you know, implore you to consider that there is hope, and despite the lies that our heads can sometimes tell you, are capable of healing with the right tools. Now, I would say, if the symptoms of PTSD feel relevant to people listening, or even if they suspect something is wrong, regardless of whether they can identify a trauma or not, because sometimes these things are really hidden in the back of our heads, I would suggest looking into therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy did a world of good. For me. There are other forms of therapy, but for me, that was very effective, and although not everyone's healing journey is the same, I would recommend people to just get help. That is the bottom line. If I could summarize in two words, get help. And I say this as someone who got help and it has made a world of massive difference   Michael Hingson ** 46:40 in my life, how long were you in therapy?   Kara Joubert ** 46:43 Oh, good question. I would say, probably for about, let's see, for about two years. But then, as far as, like the actual PTSD is concerned, the most confronting part of therapy, because it isn't the most comfortable process tackling trauma, the more difficult parts of therapy probably lasted for about, I want to say, six months, but that was six months of improvement. That wasn't just six months of feeling nothing but sort of frustration and distress. No I saw in those six months, even within the first week, even I saw there was improvement, but yeah, as far as, like, the hardcore processing of the PTSD that probably lasted for about six months to a year, and then I still went to therapy for some time after that, but by that point, the symptoms had definitely diminished quite a bit.   Michael Hingson ** 47:49 Okay, well, if we're going to get real serious, so are you drawing still today?   Kara Joubert ** 47:55 Oh, that's most difficult question you've asked me on this. I still do. Yes, I I would show you a few of my drawings, but I think that would be a fruitless pursuit. Yes, well,   Michael Hingson ** 48:09 some people can see them on on YouTube. But what do you draw today?   Kara Joubert ** 48:13 Are you recording this visually as well for Okay, well, in that case, for the folks back home, but if   Michael Hingson ** 48:18 you're going to hold them up, you have to tell us what they are, for those of us who don't see them. Yeah,   Kara Joubert ** 48:22 see them, of course, of course. So I've definitely expanded my horizons since drawing. I also do watercolor and acrylic and oil anything sort of artsy I absolutely love. And I'm holding to the camera now, sort of a small, a, well, I say small, it's about an a Ford sized picture of a whale. But within that whale, I have drawn, not drawn, sorry, painted a watercolor galaxy. Oh, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 49:01 So the whale. So the whale is the the border of the galaxy,   Kara Joubert ** 49:05 exactly, and it's surrounded by white so this is one of my cheat paintings, because it's quite easy to do, but yeah, I have drawn quite a few other things. My dad was a graphic sorry. My dad was a graphic designer, so I've I'm going to blame that side of the genetic pool for interest.   Michael Hingson ** 49:28 Or you can say you came by it quite honestly, which is fair,   Kara Joubert ** 49:34 maybe a combination of both.   Michael Hingson ** 49:35 So you, you decided, so you, went through homeschooling, and did you get a diploma like people normally do in school? Or how does all that work with homeschooling?   Kara Joubert ** 49:49 Yeah, so homeschooling is probably another thing that has a few misconceptions attached to it, but truth be told, everyone's approach is different. So, yes, you will still get the homeschooled family who, you know, focus mostly on things such as sewing and cooking and doing all that. I would, I would recommend people don't assume automatically, that's what homeschooling looks like. I've been given that assumption before, that oh, I'm homeschooled. That must mean I'm, like, really good at cooking I am, but not because of the homeschooling. I did sit my GCSEs, which I'm not sure what the equivalent is in America, but it's the exams you sit when you're around 16. And I did reasonably okay, I would say I also sat them a bit early because I could so as to get that out of the way. And then, as for my A levels, which is the next set of exams, I chose sociology, politics and law as my three subjects, and I did pretty okay in those as well. I got 2b and a C, which, you know, I can't, I can't scoff at that. I was very close to getting two A's and a B, and that's, that's something I've I've since let go, because now, starting university, I am pretty much an A student. So going back to the teachers who said I couldn't, ha, ha,   Michael Hingson ** 51:31 yeah, you should go visit your your former teachers, and say, Hey, check this out.   Kara Joubert ** 51:36 The school might the school's been shut down since then. So   Michael Hingson ** 51:40 um, there you go see So, yeah, good decisions,   Kara Joubert ** 51:44 more than that, but yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 51:48 well, so what are you studying in university?   Kara Joubert ** 51:51 Yes, so I'm studying, I'd say mostly two things, one officially and one unofficially. Officially, I'm studying journalism. That is what my degree, and that has been so much fun. I mean, it's through the journalism course that we actually first met, because you were a guest on Alex left hooks podcast, and that's when first introduced. So I and I was on that podcast because of my journalism studies, at least that's how I met Alex myself, and it's been such a fun experience of being able to speak with a variety of people. And from going going from someone's social anxiety to going to a place where I actually love speaking to people is another massive change, and the journalism degree has been great in sort of pushing me out of my comfort zone from that point of view. And now I love talking to people, as you might or may not have already gathered, and unofficially, I'm studying filmmaking. So, oh, I've got the journalism side of things, but then I will. I can't use the word sneak, because the lecturers, the film lecturers, know I'm there, but I will go to certain film lectures and screenwriting seminars. And through sort of this extracurricular pursuit, I've been able to make a few short films, which has been another incredible experience that I would never have seen coming to be honest,   Michael Hingson ** 53:27 in this country, we wouldn't call it sneak we would call it auditing, your auditing, which is probably a polite way of saying sneaking, but that's okay.   Kara Joubert ** 53:37 I'm like, Yeah, I'll need to apply that. I have been called an adopted film student by one of the lecturers.   Michael Hingson ** 53:44 Well, I could be adopted. That's okay.   Kara Joubert ** 53:47 There you go. It's still a loving family. I feel very to hear, yeah, very supportive environment. Fantastic.   Michael Hingson ** 53:55 Well, if you could go back and talk to the younger Cara, what would you say?   Kara Joubert ** 54:01 Oh, gosh, it's going to be even better than Okay, without summarizing it like without putting it too bluntly as to say, okay, chill. Yeah, I understood why a lot of the things going through my mind were quite overwhelming. And I think I need to give that kid some credit, because she definitely was put through a lot, and she did manage to get through on the other end. So I would say, yeah, it's going to be even better than okay, you're more capable than you realize, you're stronger than you realize,   Michael Hingson ** 54:35 which is, of course, something that we talk about on unstoppable mindset all the time, which is that people are more unstoppable than they think. They are. They underrate themselves, and it's so important that more people recognize that they can do more than they think, and they shouldn't sell themselves short. Yeah,   Kara Joubert ** 54:53 absolutely. And I would say there's sorry you go and   Michael Hingson ** 54:59 it happens all. Often that they sell themselves short.   Kara Joubert ** 55:04 No, absolutely. I mean, I was just about to say it's almost like there's a the word pandemic has been overused, and perhaps, you know, relates to some unfortunate events in 2019 2020 but I would say there is a bit of a pandemic of negativity, and I have seen it among my peers, where people do sell themselves, sell themselves short, yeah, and I think there is a lot of power in the way we talk over ourselves, and a lot of power in the way we talk about others. And I've heard it all too often that a situation is hopeless. As someone who's come from what could have been a hopeless situation, I renounced that statement quite a bit, because it's very rare. I would say that a situation is truly hopeless. And even when it is hopeless, there is still some good to be had in the future, and that is so worth holding on to.   Michael Hingson ** 56:10 What what caused you to decide to do some traveling and studying abroad? How did all that work?   Kara Joubert ** 56:17 Yeah. So as I said, I used to be someone who was very scared to even leave the house. How did I make the jump from that to here? Well, the therapy definitely helped, because my therapist was aware of my autistic side of things and was able to give me some techniques to be able to feel more comfortable, at ease around people outside of my, I want to say, comfort zones, and yeah, I was able to apply that. The opportunity came around quite unexpectedly. There was a talk that we had as a as a year group, the first year, I think, of journalism. And very early on, you had to decide whether or not you are going to apply, because there was a deadline. And at the time that I applied, I will admit I didn't feel 100% ready, but I was putting hope. I was putting faith in there would be a future in which I will be ready, because that's what I want. I want to be able to get out of my comfort zone. Because one thing I found is outside of the comfort zone, there are amazing opportunities, amazing things happen. So I applied, and I didn't hear back for a while, and then there were some interviews, and it was at the interview stage where I really had to, you know, fight for my position as someone who was going to study abroad. And I did. And I think for this particular setup in Australia, 30 students applied, and only three were accepted. Thankfully, I was one of those.   Michael Hingson ** 57:53 And so you're spending the winter in Australia.   Kara Joubert ** 57:57 Yeah, I am, which a lot of people might think isn't too bad, in consideration to the UK, perhaps not too too bad. But it is getting quite cold here. It can get cold in Australia, maybe not quite cold enough to snow. But there have been days where it's been 11 degrees Celsius, which is quite chilly,   Michael Hingson ** 58:17 which is quite chilly, yeah. Well, right now it's, I think, where I am, about 36 Celsius,   Kara Joubert ** 58:27 beautiful, degrees Celsius. We're not working in   Michael Hingson ** 58:30 Fahrenheit. Thank you, Celsius.   Kara Joubert ** 58:33 I appreciate that. My British Self does appreciate it.   Michael Hingson ** 58:38 Actually, it is actually it's about 38 Celsius outside right now. So toasty.   Kara Joubert ** 58:49 Yeah, I can imagine that's probably a little too toasty. Surely, are you planning to into the great outdoors? Are you staying safe inside?   Michael Hingson ** 58:58 I'm staying mostly inside. I'll go out with Alamo a little bit, but it's pretty warm out there, so I'll stay in here. Well, this has been really fun, and clearly you've been very unstoppable, and intend to stay that way, which is as good as it could possibly get. And we really appreciate it, and I really appreciate your time being here with us today. So I want to thank you for that, and I want to thank you all for listening. I hope that Cara has given you some really insightful and interesting things to think about and to go away and ponder. We hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you did, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me. Michael, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, wherever you're listening or watching, please give us a five star review. We value your reviews very highly. Cara, if people want to reach out to you, is there a way to do that? Of.   Kara Joubert ** 1:00:00 Course, yeah, I would love to hear from people I am accessible through variety of ways. I've got my website, which is just my name.com,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:08 um, so that's spelled all that for me, K, A R A,   Kara Joubert ** 1:00:11 K A R, A, J, o, u, B, E R t.com, and there people will find my project, and they'll also find a way to contact me and I am findable on social media as courage you bear media.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:32 Cool now, with you being in journalism, when are you going to write a book?   Kara Joubert ** 1:00:38 That's a very good question. I really might not have a few things going on the side. Yeah, what's the space?   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:47 Well, I want to thank you again, and I really appreciate you all being here with us today. And if you know of anyone else who ought to be a guest on the podcast, and Cara you as well. Please introduce us. Send us an email. Michael H i@accessibe.com there are lots of podcast episodes. We hope that you'll find them. You can always find them on my website, which is www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and Michael hingson is spelled M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, O, n.com/podcast, so love to hear from you, and both car and I would really appreciate anything that you have to say. And once more, car, I want to thank you for being here. This has been absolutely fun.   Kara Joubert ** 1:01:35 Thank you. I've had a completely fun time here myself. Thank you. It's been an absolute joy.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:47 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

In this powerful episode, we follow the inspiring and deeply personal story of Emeka Onwudiwe, a pharmacy student at the University of East Anglia. Emeka shares how he went from failing his GCSEs and taking an unexpected path through a BTEC in Health and Social Care to becoming the National President of the British Pharmaceutical Students' Association (BPSA).

Send us a textThis week's episode is a gentle heart-to-heart, sparked by a big milestone- my eldest son starting his GCSEs.It's had me feeling reflective, sentimental, and aware of how time moves us through so many different versions of ourselves- as parents, as daughters, as women doing the work as we heal and grow.In this episode, I talk about how trust and the heart chakra are connected- not necessarily in romantic relationships, but in the way we relate to family, to time, and to ourselves.We explore:

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover?The intense, content-heavy exam system in the UK kicks off at this time of year with GCSEs and A levels; high-stakes exams that can feel like a make-or-break moment for teenagers. I've already discussed with Susie how we can support our teens through the stress, which you can download here:https://www.teenagersuntangled.com/exam-revision-parenting-through-the-pressure/This time I'm joined by journalist Jenny Anderson who writes extensively about education, the attention economy, learning, science and technology. She's co-author of that amazing book, The Disengaged Teen, which I featured in episode 125, https://www.teenagersuntangled.com/122-how-to-get-our-teens-to-love-learning-and-why-parents-are-the-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle/Jenny has a child who's currently sitting GCSEs so we thought it would be a great time unpack why our current exam system might be doing more harm than good. We explore the incredible stress these exams create by making kids work to a rigid marking scheme causing both boredom and stress, why intense memorization isn't learning and the widening gulf between our current education system and what's going on in the world of work. We discuss why exams shouldn't define our children's worth, how to help them manage stress, and why experiences outside the classroom are just as crucial as academic achievements. Whether your child is currently studying for GCSEs or you're looking ahead, this episode will give you practical strategies to help your teenager navigate this intense period while keeping their confidence and love of learning intact.CONTACT: Jenny Anderson https://www.jennywestanderson.org/Instagram @jennyandersonwritesSupport the showThank you so much for your support. Please hit the follow button if you like the podcast, and share it with anyone who might benefit. You can review us on Apple podcasts by going to the show page, scrolling down to the bottom where you can click on a star then you can leave your message. I don't have medical training so please seek the advice of a specialist if you're not coping. My email is teenagersuntangled@gmail.com My website has a blog, searchable episodes, and ways to contact us:www.teenagersuntangled.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/teenagersuntangled/Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/teenagersuntangled/Susie is available for a free 15 minute consultation, and has a great blog:www.amindful-life.co.uk

00:00 - Good Morning00:15 - Omer.MDYdaf.com00:20 - Guests01:07 - Save the date!01:27 - Emails08:46 - MDYsponsor.com11:02 - Introduction13:28 - Guests14:21 - Amud Beis20:07 - Amud Aleph40:40 - Amud Beis53:12 - Have a Wonderful Day!Quiz - http://Kahoot.MDYdaf.com----Mesechta Sponsors:Anonymous: Hatzlacha bruchnius U'vgashmius----Monthly Sponsors:לע״נ זכריה בן משה, לע״נ חיה בת יוסףParnasa Birevach for Baruch Tzvi Nissim ben Shoshana LeahYoni Klestzick: Refuah Shelamah יהודית בריינה בת צפורה רבקהJeffs Gourmet Los AngelesMoshe Aron & Miriam Landy: For the hatzlacha of all our children----Sponsor of the Week:Anonymous: Thank you MDY for the highlighted Gemara - Never Give Up & Always Keep Going Forward!----Sponsors of the Day:Moshe & Shani Szlafrok: L'zecher nishmas Menachem Yechiel Ben Dovid HaleviSzlafrok A”HAbba Rennert: לע״נ my grandfather Rav Meir Shamai ben R' Abba Moshe Rennert, on his yartzeitAsher Lang: Lezecher Nishmas Rochel Rus Bas Avrohom. Ruth Lang on her 15th yahrzeit Yud IyarHasmonean Beis Led by Rabbi Yehoshua Hartman: Zechus for boys who donated for: Torah, GCSEs, A-Levels, Yeshivos, Shidduchim, RefuosChaim Shimon (Shimi) Kleinfeld: Refuah Sheleima for my father Boruch Shmuel Ben Tziviah - Supported Alexander Mosed for many yearsThe Powwow Team: In honor of the incredible Nesanel Gantz who will be leading some of the sessions at the amazing Dot Org Conference. And the MDY booth----MDY Kids Monthly:Kidnovations: Zechus for Fishel, Elchanan, Akiva | Rivky & Mrs Stefansky----Art of the Month​:Refuah Shleima for יהונתן איתן בן בת שבע ברכהFor a zechus for Reb Eli and the whole MDY staff to continue to make Torah so enjoyable for so many In honor of Yossi Klein & Mark Ashkenazi for all the work they do----Turning of the daf:Kidnovations LLC: In honor of our sons; Kalmo (12yr) & Yisrael (9yr) for learning Sanhedrin & Makkos with Reb Eli ♥Adar Global: (Still!) Experts in International Financial ServicesAnonymous: In honor of the tzadik whose name we cannot say who shows us what is means to be a giver and tzadik_________________________________

The Education Brief: Saturday 26 April 2025 - Top stories include:Teacher job adverts are down, and the education sector is bracing for a staffing squeeze.Pupil suspensions surged by 12% last spring, with the North East topping the exclusions charts.An Inspector Calls reigns supreme for literature GCSEs, but calls for change are growing louder.School budgets are under fresh strain as pay rises and food costs outpace funding.This week's deep dive: Why CPD failsWe'll also tell you what's happening at HEP this week and what we've been watching, listening to, and reading!Watching - https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/live-lessons/articles/z7mdp9q#zrfwvj6Listening - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/roundtable-what-educators-really-think-about-the-new/id1608692574?i=1000703953285Reading - https://home.edurio.com/resources/insights/culture-driven-recruitment/AI Tool - https://gemini.google/overview/deep-research/?hl=en-GBMusic by Slo Pony

Harry and Gary chat with master ventriloquist Paul Zerdin about his journey from failing GCSEs to winning the 10th series of America's Got Talent and how it's not easy to be lots of different characters. Pau's on tour later in 2025 so head to his website now to get yourself some tickets and to meet his cast of characters - www.paulzerdin.com Do you know about Mudlarking? Well you will after this episode as we learnt all about it, and a new forthcoming exhibition at the London Museum - www.londonmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/secrets-thames You might have heard in recent shows Harry's clues to where he's on tour… a little less work is to visit harryhill.co.uk to find out where you can see him near you!  We always want to hear from you on the show so please send in your jokes, TV theme tunes lyrics, or maybe you have a minor irritation you wish to share.  Send them via voice note to harry@arewethereyetpod.co.uk and any that feature will be sent an Are We There Yet? badge.  Website: www.harryhill.co.uk Instagram: @mrharryhill YouTube: @harryhillshow Producer Neil Fearn A 'Keep it Light Media' production All enquiries: HELLO@KEEPITLIGHTMEDIA.COM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In episode 279 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Leah Morris. Leah currently works as a Centre Manager at the Liverpool branch of James' Place UK, a charity who are doing lifesaving work for men's mental health. Leah was diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in her early 20s after experiencing some workplace bullying in a previous role prior to joining James' Place UK. Prior to that, she had experienced panic attacks as a teenager whilst studying for her GCSEs but didn't know what they were at the time. After she was diagnosed with GAD, she was prescribed medication in 2019, specifically Fluoxetine which she said helped get her back to a baseline level and she has now been off medication in 2020. At the heart of her mental health recovery has been fitness and exercise. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, she started running, doing the ‘couch to 5k' programme. She got to the point where she was running 5ks three times a week for a year. However, in Christmas 2021, she bought a house and stopped running when she was dealing with the upheaval that moving house brings. She tried picking up running again in 2022 but couldn't get back into it. In May 2023, she joined James' Place UK and at the start of 2024, she got back into fitness, this time trying swimming to help her mental health. She found her rhythm again and now swims three times a week at time of recording. In this episode we talk about Leah's anxiety, workplace bullying, the role fitness played in her recovery and the importance of having the right support network around you to maintain or boost your mental health. As always, #itsokaytovent Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

Episode Overview:This week's episode is absolutely buzzing — and not just because we're talking bees. Meet Emma: ethical beekeeper, skincare alchemist, and proof that you don't need GCSEs or a conventional path to build something extraordinary. From being a teen mum navigating the stigma, to cold-calling for dodgy kitchen companies (yep, we went there), Emma's journey is anything but beige.She's built a legacy from raw honey and raw grit, and if you've ever thought your life was too messy to build something meaningful — think again. Emma proves that the wildest journeys often make for the sweetest success.Think success looks like a neat CV, a degree, and a 5-year plan?Wrong. Sometimes it looks like telesales in a smoke-filled office, accidental skincare breakthroughs in your kitchen, and bee stings to the face.

In this Work It Like a Mum episode, we're delighted to chat with Emily Russell, Internal Recruitment Partner at Saint-Gobain. Emily, who specialises in recruiting engineers, shares her journey of balancing a full-time career with single motherhood. With two children—one preparing for his GCSEs and the other only three years old—Emily discusses how she manages the juggle and offers tips for other working mums.We also dive into Emily's career history and her transition into engineering recruitment, as well as some expert advice on how to make your CV stand out when applying for your dream role.Key Topics Covered:Emily's career path, from starting in administration to becoming a successful recruiter at Saint-Gobain.The role of a recruitment consultant and how it differs from in-house recruitment roles.The challenges of recruiting for male-dominated sectors like engineering and how Emily helps break down gender stereotypes.Tips for candidates on how to stand out in the recruitment process and the importance of applying for roles even when you don't meet 100% of the criteria.The rise of hybrid working models, especially in light of the changes at companies like Boots, and how it impacts candidates and recruiters, particularly single parents.Key Takeaways:Recruitment insights: A deep dive into what recruitment consultants do and how to find one that specialises in your field.Engineering recruitment: Emily shares how she got into engineering recruitment and why it's crucial to get more women into STEM roles.Making your CV stand out: How to tailor your CV for the role and why it's important to apply even if you don't meet all of the listed criteria.Hybrid work flexibility: The changing landscape of work and how hybrid roles are key for working parents, particularly single mums.Why You Should Listen:This episode is a must-listen for any working parent, particularly single mums, looking for advice on balancing career and family life.Whether you're looking for career advice, recruitment tips, or just some motivation to keep juggling it all, Emily's story is full of inspiration!Show Links:Connect with our host, Elizabeth Willetts HereVisit Saint-Gobain's Website HereConnect with Emily on LinkedIn HereBoost your career with Investing in Women's Career Coaching! Get expert CV, interview, and LinkedIn guidance tailored for all career stages. Navigate transitions, discover strengths, and reach goals with our personalised approach. Book now for your dream job! Use 'workitlikeamum' for a 10% discount.Support the showSign up for our newsletter and never miss an episode!Follow us on Instagram.And here's your invite to our supportive and empowering Facebook Group, Work It Like a Mum - a supportive and safe networking community for professional working mothers. Our community is full of like-minded female professionals willing to offer support, advice or a friendly ear. See you there!

Hospital admissions data suggests a growing proportion of patients admitted to wards in England after being stabbed are under 18 years old.It comes amid growing calls to finally crack down on online blade sales and London actor Idris Elba backing the blunting of sharp tips on kitchen knives.The Standard podcast is joined by Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, which was founded in honour of a 16-year-old Londoner stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in 2008 after celebrating finishing his GCSEs with friends.The charity and Elba are working with the government's Coalition To Tackle Knife Crime initiative, which aims to halve Britain's blades menace within a decade.In part two, Network Rail has sparked a commuter backlash over train times ‘vanishing' from information boards three minutes before departure - but could the nudge tactic improve disabled access and service punctuality?We speak with Michael Solomon Williams, head of campaigns at the Campaign for Better Transport. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Guy Claxton takes us beyond simplified conceptions of the learning sciences and explains why teachers are sometimes vulnerable to fads and trends. "We undersell ourselves as educators, educating young people for the future and for life, if we lazily assume that all we mean by learning is the kind of thing that leads to good grades in schools." Guy shares his hopes as an educator – to help young people develop beyond just the periodic table, the Tudors and examination technique, and cultivate something of more lasting value. He hopes to design a classroom culture that isn't solely defined by Ofsted, GCSEs or A-level results, probing at the question: what are you teaching? What are you teaching for? Full show notes and transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/jan/asking-awkward-questions-staffroom-s05e01

In spite of business liquidation and a divorce, award-winning f:Entrepreneur Beccy Dickson and now ex-husband Macey Mitchell decided to remain business partners, founding Branded Bio, which supplies sustainable walls and backdrops full of living green plants and flowers for events, to interior designers and even to cover electric vehicle chargers and furniture. In fact it was a living plant-covered bus touring round Westminster in London that sparked Beccy's appearance on the podcast.Stuck on holiday on the island of Madeira during an enforced extended Covid lockdown, Beccy and Macey spent time talking about where and what next, and settling a future path. But if that makes being a female entrepreneur sound a bed of roses, Beccy is quick to point out the graft behind the spectacular living walls that now make up the mainstay of their business.Beccy didn't have a clear route to becoming an award-winning small business owner. She left full-time education aged 15, with few formal qualifications. Through family connections, Macey helped her land a job with a small wine branding business, where a mentor believed in her potential and encouraged her further.It wasn't until she was a mum that Beccy returned to college to study for her GCSEs, initially thinking she'd like to train as a teacher. Across the years she has worked variously in sales, marketing and as a creative director, but it was a chance commission that led Beccy to find her passion. The print production agency she and Macey were running was asked to quote to brand a living wall and suddenly her interest was sparked and her outlook on life changed.Beccy is candid that her cousin, a long-time champion of sustainability, now teases her about being green and the awards she has won for it. Beccy jokes she may be an accidental sustainability passionista.Creating living green backdrops can use 1000 plants, all of which have to be looked after and watered to remain looking good. It's hard physical work that requires high energy levels on top of all the usual business worries. When she's not juggling family demands in a multi-generational house alongside the business office in the back garden, Beccy goes to the gym and swims to stay strong.She wants to pass on sustainability lessons to the next gen, including her children. And Beccy urges everyone to try to make a difference to the planet's future."We all have to do our little bit," she says.Links mentioned in the podcastBranded Bio websiteBranded Bio Instagramf:EntrepreneurSmall Business BritainSME business population (Table C)You might also like to listen to:Mark Sumner, Leeds School of Design at Leeds University S1 E6Rachel Warren, professor of global change and environmental biology S1 E7Content © Sandra KessellOriginal music © Lyze KessellEmail Hello@myPro-GRESS.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textThis was a video podcast I did several years ago and I felt it was important to have it recorded as an audio podcast.           When I was aged 18 years old I had sadly failed my A-Levels and found myself in a very difficult position of having to resit and redo my whole A-Levels again. I had missed years of school on and off due to being in and out of hospital since the age of ten facing some paralysis and various health issues to my left leg without a real diagnosis much later on in my life. Ironically doing my GCSEs was a breeze despite missing so much school and I outshined my male cousins in comparison but not when it came to the A-Levels.         Due to this reason, I pestered my strict Muslim Pathan father permission to apply for a job. This might seem 'normal' to some of you but back in those days Asian women did not, I repeat did not work! After much persuasion he finally allowed me to apply for a job and none of us thought anything of it since I applied many, and I mean many months ago. That is, till I got that home phone call that would change my life and the people around me in ways I hadn't imagined.          My dearest mother broke the rules that day and gave me the 30-pence bus fair to allow me to go to the huge shopping centre that had only just opened up in 1990. I recall seeing the demolishing of East Hecla Works of Hadfields Ltd as Meadowhall became the first largest shopping Mall within the United Kingdom. Little did I imagine that I would end up working there as the first person of colour, let alone as a Disabled Muslim female who was from a Pathan background.     The job not only changed me, but it changed many people in the community around me.Tune in to my podcast and discover why.Thank you for your support folks.Support the showThank you for your support. Your host Miriam Khan @ Raise Your Vibes.

Introducing Scott Davies. He's the founder of Hilltop Honey, the 2nd largest honey brand in the UK with a turnover of £44mn selling over 13,000 tonnes of honey a year, the equivalent of 1000 double-decker buses. And while honey sales have been relatively stagnant for the last few years, Hilltop Honey has bucked the trend growing at an outstanding 22% a year.  It's impressive. Scott grew up in a pretty low income family in the middle of Wales, got pretty average GCSEs, didn't go to university and only started the businesses because he slipped a disk down the coal yard. Aged 23 with a 5k overdraft, Scott was faced with a choice: start a dog walking business, sell sports equipment on Amazon or start his own honey brand. Lucky for us he did the latter, starting Hilltop Honey back in 2011 living with mum and dad, who now lend a hand in the factory.  Look up ‘grit' means in the dictionary you'll find a picture of Scott there. He didn't pay himself for the first 3 years. They were on their last £400 when Holland & Barrett took a chance on the brand. And they've never taken on any investment. Now 13 years on, he has a market share of 12%, is expanding to the states and pays 130 people's mortgages every month.  In this episode we talk about what resilience means, the power of being no.2 and the highs and lows along the road. Enjoy  

Christmas is in the air! And in this week's festive episode Ami is joined by her pal Phoebe Prentice. In this episode we hear about Phoebe's GCSEs, how her family feel about her influencing, her favourite brand collabs, and an amazing private story! Listen or watch every Wednesday at 5pm to keep up with the incredible guests and for exclusive insight into Ami's world - and make sure to subscribe/follow! Plus, feel free to like the show or leave a comment/review, and get in touch with your latest stories, dilemmas, or questions via Instagram. And be sure to follow on all socials...

Empowering Education and Healing Through Horses with Alex NorthoverAlex Northover is the director of Making Momentum CIC, a community interest company in Cheshire, UK, that provides alternative education and therapeutic services for children and young people. With a background as a science teacher and extensive experience in equine-assisted methods, Alex merges academic learning, nervous system regulation, and interactions with horses to create transformational opportunities. Her innovative approach focuses on child-led learning, trauma-informed care, and movement-based education, offering life-changing support for children struggling in traditional education settings.In this episode of Equine Assisted World, Rupert Isaacson speaks with Alex about her journey from teaching to building Making Momentum, the role of horses and other animals in therapeutic education, and her inspiring work with children dealing with trauma and school non-attendance.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeAlex's Journey to Making Momentum (Starts at 1:00)Alex shares her journey from being a science teacher to founding Making Momentum, where she combines her passion for education, horses, and trauma-informed care to create impactful programs.The Role of Horses in Emotional Regulation (Starts at 6:00)Horses, goats, and even chickens play a key role at Making Momentum, helping children with nervous system regulation and fostering emotional growth.Child-Led and Movement-Based Learning (Starts at 15:30)Alex discusses how tailoring education to each child's interests and incorporating movement-based methods lead to breakthroughs in learning and emotional resilience.Teaching Academic Concepts with Horses (Starts at 25:00)Alex explains how she uses equine interactions to teach subjects like math and science, demonstrating how these methods engage children in innovative ways.Addressing Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA) (Starts at 33:15)Alex highlights the importance of understanding EBSNA as a response to trauma rather than defiance and shares success stories of helping children rediscover joy in learning.Memorable Moments from the EpisodeAlex reflects on the challenges of working with school-refusing children and how emotionally based non-attendance stems from trauma (33:15).A heartwarming story about a child who used horses to regulate emotions and ultimately pass their GCSEs on the farm (42:00).The impact of incorporating personal interests—like Pokémon and French—into education, making learning fun and engaging for children (25:45).Alex shares her own journey of growing up horse-obsessed, working in riding schools, and building a lifelong connection to horses (49:30).Rupert and Alex discuss the importance of co-regulation with horses and the role of oxytocin in helping children achieve emotional balance and success (56:15).Contact Alex Northover

Skip the banter: 00:06:37This is a listener suggestion from Angela & Melanie.On Thursday, February 19, 2015 16-year-old Becky Watts was re-sitting for her GCSEs, or General Certificate of Secondary Education, which is an academic qualification in various subjects that take place in the UK starting in Year 9 or 10. It's more than likely that as she sat for the exams, she was exhausted since the night before, Becky had been out, having fun with friends & hadn't slept at all. Allison tells us the rest of this sad story. Amazon Addiction - color changing lights: https://amzn.to/40Pzq2MYouTube video for this story (see our faces!): https://youtu.be/OwwF1s6Ivw4Support the showAll our links (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Merch, etc):https://linktr.ee/crimeandcoffeeFacebook Group to discuss episodes:www.facebook.com/groups/crimeandcoffeecouplepodcast/References available at https://www.crimeandcoffeecouple.com a few days after this podcast airs.Case Suggestions Form: https://forms.gle/RQbthyDvd98SGpVq8Remember to subscribe to our podcast in your favorite podcast player. Do it before you forget!If you're listening on Spotify please leave us a 5-star review, and leave a comment on today's episode!If you're on an iPhone, review us on Apple Podcasts please! Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit the stars ;)We appreciate you more than you know.Reminder:Support us and become a Patron! Over 60 bonus episodes:https://www.patreon.com/crimeandcoffeecouplePodcast Intro and Outro music:Seductress Dubstep or TrippinCoffee by Audionautix http://audionautix.comCreative Commons Music by Jason Shaw on Audion...

A Kent dad is refusing to pay a fine he received after taking both his children on holiday during term time despite being granted permission for just one, saying he's not going to take one child away and leave the other behind. The family chose that time of year because it's quieter for their autistic son – but their daughter's school refused. Also in today's podcast, angry homeowners insist rehashed plans for a contentious new development will only worsen their already "infiltrated" village.The plans for Ashford have been described as “diabolical” and have already raised more than 600 objections. A Kent family have described their “noise hell” as the neighbour's children play drums, piano and saxophone “all day, every day”. The fed-up family say it's driving them mad, but the mum next door insists her children need the practise for their GCSEs. A cat rescue centre is appealing for help after hitting “an absolute brick wall” with its number of arrivals. The centre in Rochester says it's up to it's knees with rescues and the situation has just got worse with the arrival of six “Halloween miracles”. And in football, you can hear from the Gillingham manager after their disappointing result over the weekend. Mark Bonner isn't accepting a lack of confidence as an excuse for their poor run of form which has seen them go six games without a win. 

GCSEs. A-Levels. IB. University and apprenticeship choices. There are so many decisions that students need to make on their early career journeys. How can you as a parent / guardian,help? That's what we're talking about this episode of the podcast and I have at least 11 ideas for you so I hope you'll try at least one and let me know how you get on.Do feel free to engage with this topic (or indeed with me) at any of the below: The Dive Into Your Career podcast page of the Your Career And Future website where you can also leave me a message suggesting a careers-related topic for a future episode Follow Your Career And Future on Instagram and TikTok Via "Gina Visram" on LinkedIn (where they may be a post with a link to this episode where you can contribute some wisdom / reflections) Sign up for the mailing list (for students and graduates... a list for their supporters will follow) E-mail me on gina@yourcareerandfuture.com with any queries Also - are you a job seeker early in your career? Download the checklist: 25 UNMISSABLE TIPS TO SKYROCKET YOUR JOB APPLICATION SUCCESS RATEYou've got this!

This episode looks at how we can best teach and prepare our examination classes in the secondary school, especially our GCSE groups. A panel of experienced teachers considers what specific challenges come with teaching exam clases and exam course content and discuss how we can best prepare our students for the exam hall experience itself, including how we can build good exam habits alongside teaching course content. We discuss how teachers can support their students' wellbeing during their examination years – especially in years 10 and 11 – and how we can build their resilience, thus helping them to manage stress and exam anxiety as the pressure mounts. We focus specifically on how we can build exam technique, including the dos and don'ts for using past exam papers as learning tools. We look at other teaching techniques too, including modelling good answers. And how and when should we teach and model these exam techniques to ensure they are embedded while avoiding student burn-out? Finally to what extent should we be helping students to plan their exam revision? We ask what self-study and revision skills we should be teaching and how? Our experts even suggest a few particular techniques that they like to use, such as mnemonics and revision games.

A private college in the U.K. is about to start its first class taught using artificial intelligence instead of human teachers. David Game College in London is offering an alternative program of study for 20 GCSE students starting September. GCSEs are the general examinations that all students in the UK take at the age of 16. The platforms learn the strengths and weaknesses of each student and then adapt their lessons accordingly. Strong topics are moved to the end of the term so they can be revised, while weaker areas will be tackled more immediately. This means each student's lesson plan is bespoke to them. “There are many excellent teachers out there and we have many here at the college, but we're all fallible. If you really want to know exactly why a child is not learning, I think the AI systems can pinpoint that more effectively,” says John Dalton, Co-principal at David Game College. GCSE students have been testing out the new tech. “Teachers don't know exactly, precisely what I'm unable and able to do, where the AI can just figure out just by a few questions what I'm weak in and what are my strong points,” says GCSE student Michael. But some say removing teachers from the equation will harm students in the long run. Chris McGovern was a head teacher and an educational adviser to the U.K. government. Now he campaigns against this new type of education style. “Children will lose a great deal from that AI experience. They need to have teachers. They need to interact with other children. And that's fundamental. The problem with the AI in the computer screen is that it is a machine and it's inert. So you're straight away dehumanizing the process of learning. It's a soulless, bleak future if it's going to be on the AI path only,” he says. The U.K. government announced a new project in August to help teachers use AI more precisely. A bank of anonymized lesson plans and curriculums will now be used to train different educational AI models, which will then help teachers mark homework and plan classes. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Spice up your cheese! Would you like to do that? Well now you can, as the Spice Girls launch the career of Cheetah the Cheetah the Cheetah. ALSO: We recontextualise "Tuesday" and collect our GCSEs, and worlds converge as me & Chris' memories sync up.

Joel & Sarah talk all things moving house, why Chloe, Maddie and Sophie have been causing trouble and Grace's surprise party for finishing her GCSEs!Brand new podcast episodes available every TUESDAY! If you'd like to work with us, email the studio on workwithafterhours@fellasstudios.com

Are GCSEs the best thing for 16-year-olds to show as they leave secondary education? Is there a better method to assess what they've achieved in school and to set them up for their next step?    Niall Paterson explores the future for GCSEs on this episode – and asks why where you live can affect the grades you get.   He speaks to two headteachers - Becky Arnold at Framingham Earl high school near Norwich, and Farhan Adam at Crown Hills Community College in Leicester who was awarded "headteacher of the year" in 2023. Plus, Louis Hodge of the research organisation Education Policy Institute (EPI) joins Niall to discuss the "disadvantage gap" in today's GCSE results.      Producer: Emma Rae Woodhouse Editor: Paul Stanworth 

This week the British wildlife artist Lucy Joyce. Lucy's painstaking attention to detail is her signature on portraits of a variety of animals. Her artistry is crafted from photographic images, and in some cases her own compositions, as she meticulously accounts for every hair and whisker. Lucy was born in Northampton in 1979, the oldest of two children—she has a younger brother Robert. Her mother Jackie Smith, is a part-time seamstress, and her father Brian was a precision engineer in motorsport. Lucy completed her GCSE and A Levels at Chenderit School in Oxfordshire including two GCSEs in Art and A Level Art, before working in print and design. She then attended Southampton Solent University where she earned a degree in Marketing Design. Lucy met her husband at uni and upon graduation the couple spent a year working in Canada before returning to the UK. After the birth of her two sons, Lucy returned to her art and built a clientele for pet portraits. In 2016, she became a full-time artist and now has commissions for her wildlife and pet portraits that extend far into next year. Lucy lives near Newbury in Berkshire with her husband Simon, two sons; Jack and Charlie and two Cocker Spaniels. www.mrsjoycedraws.co.ukInstagram: @mrsjoycedrawsTikTok: @mrsjoycedrawsFacebook: www.facebook.com/mrsjoycedraws Some favorite female artists:Carla GraceDina Brodsky Zoe FitchetDemi LangGeorgia HartJennifer Gennari Host: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramAART on FacebookEmail: hollowellstudios@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wisp--4769409/support.

This week the British wildlife artist Lucy Joyce. Lucy's painstaking attention to detail is her signature on portraits of a variety of animals. Her artistry is crafted from photographic images, and in some cases her own compositions, as she meticulously accounts for every hair and whisker. Lucy was born in Northampton in 1979, the oldest of two children—she has a younger brother Robert. Her mother Jackie Smith, is a part-time seamstress, and her father Brian was a precision engineer in motorsport. Lucy completed her GCSE and A Levels at Chenderit School in Oxfordshire including two GCSEs in Art and A Level Art, before working in print and design. She then attended Southampton Solent University where she earned a degree in Marketing Design. Lucy met her husband at uni and upon graduation the couple spent a year working in Canada before returning to the UK. After the birth of her two sons, Lucy returned to her art and built a clientele for pet portraits. In 2016, she became a full-time artist and now has commissions for her wildlife and pet portraits that extend far into next year. Lucy lives near Newbury in Berkshire with her husband Simon, two sons; Jack and Charlie and two Cocker Spaniels. www.mrsjoycedraws.co.ukInstagram: @mrsjoycedrawsTikTok: @mrsjoycedrawsFacebook: www.facebook.com/mrsjoycedraws Some favorite female artists:Carla GraceDina Brodsky Zoe FitchetDemi LangGeorgia HartJennifer Gennari Host: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramAART on FacebookEmail: hollowellstudios@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aart--5814675/support.

Katherine's Telling Everybody Everything about how to solve your dilemmas of the week. Bobby is challenged on his conspiracy theories, an educator tells us we only need 5 GCSEs, we're signing a petition to stop a p**do from competing for Netherlands in the Olympics, cosmetic surgery abroad leaves a woman TOO HOT for her husband, a bunch of men are cheating again....(but should we be whistle blowers or what!?!) and a woman despairs about an over-enthusiastic oral-loving husband. xx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back!  It's been a long old wait - but for the best of reasons.  Joel has been taking his GCSEs.  That's all over now and what better way to celebrate than to listen to a somewhat polarising band - U2. Together as a band for over 45 years with no line changes or departures ever - U2 can lay claim to the Pride of being the most stable band in rock history. This is a trawl through their career up to the controversial Songs Of Innocence and that particular i-Tunes shaped can of worms does get talked about but do we get stuck in a moment we can't get out of? Joel has his revenge and there is a shock involved! My YouTube channel: Pockenrop 

Grace joins the podcast! Talking all things studying, growing up with lots of siblings...and her biggest vegetarian mistake!Brand new podcast episodes available every TUESDAY! If you'd like to work with us, email the studio on workwithafterhours@fellasstudios.com

Brand new podcast episodes available every TUESDAY! If you'd like to work with us, email the studio on workwithafterhours@fellasstudios.com

Adam Hurrey is joined by David Walker and Ali Maxwell for the latest Euro 2024 Adjudication Panel. The agenda includes: the depths of Euros short-form video content, a curious commentator intonation for a full-back receiving a pass in their own half, a dramatic VAR development in Major League Soccer, why some England managers get referred to by their first names and Messi/Ronaldo sentiment reaching the world of transfer reporting. Meanwhile, the panel also explore the nuanced rules of demonymic footballing adjectives and the mid-tournament trigger point for a nation being described as "holding its breath". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"On today's episode, Ami is joined by one of her absolute besties...Nya Temple. The girls sit down to talk about how they met, getting into the world of social media, life at school, the new Girl Squad, and so much more. Listen or watch every Wednesday at 5pm to keep up with the incredible guests and for exclusive insight into Ami's world - and make sure to subscribe/follow! Plus, feel free to like the show or leave a comment/review, and get in touch with your latest stories, dilemmas, or questions via Instagram. And be sure to follow on all socials...

We've reached the end of another academic year! Eden's reflecting on sitting her first few GCSEs, and what she's learnt about "deep practice" on the guitar. Asher and Mirabelle are picking their favourite books and topics, and we're all discussing what we're looking forward to over the summer (starting with a camping trip in Cornwall).

In this episode the lads talk about their constant search for validation (even if it's in the form of a wolf whistle from a gay builder) and discuss Kevin's stint as a body double for Lewis Hamilton. They then read out some 6th year holiday horror story submissions and they want this episode to be a cautionary tale for Irish gays and girlies getting with Brits abroad; the GCSEs is the equivalent to the Junior Cert so don't be mauling young fellas.Get tickets for 'That's Showbiz' here: https://linktr.ee/Imgrandmam

Adam Cox talks to Matt Butcher from New College Swindon about Apprenticeships and new paths for young adults after their GCSEs. They talk about the discontent with universities, how apprenticeships have evolved and what paths are available for kids who believe that the academic route isn't for them. https://www.newcollege.ac.uk/

Still riding high after Lesbian Visibility Week and the DIVA Awards, on this episode of podDIVA we are celebrating everyone's favourite deadpan comic - Lucia Kerskin.When Lucia posted a video to YouTube about failing her GCSEs back in 2017, it didn't seem like the obvious route into comedy.But seven years later, she's racked up nearly half a million followers on YouTube alone, and starred in the likes of Channel 4's Big Boys and Dave's Sneakerhead.Plus she's written and starred in her very own BBC show.In this episode, podDIVA's audiogram whizz-kid Ella Gauci chats to the awesome Lucia abouther latest BBC show Things You Should Have Donefailing her GCSEs... and Ronnie Mitchell from EastendersHave you heard our top-rated ep? TheLWordGenQ with Rachel ShelleyOr ridden the temporal time train back through 30 glorious years of DIVA magazine, right here on podDIVA?Want to hear more of all things LGBTQIA? Grab your copy of DIVA's latest issue here.Produced by Rachel Shelley with love and support from #TeamDIVAEdited by Ella Gauci with additional editing by Rachel Shelley.podDIVA: Queers for your EarsDIVA - the world's leading brand for LGBTQIA plus women and non-binary peopleGet in touch: poddiva@diva-magazine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the podKast we take our punishments for missing 3 weeks with our new punishment tools, we discuss how much GCSEs suck, how complainers are the worst, how much having a couch sucks, discuss our very quick thoughts on the TikTok ban and talk about the most mental weekend of our lives at TokFest. ENJOY!! Subscribe if you're a legend!Follow us on our socials!Craig:TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thecraignotcregInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/itscraignot...Letterboxd - https://letterboxd.com/ItsCraigNotCreg/Kieran:TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@kieranwitha.kInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/kieran.withak/0:00 - Intro0:29 - Our punishment3:41 - We have swords now 4:55 - Audio issues 6:22 - Viewer GitB11:25 - Kierans GitB14:58 - Craigs GitB17:18 - If people stopped coughing19:00 - TikTok ban quick thoughts21:06 - Camera store shoutout24:08 - Kierans Discord26:50 - TokFest was amazing57:27 - Outro TOKFEST WAS AMAZING! | PodKast: With a K - Episode 37 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, and as we fast approach exams, we look at how to help student manage their nerves. There are lots of strategies that can be employed but learning to sit comfortably with the uncomfortable feeling of exam anxiety can be challenging. This episode looks at one way we can help our students to learn to bring their thoughts and feelings under control using a technique stolen from sports psychology, but equally effective for high pressure exam performance situations: visualisation. It allows students to practise their coping skills and to understand that they can manage any exam scenario however terrifying! For further tips of Exam anxiety strategies do also listen to these two podcasts: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/control-the-controllables https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/exam-preparation-exam-anxiety  

This week we look at why exam technique matters - the more working memory students can free up to write good answers, rather than figuring out what they need to do and how long they have got left, the better. This episode covers 5 things that students should practice to help make an exam go smoothly:  Knowing the rubric Overall plan of attack Managing timing (including extra time) Breaking down the question Spotting traps If you want to know more about working memory and cognitive load there are a couple of good episodes you can listen to here: Working Memory: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/long-term-and-short-term-memory Cognitive Load: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/cognitive-load-finding-the-sweet-spot-with-bradley-busch      

In this episode, we are joined by Will Goldsmith, Head of Bedales School. This was fascinating. We covered: Removing unnecessary hierarchies Promoting student agency and responsibility Co-curating a community WITH students Developing value to the wider educational system Preparing students in school for specific academic curricula Bringing your authentic self to your work Will and his team announced last year about scaling down GCSEs in their school. It won't take a rocket science to realise that this resonated with me & Steve! This has been mischaracterised as scrapping exams or arrogant ‘you must do what we do' proselytising. The link to one of the articles is here. Thanks so much for joining us again for another episode - we appreciate you. Ben & Steve x Championing those who are making the future of education a reality. Follow us on X Check out all past episodes Subscribe on iTunes Want to sponsor future episodes or get involved with the Edufuturists work? Get in touch: info@edufuturists.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/edufuturistspodcast/message

Not all of us are parents, and some of us are small children; however, many of us during this time will have the collision of teenagers, their exams stress and our period/menopause.It can be a heady combination as I well know when I was in the throes of perimenopause with the Tom doing the Australian HSC - it brought us to tears many times.In this episode of the 'Thriving Thru Menopause' podcast, host Clarissa Kristjansson engages with Emily Hughes, a co-founder of the Parent Guide to GCSEs and the Parent Guide to Post 16. They discuss the stress revolving around school exams during the phase of menopause and strategies to manage it. During these candid conversations, Emily shares how the guides provide support for parents, the struggle of teenagers in adapting to the academic curriculum, and the unique challenges teachers face. Apart from being an informative source regarding GCSEs, the guides also assist parents in understanding and supporting their teenagers' emotional and hormonal changes. The episode also highlights the need for holistic approaches to tackling menopause symptoms and encourages parental participation in the podcast community. Show Notes00:16 Introduction to Thriving Thru Menopause 00:16 The Intersection of School Exams, Teenagers, and Perimenopause 00:41 Introducing Emily Hughes: The Parent Guide to GCSEs 01:08 The Importance of Holistic Approaches to Menopause 02:40 Emily's Journey: From Teaching to Creating Parent Guides 05:02 The Impact of the Pandemic on Education 05:45 The Challenges of Parenting Teenagers 06:08 The Stress of School Exams: A Global Perspective 13:20 Understanding the Teenage Brain and Its Development 17:13 The Role of Parent Guide to GCSEs 29:20 The Impact of Perimenopause on Parenting 34:26 Conclusion and Preview of the Next Episode Connect with Emily: https://www.parentguidetogcse.com/ https://www.facebook.com/parentguidetogcse Connect with Clarissa https://www.instagram.com/thrivingthrumenopause/ https://clarissakristjansson.com/ Get the opportunity to get early access to Clarissa's new book Beyond Hormones: 7 Holistic Ways to Thrive Through Menopause. subscribepage.io/thrivethrumenopause Get full access to Heart of Menopause at clarissakristjansson.substack.com/subscribe

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2023 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the annual benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends on 29th March 2024. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://www.kew.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-willison-22347a10/ Julia Willison is Head of Learning and Participation for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  She is passionate about engaging people – young and old and from all walks of life - in learning about the importance of plants and fungi and the need for sustainable development.  Julia is responsible for schools, communities and access, families and early years, outreach, youth and volunteers at Kew Gardens.  She previously worked with botanic gardens internationally to advocate for and establish education programmes for the benefit of local communities and the environment. Transcription:  Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. On today's episode I speak with Julia Willison, Head of Learning and Participation at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.We discuss Kew's inspiring manifesto - their 10 year strategy to end extinction crisis and protect nature. Julia shares with us the 5 key priorities, and we focus on Kew's desire to improve inclusivity and what initiatives have been formed to support the organisation in doing this.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue.Kelly Molson: Julia, it's really lovely to have you on the podcast today. Thank you for joining me. Julia Willison: My pleasure, Kelly. Thank you for inviting me. Kelly Molson: So we're recording this right at the beginning of January. It's the 9 January that we're recording it. So icebreakers have got a new year's resolution theme because I thought we should talk about this. I want to know, do you set them? If so, what have you set yourself for this year? Julia Willison: I do tend to set them in my own mind. I don't often share them, but I do set them. And this year I've set the resolution. I want to start learning to play the piano and I've actually had my first lesson. I'm really pleased with that. Kelly Molson: I love this. So we just had a little chat about this off air, because that was one of the other icebreaker questions I was going to ask you is, what's the one thing that you've always wanted to learn? And then we had this conversation and you're doing it already, and I was like, "Oh, this is great." So you've had your first lesson and how did it go? Julia Willison: Well, I found myself apologising to the teacher profusely because of my lack of ability to play the piano, but it went really well and he was absolutely delightful, very supportive, and I learned quite a lot in the first lesson, so I'm looking forward to the second lesson now. I've got a lot start playing and practising every day, which I'm enjoying doing. Kelly Molson: That's the thing about learning something new is that you've got to make it a habit, haven't you? So you need to kind of. This is the thing that I did about the gym, is that I had to diarize it, so I had to make sure that it was like in red in my diary, immovable. At the same time, on those days, that I could go so that you could do it. Are you going to do that with your lessons and your training? Julia Willison: Well, the lessons obviously will have to be in my calendar, but I have almost crossed the threshold where I made a decision to play the piano. I've got a long term goal that in maybe ten years time, I'll be able to play in a group or something like this. So I'm really committed to wanting to learn. So we'll see. You have to revisit this space. Maybe in five years time. See if I'm still doing it.Kelly Molson: Right. I'm popping you on the list for five years to make sure that I check in with you, that you've achieved your goals. Okay. What is the worst thing that you've ever eaten or drunk? Julia Willison: Well, eaten for me is mussels, because I'm allergic to them. Kelly Molson: Oh, wow. Julia Willison: I only learned that through, obviously, eating mussels and even just a small piece just made me incredibly sick. Drinking advocaat. How do you say it. Advocaat? Kelly Molson: Is that what goes into snowballs? Julia Willison: Yes. I can't think of anything worse actually.  Kelly Molson: I love snowballs. I had one over Christmas. Julia Willison: You can have mine. Kelly Molson: I'll have your mussels. And your advocaat. What a mixture. And probably not at the same time either. Julia Willison: No. Kelly Molson: Yeah. My friends did a Christmas party and we had a snowball and it was, "This is so retro." I can remember my grandparents drinking these when I was a child. I remember if you ever come to my house for a Christmas party that you are not to have snowballs.Julia Willison: I'll bring my own, Kelly. Kelly Molson: Okay. Right. What's your unpopular opinion, Julia? Julia Willison: What I do feel, I suppose, strongly about is that, and I arrived at this opinion after talking to my children, after I had done this. And it says, I don't think that people should post pictures of their children and friends on social media without their consent. Kelly Molson: Yes. Yeah. This is an interesting one, isn't? Oh, ok. And actually, at what point do you ask their consent? Because I post pictures of my daughter. She might not be comfortable with me, she might not be happy with me, her face being over my Twitter account or my Instagram account. So, yeah, I guess at some point we'll have that conversation. If she says no, that's it. No more pictures go up.   Julia Willison: Oh, sad. And the thing is, you can't take down the ones that you've already put up, can you? Kelly Molson: No. Well, I guess you can go back and delete them from an Instagram account or delete them from your Twitter account. So you could go back and delete, but then they're out there, so that doesn't mean that they're not elsewhere in the ether. Julia Willison: Interesting. Kelly Molson: It is interesting, yeah. But I think you're right, I think. Absolutely, for other people. I've definitely had this conversation with a friend of mine about. We've been out together with our children and we've both taken pictures and she's actually asked my permission if she can post the pictures on her social media, but her platforms are quite. Her Instagram is a private Instagram account, for example, so she's happy to post pictures of her daughter on that, but she's not happy for other people to post those pictures if they're not private account. It is a huge debate, isn't it? Well, it'll be interesting to see what people think. How do you feel about this? Kelly Molson: People on Twitter, which is where we do a lot of our talking about this podcast, how do you feel about posting pictures of your children or your friends and your family on social media without having their consent? Let us know. Could start a little Twitter debate there. Julia Willison: I'd be interested to read it. Kelly Molson: Right, Julia, tell us about your role at Kew and what a typical day looks like for you. Julia Willison: So, I'm Head of Learning and Participation at Kew Gardens and what I'm responsible for is providing leadership in this particular area at Kew and wanting to position Kew as a centre for excellence in plant and fungal science education. And under my remit comes formal learning. That's all the schools programmes and teacher training. So we've got about 90,000 school pupils that come on site each year and we engage with about 200,000 online. We have a youth programme which is growing. There's a lot of demand there for young people to get involved environmentally as well. Families, in early years, we run programmes for families, but up to seven year olds, specific sessions.  Julia Willison: We run community engagement, and that includes community horticulture. I'm responsible for the access programmes across the site as well. That's for people who may have sensory needs or different access needs. We have a national outreach learning programme and then slight anomaly is that the volunteers also sit with me. So we've got 800 volunteers across Kew Gardens and Wakehurst, and the central function of that sits with my remit. So looking at some of the strategies around what we're doing with volunteers and diversifying our volunteers, et cetera, that's my remit.Kelly Molson: They're quite a bit. Julia Willison: Yeah. No, it's fantastic. I'm very lucky. And there's no one typical day, but you can imagine. Well, I get going with a cup of coffee every day and sometimes I'll spend one day a week working from home. Julia Willison: But the rest of the time, I like to be on site. Kew has got to be one of the most beautiful locations to work. Kew has got to be one of the most beautiful locations to work. I am so lucky. I know that.Julia Willison: And I've probably got the best office in Kew. If you come and visit Kelly, you'll see that the office I have looks out over the Palm House of Kew, which is the most iconic glass house. It was a glass house that was built between 1844 and 48 and it houses the tropical plants, so it is just the most amazing place to work. I attend a lot of meetings, as you can imagine, with my teams and staff across the organisation about operations sometimes, and strategy and new and exciting projects that we're looking at what we can do. I sit on cross organisational steering groups and committees that focus on public programmes. Julia Willison: We have a strong focus on equality, diversity and inclusion across the organisation. And safeguarding. Well, I still am the designated safeguarding lead for Kew, so I'm involved in that still. And I also lead the steering group for Kew on the outreach strategy and the schools learning strategy. And then, as well, I often work on preparing project proposals, because funding is a major issue for our organisation, and so funding and reporting and then talking to potential donors. So that's my sort of typical day, really. Kelly Molson: I feel quite privileged that I get to speak to so many incredible women that have these hugely varied roles and do so much in a day. Very capable people that I get to speak to. It's quite humbling. We're going to talk quite a lot today about a manifesto that Kew implemented. I'm just going to take you back. So I think it was in March 2021, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew launched a ten year strategy to end extinction crisis and protect nature. And it's a really bold and incredibly inspiring manifesto. I'm just going to read out the ethos of it. Kelly Molson: So, the mission of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is to understand and protect plants and fungi for the well being of people and the future of all life on earth. Our aspiration is to end the extinction crisis and to help create a world where nature is protected, valued by all and managed sustainably. So this was back in 2021. How has the manifesto been implemented within the organisation? How did it get created in the first place, and how does that kind of get explained and put into practise? Julia Willison: Good question. We started in the pandemic, looking at the need to build a new strategy, because our older strategy was coming to the end, and over the years has been a building of staff in Kew, talking about wanting to see more urgency in the work that we do, or to describe it in a more urgent terms, what we're trying to do at Kew. And so the pandemic, while it was a terrible time, it was a time that Kew took to step back and look at the bigger picture and then come together around this urgency of climate change and biodiversity loss. And there was a lot of consultation, a lot of iterations of the strategy that went out to staff to feed into this. Julia Willison: It was a significant job, and there was a team, a small team of people that were working on it, taking the consultation back in centrally. And then what emerged through the consultation were five key priorities that we then agreed, or was agreed then for the next ten years. And that was agreed then by the executive board and signed off by the board of trustees. I'll mention the five priorities, and I can give a few bits of examples of some of the work we do around those. The first priority is deliver science based knowledge and solutions to protect biodiversity and use natural resources sustainably. Kew is primarily a scientific and horticultural organisation, and we struggle sometimes that many people see Kew Gardens as the gardens and don't see the science behind the gardens. Julia Willison: The gardens are essential and they contain precious plant collections. There is also science and research behind that. We've got over 400 scientists and about 150 horticulturalists. And so it's the bedrock accused contribution to ending biodiversity and maintaining sort of healthy ecosystems. So there are lots of examples that I could give. People probably don't know this. We have a resource centre in Madagascar, scientific resource centre, and scientists there are working with the rural Malagasy people on food security and particularly on conserving yams that are native to Madagascar. We work in over 120 countries, working with partners in Ethiopia to reduce biodiversity loss. The Ethiopian economy depends very much on coffee, and something like 25% of the population rely directly or indirectly on coffee for their livelihood. And so Kew is working with partners to maintain traditional forest based areas where coffee grows natively. Julia Willison: And that is proving vital for sustainability, for livelihoods and also for biodiversity. Close to home. We have scientists here at Kew working on the chemistry of nectar and pollen, because many bee species in the UK, there are around 240 different species of bees in the UK. So honey bees are just one species. There's lots of different bumblebees, lots of different native bee species, and they're under threat because of climate change from disease and parasites. So what scientists here are identifying plants that have compounds in the nectar and pollen that could help bees themselves manage their own diseases more sustainably. So that's an important area of research. Kew is also, as part of manifesto, we're digitising our collections. We've got a wrap quarter a way through digitising 8.25 million preserved plants and fungal specimens. So it's an enormous task. And 200,000 botanical illustrations. What else we're doing? Julia Willison: We have a sister site. I don't know if you know this, Kelly. We have a sister site at Wakehurst. It's our wild botanic garden in West Sussex and it's a site of excellence, really, in conservation and science. It's home to the Millennium Seed Bank, where we've banked something like 2.4 billion seeds from more than 40,000 plant species. And so there's the project being run at Wakehurst called Nature Unlocked, and that's using the landscape of Wakehurst, which is about two kilometres squared, as a living laboratory. And the idea is to collect high quality scientific evidence of the value of biodiversity in the soil as well as in the landscape. This evidence to inform land management policies and practises, so that can then key develop. Decision makers can then use this evidence to make informed decisions about what they do around the land. Kelly Molson: That's just one point. Julia Willison: I'll be quicker with the other. Kelly Molson: Please feel free to share. Don't hold back. But it's quite mind blowing, isn't it, how much that you do that people just aren't aware of? Julia Willison: Yeah, this is just a very small snapshot. I mean, I could have taken any one of hundreds of examples of what scientists here at Kew are doing. The second priority is inspire people to protect the natural world, and that really is threaded through all our public engagement work. And that's going from our festivals, our exhibitions, all the interpretive panels we do, the website, our social media, all the learning and participation programmes we do. So we use this as a lens to look through and to make sure that the work we're doing is all checking ourselves, that we are inspiring people to protect the natural world. I mentioned earlier we have a national outreach programme and this programme is inspiring communities to take action for biodiversity, specifically through transforming their local spaces with UK native plants. Julia Willison: So community groups we know will grow other plants, but we also encourage them to focus also on UK native plants as well. Another plan in the manifesto is to create a carbon garden, and that's to communicate stories around how carbon is captured in plants and soil, and how we use this to mitigate climate change, for example, through planting trees and also looking at different carbon related services, such as biofuels. And we have the plans for the garden. It's in planning permission. It's gone for planning permission at the moment and we're waiting to hear. And as soon as we hear, it'll probably take us about a year or so to build the garden, but we'll use it then very much for learning and communicating about the importance of carbon, so people know. So that's priority two. Julia Willison: Priority three is train the next generation of experts, new scientists and horticultural is critical to the future of life on earth. And so Kew has accelerated its work in this. And we offer three month PhD placements for anybody across the UK who's doing a PhD. Part of their PhD often includes a placement. So we offer those placements at Kew and we're very keen to attract PhD students. We also are working in partnership with a couple of universities, Queen Mary, University of London and the Royal Holloway, University of London, to run in partnership master's courses. MSc courses. And we've got three courses that we run. MSc in biodiversity and conservation, an MSc in plant and fungal taxonomy, diversity and conservation. And then the newest MSc is on global health, food security, sustainability and biodiversity. Kelly Molson: I can imagine that the world that we're in now, there's actually a lot more demand for those courses as well. I imagine that they're oversubscribed multiple times. Julia Willison: Yes. And they're open to international students, so we get quite a lot of international students coming. So that's really good. We had 60 students starting this year on the courses, but on a master's course, taking 20 students, it's quite an intense course. And I know that Kew has, like you say, there's a demand to study further in this area, and so there are still developing the possibility of new courses with universities. That's good. Julia Willison: But one of the things for my remit that I'm very keen about is that there's a pathway and that Kew considers its pathway from very early years, attracting kids to become very interested in nature, and then going through and providing school programmes that then encourage children to then take science as a possible career choice, or be informed about science, which is one of the reasons why we launched the Endeavour Online programme to make our resources that focus on educational resources that focus on Kew, science and horticulture, but make them available to schools across the UK. Kelly Molson: That's phenomenal. And that's a lot of the things that we're going to talk about today. What point are we at? We've done point 3. Julia Willison: Okay. So extend our reach. Kelly Molson: Extend reach. That's right. Point 4. Julia Willison: That's about cubing a go to place for anyone and everyone to explore the importance of plants and fungi and how they add value to our lives. And we're working hard to expand our digital resources to make sure that we can engage with as many people as possible. But we also recognise that there are large numbers of the population that would love to visit Kew or either have never heard about us or don't see Kew as a place for them. So we've set down a target to increase tenfold the number of visitors from underrepresented communities to the gardens. And one of the ways that we've done this straight away is to introduce a one pound ticket for people who were on universal credit or pension credit, and that's to remove the economic barrier to visiting. Julia Willison: To date, around 50 - 60,000 people have taken advantage of the initiative in 18 months. However, we have a very ambitious director and he feels that we should be able to dial this up to about 100,000 per year. So that requires us then to go out specifically targeting people who are on universal credit and pension credit and say, "Look, we want you to come to Kew." But on top of this, we also run a range of programmes specifically for people who face barriers to Kew. And that's not only economic, that could be social barriers, psychological or physical barriers. That's priority four, which I think we're going to go into more about some of that.  Kelly Molson: Three and four we're going to focus on. Julia Willison: Yeah. So the fifth one is influencing national and international opinion and policy. So in order to do that, we need to encourage debate and shape decision making. And Kew works with a lot of policymakers. Kew is a large institution.  Julia Willison: We've got about 1400 staff that work at Kew and 800 volunteers. We have lots of different teams and departments. We do have a department that focuses specifically on working with government and policy makers. And the idea is to support them, to provide the evidence that Kew brings to the table so that people can make well informed decisions. One example is about Tropical Important Plant Areas, those TIPA for short. Kew is working with six countries across the globe and the idea is to work with partners in the countries to help them identify important plant areas so that these areas will then be conserved. That involves an enormous amount of negotiation, discussion, and to date there's three TIPAs that have already been established, so that's really important for conservation of those areas. Julia Willison: And, of course, we work closely with Defra, that's our sponsoring department in the UK government, and they've recently asked you to take the leading role as a strategic science lead for a new institution, I suppose, that has been set up. It's not a physical institution. It's a consortium. It's been called the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate. So what Kew will do is write the research strategy that will define the key themes for funding calls that will be given money, and then the projects that will then provide the evidence to feed into policies that will then help make decisions about the impact of biodiversity on climate and people's livelihoods. So that's a really significant thing that Kew's done. Kelly Molson: This is such an eye opener for myself, having been a visitor to Kew, appreciated the beautiful gardens and the plants that you have there, but actually really having no idea about all of the things that happen in the background. So this is just like you say, the attraction is just one very small part of this huge organisation. There's so much that you do. I hope this is eye opening for people that are listening to this as well, because there's a lot going on here. The points from the manifesto, the key priorities for manifesto are, I mean, each one of them you could take and break down into a different podcast episode. What we're going to talk about is points three and four. We're going to focus on those today. Kelly Molson: So point 3 was to train the next generation of experts, and point 4 was to extend our reach. We're going to focus on them because there's a huge desire at  Kew to improve inclusivity, and so we're going to kind of break down what is happening within those points to actually help support do that. So you said that one of the key changes that Kew has committed to achieving by 2030, I think this is to increase tenfold the number of visitors from the presently underrepresented communities to the gardens. And obviously the gardens facilitate the start of that learning journey. Right. That it's exposing people to, I guess, a world that they might not be familiar with, plants that they definitely won't be familiar with, or even just certain job roles that they might not have thought was for them. Kelly Molson: How do you begin to change the kind of views and attitudes from the general public who don't think that Kew is for them, a place for them in the first place? Julia Willison: Well, our aim is to break down that perception. So I think one of the things that has happened to be able to start on this journey is an organisational commitment to include everyone and bringing everybody on board, that we are really intent, we really want to do this. So that's involved training our visitor facing staff and our volunteers so that they provide a warm welcome to anyone, regardless of their background. We've trained our staff in accessibility and safeguarding and then diversity and inclusion. And this year we will roll out more diversity and inclusion training to staff across all areas of the organisation. So when people come here, it's making sure that they feel safe and they feel represented in the gardens. But just providing a welcome is not going to be sufficient. Julia Willison: We do need to reach out and connect with different communities to tell them that Kew exists. We have people visiting Kew from our local boroughs that have never heard of us, which is extraordinary, really. So we really try and encourage them to visit. So we have teams of staff who, in different teams, will visit the different groups and they'll run workshops with the groups at their venues so that groups can find out about Kew before they visit. They realise that the people that come to visit them are really quite friendly and really excited about them coming to Kew. And also, people have said that Kew is a very large place when you come here. I mean, people come and visit Kew, they come for a day, but you never see everything at Kew for a day. Julia Willison: So people feel that it can be a bit intimidating, especially if they've not visited before. So when we bring people on site for the first time, when we've made connections with community groups or other teams, what we do is we'll offer a programme or a tour, so that when they come to visit us, that they make them feel comfortable about returning on their own. Kelly Molson: Sure. So it gives them that level of familiarity by doing the tour that they can then come back and explore. They can do that again, or they could go and explore the different areas that were particularly appealing to them. Julia Willison: Yeah. So we have all sorts of different programmes and we have a community access scheme as well as the one pound ticket. We have community access scheme. So any groups that provide services to people who face barriers from visiting Kew, which I said earlier, sensory, psychological, social barriers, they can join our community access scheme and they can get 60 tickets for 36 pounds. So that works out about 60 pence a ticket and they can always top up as they go along. And then as part of the scheme, they all receive a newsletter and that informs them about the community activities that we run. So that's another way of connecting groups to feel that Kew is a place for them to come and visit. Kelly Molson: That's lovely. I was going to ask about the community access scheme and what initiatives have been formed to kind of support the organisations to do that, because I guess it's one thing the welcome is great, right. But that means that people have to come and get the welcome. So there's so much outreach that has to be done to bring the people to you in the first place. So the community access scheme, what kind of organisations would that be relevant for? Julia Willison: All sorts. We have about 350 members on our access scheme. When I first started at Kew, most of those groups, there were fewer number of groups, but most of those groups were, I would say, for third age people, different groups, but mainly servicing older people. Now we've got all sorts of groups, so we've got LGBT+ groups, we have deaf groups, asian women's groups. We have a whole different range of groups that see Kew as a place that they could join and come and bring with their members. And one of the things that we do run is continuing professional development training for group leaders, specifically for those leaders, so that they then feel confident to come to Kew with their groups on their own and will provide resources for them to use in the landscapes and enjoy with Kew. Kelly Molson: And that adds to that, I guess, like what you were saying earlier about, you want this to be the start of the journey. You need it to be the start of the journey for those groups as well, don't. You don't want to encourage them to come along once and that's like a box that they've ticked. They've done Kew. You want them to come back and keep reengaging with the environment there. So that's brilliant to then be able to train those leaders to take that bit on themselves. Julia Willison: I was just to say, a few years ago, we started a community open week, which is a free week for community groups, any community groups across London. In fact, some groups come from further afield, but we put on a range of workshops and tours during that week for groups to come and just experience Kew and the idea is, if we can, is to try and encourage them to sign up to the access scheme and continue, as you say, the journey and come back and find out more. Kelly Molson: I guess that's the community access scheme. And obviously you've got kind of partnerships going ongoing with kind of local community. What about national community groups? So how do you kind of expand your remit into the wider audience of people that aren't located near Kew?Julia Willison: Yeah. That's a good question because that costs money, doesn't it, for them to come to Kew. So we have had people come from Birmingham and people can join. We've initially contained it within the M25, so a lot of people coming within the M25, but we've just removed that barrier now, I mean, it didn't need to be there. And we have seen some people, some groups coming from outside. We don't have bursaries to be able to provide, sadly, to groups to come to Kew. They are, of course, very welcome. I think one of the things is that we've just brought somebody on board this year who is doing some more community outreach to going out and trying to connect with new groups to visit Kew and part of that will involve producing some marketing materials that can then travel further than just our confines. Julia Willison: So we'll see. We may then receive other groups in from much further afield, which would be great. And also Wakehurst, our sister site, has set up a community access scheme as well, so they will hopefully then encourage those organisations and groups in further south of London.Kelly Molson: Amazing. How is Kew helping to remove barriers and improve access to nature for children and families, both kind of on site and off site? Julia Willison: We've been running an early years programme since about 2018. Before that, we had a family programme and we've made connections with children's centres in our local boroughs. Every borough, every county in the UK will have a children's centre or multiple children's centres. And the aim of the children's centres is to try and help those families that may slip through the net to be able to ensure that they don't. And so what we have done is we have a recent project which is to work with children's centres in London and we're working in five boroughs with different about ten children's centres. And the team is going to the children's centres running nature based play sessions in the children's centres. And then over the summer, we invite the families to come to Kew. We give them funding to do that. Julia Willison: We refund their travel, we run activities on site and then later in the year, we've been running training sessions specifically for the children's centre leaders so that they can then take this work forward when Kew has to step back from going to the children's centres. And we've got this project running for about three or four years now, which is great. But on top of this, we also run on site sessions for early years and half of them are paid for sessions for those families that can afford to pay for earlier sessions. And then the money that we use from that, we then subsidise those families from children's centres, community groups that can't afford to pay. So we try and get a balance, because we don't ourselves have an endless pot of money and we're constantly looking for funding to try and support this work. Kelly Molson: It's really hard, isn't it, to get that balance right. There is a commercial aspect here, right. You have to make money to be able to do all of these incredible projects and initiatives that you have, but you also need the funding to be able to support the incredible initiatives that you're running, to be able to allow everybody access to it. So it's like a vicious circle. What about schools outreach? How are you kind of broadening your reach to engage all schools? And how does that become more inclusive against the manifesto? Julia Willison: So we've been very intent on saying that we want to extend our reach to embrace all schools, sort of all schools in different areas, but also, at the moment, we have about 60, 70. Well, it's now changed to 60% of pupils that come on site are from primary schools. We want to increase the number of secondary school pupils that we engage with. Children make career decisions around their GCSEs and their A levels, and many children from certain schools from more deprived areas will go for general science rather than triple science. And all the research shows that if children choose triple science, they're more likely to do science at a levels. So looking to try and influence those children in their career choices is important for us. And that means that we want to increase the number of secondary schools that we engage with. Julia Willison: And we also have an intent on increasing the number of schools that have higher pupil premium, because in London, pupil premium is, you probably know, is that those children who are generally on those children, on free school meals, the school will receive a bursary from the government to try and reduce the attainment gap between those children on free school meals and those children on not. Julia Willison: So we have had bursaries, we don't have any at the moment, but we have had bursaries then to attract specifically those schools on much higher pupil premium, and we've shifted the dial on this and we have higher numbers of schools with higher pupil premium students and those schools, then we try to influence and think about science as a possible aspect that they can consider further in their careers. So, in planning permission at the moment, we're looking at building a new learning centre at Kew, which would be really exciting. And we're going through ecology reports at the moment before we can get the planning permission through. Julia Willison: But part of the learning centre will include four science laboratories, and so pupils can come on site to Kew will be able to come on site to queue and do science experiments in the heart of a scientific organisation. And all pupils doing GCSE and A levels have to do practical science experiments. We know from all the research that teachers don't necessarily feel confident in teaching about plants. So this is something that Kew really can uniquely offer schools to come to Kew and bring their pupils and get hands on with plant and fungal science experiments. Kelly Molson: Oh my goodness. That would be incredible. Julia Willison: Yes. And also it will provide us with the facilities to be able to do CPD online as well. So that's something that we're really keen to do. Kelly Molson: That's a really interesting side of this, is because I know that one of your goals is to engage with all schools. Now, all schools aren't local to Kew. My school definitely wasn't local to Kew. So how do you do that? How do you make that jump from engaging with local schools that can actually access the site? What can you do digitally that can engage with more schools and more people, regardless of location? Julia Willison: And one of the reasons that we are committed to engaging with all schools is because Kew is a national institution and we are funded partly. About 28% of our funding comes from the government, so it's paid for by taxes by people all over the country. So our commitment is to make our resources as available as widely as possible. And so we have an online programme called Endeavour, and that's a bank of resources specifically for teachers on all sorts of different. It's strongly linked to the national curriculum, but all sorts of different activities that teachers can use then to teach about plant science and fungi. But it straddles the natural curriculum not only in science, but for the primary ages. Julia Willison: It will also look at history, it will look at geography, et cetera, so that we can try and make our resources as relevant as possible to teachers. Kelly Molson: Yeah, that is a phenomenal resource that maybe more teachers need to hear about that. I think I would have been really excited. I did do Science at school. I can remember. I'd have been really excited about doing something that was connected to Kew Gardens. There's quite a big buzz about that, you know what I mean? I don't know why there's a connection to that organisation that I think would have been really exciting to know that you were working on something that had been created by Kew.Julia Willison: That's nice to hear that. We have a youth programme, which I'm very proud of. I think that the youth team is phenomenal, as are all the teams, but we run a youth explainer programme and that's on site, and young people come for a training programme every Saturday for six months and they go behind the scenes. They meet the horticulturist scientists and they learn communication skills. And what they do is we bring a game designer on site and they learn how to design their own game to play with the public about endangered plants or habitats. And the young people have to work together in groups and they produce this game. And then six months after, once they've finished their training, they then become explainers in the glass houses. Julia Willison: And the public, actually, they love interacting with young people and they bring a real buzz about it. So that's been a very successful programme. And on the back of this, we've developed a young environmental leader award. And the idea is that young people will develop their project and they will evidence different dimensions of leadership through their project. So they'll keep a portfolio and they have to evidence how they've developed their leadership skills during this journey. And then we award them with a young environmental leader award, and that's something that we do in house. But then the possibility is then to scale that, to make that available to young people outside Kew as well. Kelly Molson: That would be incredible, wouldn't it? Yeah, that would be a really special thing to be involved in. Okay, so we said earlier we're recording this. It's January 2024. Wow. How is Kew delivering against the manifesto after its first full two years? Julia Willison: Well, Kew is nothing if not ambitious. There is a real strong commitment to ending the extinction crisis. I mean, we can't do this alone and we have to do it in partnership. But I would say that we're firmly on the way to achieving many of the deliverables in the manifesto. And there's a real. People have really bought into. The staff have really bought into the manifesto, and you see that through. We run a staff survey every year and ask for feedback about whether what people think about the manifesto, do they feel their work is contributing to delivering it? And we get very high scores on that consistently we have since the manifesto was published. One of the deliverables in there is to revision the Palm House that I sit opposite in my office. Julia Willison: And we want that to become net zero and engage new generations with science and conservation work and make our data available to everyone. So we are moving towards that. And we've got some seed funding to be able to do this. I'd say that the bricks are in place and the foundations have been laid, and much of the work requires external funding and partnerships. But we have a vision, and I think people and organisations recognise what Kew's work is as vital. And I don't think that's overstating it, but that helps to open doors for support. So I think we're moving forwards, and I think there's a very positive feel about the work that we're doing. We're very fortunate. Kelly Molson: Yeah, it sounds very positive. And like we said earlier, there's so much to cover in this, Julia, and thank you for coming on and just talking about a very small element of all of the incredible things that are actually happening at Kew. So we always end our podcast by asking our guests to recommend a book that you love, something that you love personally or something that's helped shaped your career in some way. What have you chosen for us today? Julia Willison: Well, I chose a book that is a phenomenal book and by a woman who is phenomenal, and it is related to my work. But I chose the book because I think it is so inspirational. It's a book called Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. And we awarded her the 16th Kew International Medal for her work and her devotion to championing biodiversity in forests. She's worked in British Columbia all her life in Canada, and she was the pioneer of the theory that plants communicate with each other through a huge subterranean fungal network. And the book reveals how trees connect and cooperate with each other, and that each forest contains hub trees. So mother trees. And that these trees in the forest play a critical role in the flow of information and resources. Julia Willison: So I feel that the book will change the way people look at forests. They're not simply a source for timber or pulp, but they are really part of a complex, interdependent circle of life. And I think it's a magnificent book. Well, if one reader reads it and enjoys it, I think that will be brilliant. Kelly Molson: Do you know what? I have to read this book. So this is the second podcast, interestingly, where. Oh, not the book. The book has never been recommended before. No, this is a completely new one. So David Green, Head of Innovation at Blenheim, was on the podcast a couple of episodes ago, and he talked about how trees communicate with each other, and that was a new thing for me. I had no idea that trees talk to each other, and the way that he described it was really interesting. And now this has come up in this as well. And I feel like someone is sending me a message that I need to read this book. So that's going to go top of my list, right.Kelly Molson: Erveryboday, listeners, you know what to do if you want to win a copy of Julia's book, then head over to our Twitter account and retweet this episode announcement with the words, I want Julia's book and you could potentially be learning about how trees communicate with each other and are a vital part of an ecosystem. Thank you. That's fascinating. Everything that you've talked about today is so exciting, and I know that there's so much work still to be done. Thank you for coming on and sharing about all of the things that you do there and all of the things that you're hoping to achieve. I have no doubt that you will do them. It's been an absolute pleasure. Julia Willison: Yeah, it's a real privilege. Thank you very much, Kelly. Thank you. Kelly Molson:  Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast. The 2023 Visitor Attraction Website Report is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsDownload the report now for invaluable insights and actionable recommendations!

Ad: This episode is sponsored by tutoring organisation Explore Learning. If you have a teenager, it's pretty much inevitable that you're going to come up against exam stress and GCSE results at some point, and it's quite possible you've considered getting a tutor for your child.Carey Ann Dodah from Explore Learning has more than 20 years experience in education. She's also been a school governor, and chair of the PTA, and has two teenagers of her own, so she gets it. I ask her to give us her best strategies for effective study, online learning tips, and how parents can navigate educational challenges when we're worried, especially about GCSE exam results. 5:30 - Is getting a tutor really worth it? Why parents aren't always the best people to support their teenagers academically, and the value of a tutor.12:45 - How do we help our teens transition to adulthood? 16:40 - Why maths and English are the most useful subjects to have a tutor in.21:30 - What's the most important thing a child will learn from a tutor?22:45 - Is it ever too late to get a tutor for GCSEs?25:30 - Is there ever a reason NOT to get a tutor for our teenagers?31:00 - How to choose a tutor for your teenager. More about how Explore Learning works and the benefits of working with experts who help you find the best tutor for your teen. Explore Learning offers maths & English, SATs, 11 Plus & GCSE tuition both online and in person at UK centres. Check out their website for more information. More from Helen Wills:Helen wills is a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy, a resource for midlife parents of teens.Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast please get in touch.You can find more from Helen Wills on parenting teenagers on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.For information on your data privacy please visit Zencastr's policy pagePlease note that Helen Wills is not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice. If you're worried about yourself or a teenager, please seek support from a medical professional.

Alex Head is the founder of Social Pantry which runs food events with the wow factor, as well as a restaruant, and a cafe. I first met Alex this Summer where she was rustling up a banquet twice a day, in a tent at Latitude Festval. Two of the banquets featured food from 'Love, Food, Family' and Richard and I had the much easier job of meeting and greeting everybody there.Alex got into catering aged 16 when she was expelled from school in Saudi, just before her GCSEs. As she says, she was quite naughty. But she ended up setting up a sandwich-making business to keep herself busy.Fast forward a few decades and Alex now runs Social Pantry which she describes as a non-shouty and nurturing catering environment where she often employs ex-offenders, to help them create a new life for themselves outside of prison.Alex and her husband George had a daughter Roxy, aged 3, who was born just before the pandemic, and they now have a one year old son Eddie.Alex spoke to me about Eddie's diagnosis of Down's Syndrome while she was pregnant, and how she and George made the decision to continue with the pregnancy, and what a gorgeous, smiley boy Eddie is. This I can vouch for, as I love to see Alex's happy Instagram posts showing Eddie beaming, at the centre of his family. Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Could Labour still lose the next election? What really went wrong under Jeremy Corbyn? What do the left actually think of the right? Rory and Alastair are joined by Labour's Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, to discuss all this and more on today's episode of Leading. TRIP Plus:  Become a member of The Rest Is Politics Plus to support the podcast, receive our exclusive newsletter, enjoy ad-free listening to both TRIP and Leading, benefit from discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, join our Discord chatroom, and receive early access to live show tickets and Question Time episodes.  Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestispolitics. Instagram: @restispolitics Twitter: @RestIsPolitics Email: restispolitics@gmail.com Producers: Dom Johnson + Nicole Maslen Exec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Muriel from Illinois has the beans discuss The Higgs Boson/Particles this week. Listeners might be concerned the beans are entering knowledge-gap territory here but it turns out between them they average 2 ⅔ science GCSEs a piece*.*grades attained unavailable and what do they mean anyway really???Join our PATREON for ad-free episodes and a monthly bonus episode: www.patreon.com/threebeansaladGet in touch: threebeansaladpod@gmail.com @beansaladpod

Welcome to the Fail Forward podcast. In this episode I talk about failure.    As my podcast name suggests, this topic forms the building blocks to my content. It's clearly close to my heart, I think the reason for that is because its so closely connected to business.    All you ever hear is, “80% of businesses fail in the first five years”, or “1 in 5 businesses fail in their first year”. There seems to be a new statistic every week!   I take the view that this is due to a fundamental issue with the way society perceives failure.    There's no doubting its a negative word.    In school children are taught that they've failed if they don't pass their exams. In 2023, 32% of 16 year olds failed their GCSEs. Take a second to imagine what that installs in young people's minds at an early age.    One of the biggest things we should be teaching our children is that its OK to fail because it is a part of learning.   I wonder how many young people are left with a negative mindset when they leave school. They begin to let failure define them, rather than view it as something to learn from.   In this episode I explain that learning from multiple failures always becomes a positive. Not learning from them will compound into something catastrophic, such as a failed business.    I invite you to have a listen and challenge what we're conditioned to believe about failure.    If you're enjoying the Fail Forward podcasts, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn for all the latest on my mission to help business owners Fail Forward.    Facebook https://www.facebook.com/failforwardhenri LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/henri-ghijben-539132101/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@failforward12 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/henrighijben/