QEH Inclusivity Conference

Earlier in March we hosted four fantastic speakers in the theatre who came in to talk to our Year 12 and students from Orchard School and Redmaids’ around the topic of inclusivity.

The idea behind an Inclusivity Conference was to highlight and celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion across a wide range of sectors including television, music, drama and sport and for our students to hear from inspiring speakers.

We were honoured to welcome Nancy Medina, Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic who opened the conference speaking about people of colour working in the Arts. Nancy’s inspirational speech highlighted the importance of diversity in the Arts, how many varied and exciting roles there are in Arts institutions, and she shared her own journey into the world of theatre as a woman of colour.

Samir Savant, Executive Director of St George’s followed Nancy’s talk, also discussing his journey towards leading a nationally renowned arts institution as a person of colour. He spoke about his inspiration to make music not only his work, but his life. Samir shared the challenges he faced, the imposter syndrome, the importance of using your network and his lived experiences.

After a short break, students returned to hear from the fantastic Briony Williams, Bake Off star and TV presenter who spoke about celebrating disability, her route into television and how to manage social media trolling. She spoke about how she used to hate being labelled as disabled, but now she not only embraces it, she celebrates it. Briony’s talk was positive, uplifting and reflected her strength as a person and changing her mindset for the better.

Our final speaker of the day was Eilidh McIntyre, Olympic Gold medallist from the 2020 Tokyo games. Eilidh won gold in the Women’s 470 sailing class and spoke about the many challenges she faced along the way to the top of her sport. She discussed being a woman competing at the highest level in a sport historically dominated by men. She also brought along her gold medal.

Our students are so fortunate to benefit from such inspiring stories, and we hope that all our QEH students go on to be champions of diversity, equity and inclusion.