Angus Bell's story is remarkable. His experience of attending a well known boarding school in Scotland is utterly horrific, but Angus has certainly taken action. He took legal action against the school that he attended and won a significant settlement from them. He gave testimony to the Scottish Child Abuse Enquiry. Both of these actions took considerable courage. They meant confronting his own awful experience and the damage that it had done to him. They also meant taking on very powerful forces, which we can legitimately talk about as "the Establishment" in Scottish society. He has been prepared to be public about all that has happened to him and to engage with the media and with the police.

To his considerable credit he has not done all of this not in a spirit of retribution or revenge, but in a genuine effort to ensure that what happened to him will not happen to others. He is always positive and determined to discuss what can be done to improve the situation for young people in boarding schools now and in the future

He has also taken action to overcome his own trauma and talks interestingly and informatively about how he has done that, This is only one of the ways in which Angus's interview resonates far beyond the world of boarding schools. He is very aware that many of those who attended boarding school are not casualties as he was, but are damaged by the experience nonetheless. They still occupy a disproportionate number of key positions in our society and the damage that they carry is then transferred to wider society.

He is also describing bullying and the abuse of power which too many young people experience in other contexts, so this is an episode which has much for all of us to reflect on and learn from, regardless of our background.

Angus highlights the work of Seen & Heard https://seenheard.org.uk/ who have been a huge help to him and that of the Edinburgh Academy Survivors group https://easurvivors.info/

Angus is interested in sharing his experience and ideas more widely and can be contacted at angusjjbell@gmail.com

Upstart Scotland - https://upstart.scot/ - is a remarkable organisation. Here's the link to a very old video by way of introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMaxhELpG7I. It takes a special campaign to bring together academics, writers, educationalists, forest schoolers and police, but Upstart does that and more It has engaged parents and politicians and built partnerships to attempt to establish a Kindergarten stage and a later start to formal education in Scotland. What it hasn't managed to do is to make that change a reality and we hope that listeners will go online and sign their petition to the Scottish Parliament. You can hear Willie talk about that in the podcast.

What Willie also manages to do is to place the campaign in context. It is not simply about a structural change in education. It is about building resilience and agency in our children. It recognises the pace of change in our wider society which Willie likens to a speeding bullet train while change in education barely keeps pace with Stephenson's Rocket, which, as almost everyone will know, is an original train with no resemblance to a rocket. It recognises the loss of childhood, the mental health crisis and more. It is a wide-ranging discussion and an important one for all of us.

I am really proud that we have reached 20 episodes of this podcast and am very pleased that it is an interview with Jennie Seed, Deputy Headteacher at Carnoustie High School. Jennie is a classic example of someone meeting Jaz Ampaw Farr's challenge to us to be 10% braver.

Jennie is someone who has been prepared to learn from all sorts of experience, in practice, in reading and through learning from other people and then make the effort to translate that learning into meaningful change.

Jennie is someone who has overcome her own modesty and humility to become a leader, not because it would make a difference for her, but because it would make a difference for young people and for colleagues, She has a remarkable ability to bring together all of her learning and her personal awareness and experience and translate all of that into effective communication with colleagues. She is also someone with great natural insight. She understands the importance of getting the culture right and of winning hearts and minds.

As a result, the schools that she has worked in have made changes and made them successfully. She has excellent evidence that secondary schools can have a more caring, committed approach and still maintain an effective climate for learning. That flies in the face of a lot of the criticism that is widespread in Scotland of the alleged commitment to inclusion, positive relationships and more restorative practice. These approaches can be successful but they need to be based on respect and support for staff, thorough and sustained training, a willingness to listen, reflect and learn and make changes to the approach when necessary.

Helpfully, Jennie can talk about transition in two very different schools. It makes for a quietly inspirational conversation

Jennie makes some great links

Paul Dix -https://www.pauldix.org/

Nadine Burke Harris - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Burke_Harris

Darren McGarvey - https://darrenmcgarvey.com/

Chris Kilkenny - https://x.com/KilkennyChris?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5hP0S0v8DE

Gabor Maté - https://drgabormate.com/

Nicky Murray - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGLGuco-L_g

Mark Finnis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-finnis-46663414/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://l30relationalsystems.co.uk/services/education/

This episode is a treasure trove!!