Burford School Attends The Kids' Conference at Oxford University

As part of The Kids’ Conference Oxford 2023, 5 of our Year 8 students had the pleasure of attending the University of Oxford on Friday 30 July 2023, inspiring an international community with their ideas about diversity.

Led by Stephen Spain and Katherine Burn, professors at Oxford University, who advocate for the power of research and how this should be filtered down from teachers to students, the conference is designed to cultivate a research culture amongst young people. With international participants joining via livestream, the conference is also an opportunity for young people to share the research they have been doing with an international audience of their peers.

Our 5 research enthusiasts chose to present their research on diversity within our school. As part of their research project, they had explored diversity within the school curriculum, school culture and beyond, investigating the risks of polarisation within the echo chambers of the school community. Their project aimed to tap into the student and teacher voice to ascertain what diversity currently looks like from those 'on the ground', whilst also delving into solutions to build towards a forward-facing, diversity-embracing culture.

As a research-led community, both in terms of staff development and student development, we are grateful to Oxford University for offering this incredible opportunity to our students as well as our students’ well-considered exploration of diversity.