Theme: What Can Our Humanity Bring to the Greater Good?

This event took place on May 2 2023 - to view all the talks please visit: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=TEDxNottinghamGirlsHighGDST

Nottingham Girls’ High School GDST invites you to join us for a very special evening at our TEDxNottinghamGirlsHighGDST event, ‘What Can Our Humanity Bring to the Greater Good?’

The evening will explore how we foster equality and harness the power of creative thinking through diverse voices, towards the growth and development of our community.

We will be joined by a range of inspirational speakers and performances, including percussionist of the electronic music pioneers Faithless, Sudha Kheterpal; BBC Radio Leicester presenter, and founder of Brown Gal Can't Swim, Summaya Mughal; Diversity and Inclusion activist Claire Bale; Head of Nottingham Girls’ High School, Julie Keller; The NGHS Chamber choir and students from Nottingham Girls’ High School.

Nottingham has a long-standing heritage of creativity and harnessing the power of creative thinking across diverse voices. The evening will provide an insight into how we use our voices to develop a thriving community and how we can re-define perceptions of conventions, carving out new creative pathways that don’t conform to societal expectations.

Squire Performing Arts Centre
Nottingham Girls' High School
Nottingham, Nottingham, NG1 4JB
United Kingdom

Aminah Jimoh

Nottingham Girls' High School Year 12 Student

Aminah Jimoh is in year 12 at NGHS studying Maths, Economics and Drama. This is what she has to say about school and her outside interests: “I often cringe saying I take Drama after having mentioned Maths and Economics - being the two well-respected and academic subjects they are - but, in reality, I can say that Drama has had a profound effect on my school years. Having helped me make friends in unlikely places and find a voice to express myself, it has always had (and always will have) a special place in my heart. Post-18 I’m hoping to study Economics at university but will try and stay connected with drama as much as possible. Outside of academics, I’ve recently started learning to ice skate which I’ve found is a totally different ball game to anything I've tried before. Despite the countless times I’ve fallen, the bruises that have formed and how long I've spent stuck on a certain level, I’m still at the rink 3-4 times a week persevering and I wouldn't change a thing about it."

Claire Bale

Diversity and Inclusion Activist

Claire’s anti-racist blog Oo! That’s A Bit Racey! is renowned for opening up conversations about race and has led her becoming a leading member of Nottingham’s EDI community, where she is often heard advocating for inclusion on BBC Radio Nottingham or seen debating social issues on local TV.

Ela Kocacik

Period Poverty Activist

Ela Kocacik is Year 13 student at Nottingham Girls’ High School. Taking a great interest in feminism, she has worked within the National Council of Young Women and at school to raise awareness for issues like menstrual stigma and period poverty, the latter of which greatly affects the local community.

Emily Trease

Musician in Residence, NGHS

At the age of 18, Emily has already built a strong reputation as a performer and composer and is often found playing harp at weddings during her weekends. Emily is also an accomplished choral leader and set up the school Acapella Choir whilst studying in Year 12.

Feizah Bhatti

Decolonising the Curriculum Activist

Feizah is in Year 13 at NGHS. She has completed an EPQ on ethnic disparities in maternal healthcare, a topic which she is greatly passionate about. She is one of our Diversity Prefects, organising the Culture, Heritage, and History Day, and has helped our English department to decolonise the English curriculum. She is planning to study Medicine at the University of Manchester in September.

Hubbub Theatre Company

Integrated Ensemble

Hubbub Theatre Company based in Derby is one of the UK’s leading learning disability theatre companies. We aim to make people feel happier, healthier, connected & creative. Our mission is to help learning disabled people overcome barriers that prevent them from accessing creative opportunities at all levels. We challenge the way learning disabled people are seen; inspiring & creating without hierarchies of cognition; working towards a fairer & more equitable world. We open opportunity whilst proactively & democratically managing safety, security & support in line with our values of Commitment, Collaboration, Creativity and Kindness. This year we appointed our first learning disabled cohort of Co-Directors with support from the national Transforming Leadership programme. This will see three learning disabled members of the company take on core leadership roles supporting our vision to ensure learning disabled people are fully engaged in the development and leadership of our company.

Julie Keller

Head of Nottingham Girls' High School

Julie spent ten years teaching in a co-education state school, and is now Head of Nottingham Girls' High School GDST. She is passionate about equipping girls to be the leaders of the future and her mission to inspire girls to smash through glass ceilings, break down barriers and be whatever they chose to be.

Nottingham Girls’ High School GDST

Chamber Choir

The NGHS Chamber Choir is a small group of students who enjoy singing a wide ranging choral repertoire including classical, musical theatre and pop. They regularly perform at school concerts and in the wider community. The choir is directed by Mrs Chris Clarke, Director of Music and conducted by Mrs Freya Hales, peripatetic music teacher.

Sudha Kheterpal

Percussionist, Entrepreneur and Coach

Sudha Kheterpal is a world-renowned musician and has enjoyed huge global success for 25 + years performing as the percussionist with bands such as Faithless, The Spice Girls, and Dido. Despite having performed at the top level, Sudha understands the challenges of getting her voice heard and is passionate about helping others speak up to the world with confidence. Inspired by the energy created by the crowd at music gigs in 2013, and with the desire to do social good, Sudha entered the world of Startup and invented the world’s first clean energy musical instrument. She is Ambassador for EU Sustainability Week as well as the Ultimaker CREATE education programme and has received multiple awards for her entrepreneurial endeavours. Sudha now works as a pitch and speaker coach, helping founders, leaders, and teams all over the world to pitch for investment and business, as well as to speak up like badasses!

Summaya Mughal

Senior BBC TV/Radio Presenter

Summaya is the voice behind award-winning BBC Sounds podcast ‘Brown Gal Can’t Swim’, investigating why South Asian women across the UK do not/cannot swim. She began her presenting career four years ago after winning ‘Untapped’, a BBC Radio Nottingham competition for a new weekday evening presenter. Her podcast won “Podcast of the Year” at the Sports Journalists Associations Awards in March 2023.