laurakirsop:

A few months back I started SMALL talks which has been called “TED for kids”. WIRED wrote about us but since then it’s been pretty quiet. So what’s been going on?

To cut a long story short, it turned out asking teachers to drop what they were doing and trial the project was quite a big ask. There are three amazing schools currently in the throws of doing it but others that were interested have dropped out, most saying the SMT wouldn’t let them do it or they couldn’t find the time. Perhaps similarly, I have to admit I’ve found it hard to really push it with my c. 50 hour working week.

After I stopped crying about how much of a shame this was for kids and how telling it was about the state of education in the UK I tweaked my plans and worked out how to adapt the idea and timescales.

In the next few months I need to edit the packs based on incoming school feedback, make them look nice, put them online and then sit back and watch the videos roll in (slowly, if the SMT say it’s okay and there is time). It’s going to be a slow burner, which is a-okay.

I am considering opening the project up to children of all ages, all over the world as I know that there are teachers out there willing to fight their corner to develop their students’ public speaking skills. Then once we get properly going I’ve got a list of other features to add to the site.

If you can help in any way then get in touch. laurakirsop@gmail.com or @laurakirsop.