Fantastic Interview Podcast with Jahnvi from Shiv Nadar School

I haven’t yet written properly about my long period, during October and November, taking conferences and meetings in Indian schools. They were all incredibly well attended, sometimes 300/400 teachers at a time… some of these teachers will have travelled a long way and sorted out all their families before they came… and yet there they are sitting in front of me – a whole sea of vibrant, colourful, energetic, enthusiastic men and women together.

Truly, their ability to join in everything with a huge level of fun and warmth was very heartening and inspiring for me. The level of thoughtfulness and the questions they asked also kept me on my toes. Maya had organised the conferences and we were brave. We invited classes of children for an hour into the middle of a huge collection of people so I could demonstrate Circle Time. Once children’s eyes are facing me in the circle they never notice the people outside so it doesn’t inhibit them and they behave like they normally would in a class… sometimes deliberately being provocative, distracting or over-giggly – which is great because then the teachers could see how I, as an experienced Circle Time teacher, deal with ambushes. By the end of each circle I can honestly say that the children understood exactly what was the point of Circle Time and were able to answer any of the questions teachers asked at the very end, very positively.

Very excitingly, at the end of one long day – a school organised that a young pupil would come and interview Maya and I for a podcast/ YouTube Video.

I am so proud of this young girl – Jahnvi. The time she was given to do the interview was at the end of a very long conference day at the wonderful Shiv Nadar School. I was tired, irritable and not looking forward to it. In fact I was really impolite – I didn’t go and see Jahnvi to reassure her warmly that I was looking forward to it – I went into a different room, put my head down and tried to sleep!! Jahnvi took everything in her stride – she must have been nervous but she only showed warmth and enthusiasm. I could feel Maya and I relaxing, opening up and then really thinking hard and exploring the questions that Jahnvi gave us. In the end, it felt a fantastic experience. Often, I don’t know what I think until I have a discussion, so the interview was revelatory to me as well. I feel this young person has such a wonderful future. Quite honestly though, there are so many brilliant young people in schools who never get the chance to enter the world of Pupil Voice. It is why Maya and I keep on challenging schools to introduce and maintain warm, safe circles of communication, caring and citizenship. I would happily hand my company over to Jahnvi one day – I think she will fight for the right for young people to be heard and respected.

Hopefully you enjoy this video – some time ago, my exciting grand-niece Maisie Kitchin did a pilot podcast – again like Jahnvi she was very skilled at drawing out aspects I hadn’t ever truly thought about. Here is the link to this podcast on Spotify …. Spotify Podcast