Felsted School has hosted the annual Round Square regional conference, welcoming delegates from 27 member schools from across Europe.
The conference focused on the Round Square value of democracy and was opened by former Felsted pupil and Magic Bus Charity founder Matthew Spacie, who spoke about the difficulties that we face in day-to-day life with politics and how technology is shaping it.
BBC reporter Thomas Sparrow also spoke about the ‘Alternative for Deutschland’ political party and how democratic values and principals can lead to right wing ideologists taking the centre stage. All the keynote speakers took part in follow-up workshops and engaged in discussions and questions with delegates, who were given a series of tasks over the weekend that explored the value, including an interactive debate on free will, democratic voice, political discord and social harmony.
The conference also welcomed the community theatre group Haringey Shed, who hosted a democratic election throughout the weekend that allowed the delegates to discover more about the candidates before casting their vote.
Daniel Emmerson, head of global education and Round Square coordinator at Felsted, commented: “It was a delightfully insightful conference, thanks to the superb efforts and participation of our own pupils and everyone who attended. With a follow-up Round Square conference on the subject of post-truth politics coming up at Herlufsholm School in Denmark, this is sure to be a mere chapter in our Round Square journey as a school.”