Part of our monthly Oxford Humanists Speaker Programme, held on the second Tuesday of each month. We expect to get close to venue capacity so please register to hold your place!

Our March Talk: 'Humanist Schools in Uganda: a source of hope in challenging times' with Steve Hurd from the Uganda Humanist Schools Trust (UHST)

Imagine a happy and purposeful school with abundant opportunities for personal development; a school aiming to deliver the highest standards of education, providing knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for success in the modern world. An inclusive school based on reason, compassion, and tolerance. This is what the Uganda Humanist Schools Trust, a charity supported by many humanist groups in the UK, seeks to foster in the small but growing number of schools it supports.

This talk will set out the circumstances that led to the formation of each school and the Positive Humanist ethos they share. The schools have made tremendous educational progress and are transforming life chances for rural children (not least for girls), their families, and communities. We will end by discussing ways we might secure their future survival and sustainability in the face of endemic challenges.

Our Speaker: Steve Hurd became a Humanist in his student days. He taught Economics and Geography in a secondary school in Uganda from 1970 to 1972. This started a lifelong interest in development issues, which influenced his teaching, teacher training, curriculum development, and research in schools and universities. With the Open University, he established a British Council funded project, working with a team of 50 Ugandan educationists to create materials to support young teachers across the secondary subjects. This provided an opportunity to get to know Ugandan Humanists who were setting up schools in Uganda. In 2008 he formed Uganda Humanist Schools Trust to raise funds to support them,  and a Human Studies Project to develop resources to help them widen their curriculum to include Humanist themes.

We are thrilled to host Steve in Oxford in March and we hope you'll register to join us for what promises to be an interesting and informative topic. This event is free to join, however we do request registration to help us manage numbers with the venue and, as always, any donations you are able to contribute, will support our running costs.

Not sure if this is for you or have questions about the event? Please get in touch with Andrew, our Events Manager; we'd love to hear from you at events-oxford@humanistbranches.uk. For those interested in joining us for dinner directly following Steve's talk, we will book tables next door at Lulu's Ethiopian and Eritrean Cafe - send us an email to signal your interest!

More about the Venue: The Community Works will be open by 18:15 on the night. Please access the venue via the well-lit accessible alley just to the left of 1 Becket Street. If the weather is chilly, we do recommend bringing an extra layer. 

We hope to see you there!