Lecture Series Events

As we commemorate the 275 anniversary, we are pleased to announce an array of events that will mark this significant milestone.

The celebrations will include a showcase of the best of Kingswood with “Made In Kingswood”, a special Commemoration Day to commemorate our history, a series of lectures from wider variety of speakers and hosting a global gathering with the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (IAMSCU) Conference. These events offer something for everyone to enjoy. Further details regarding community events and how to participate will be shared in the coming months. We look forward to your participation in this historic celebration.  Further details to follow as dates are confirmed.

275 Lecture Series

The 275 Lecture Series presents a rare opportunity to hear from accomplished leaders and individuals in their respective fields. Our guest speakers, who have achieved great milestones, will share their experiences and insights to inspire and motivate. The purpose of this series is to educate and empower, providing innovative ideas and fresh perspectives to broaden horizons and ignite your potential.

The 275 Lecture series has come to a close. We extend our gratitude to all the guest speakers and attendees for dedicating their time to participate in these memorable events. 

Past Events 

February - Will Bayley

Will led an interactive session in February where he shared expert coaching advice and knowledge to our pupils. It was a fantastic opportunity for our table tennis players to play against Will, including keen player, Headmaster Mr Gordon-Brown, who fought to secure a slam shot against Will! 

In the evening, Will spoke about his life and career to date. He has overcome some significant obstacles in his life and spoke passionately about his fight to make each day count and to promote a fully inclusive world for all. Will’s talk was deeply moving and impactful. We would like thank him for visiting Kingswood and wish him all the best in his preparation for the Paris Paralympic Games in 2024.

April - Dr Rebecca Torrance Jenkins

Dr Rebecca Torrance Jenkins, Head of Preparatory Science at Kingswood, spent a decade working in the field of educational neuroscience trying to use science to explain what makes a great teacher so great. In both the independent and state sector (primary, prep and senior) she improved the flow of information between practice and theory by examining whether laboratory findings stood up in real classrooms and fed classroom findings back into academia. In April she summarised the top takeaways for parents and the recording of this can be seen here. 

May - Sophie Montagne

In May, Kingswood was visited by Sophie Montagne who took part in the Antarctic Ice Maidens expedition in 2017. In the interactive student session Sophie asked the Kingswood students in attendance about challenges they had undertaken in their lives to date and potential personal goals they had for the future. The students then held a superb Q+A session with Sophie and really delved deep into the mindset required to be successful in such significant personal challenges.

In the evening talk, Sophie told the story of her expedition and how she got involved with the Ice Maidens. She described the highs and the lows of the expedition and her experiences, but what was clear throughout were the incredible bonds and team togetherness that were forged during her experience.

Her story is an inspirational one and everyone who attended left wondering what their own big challenges could be in the future. We thank Sophie for visiting Kingswood and wish her all the best for the future.

September - Ed Haddon

Ed visited Kingswood to give students and parents a valuable talk about igniting their inner Maverick. Ed has coached over 100 Mavericks over the last 14 years and bring this wealth of experience and their stories into his new book The Modern Maverick.  He combines practical experience from working as an entrepreneur, the academic side of human psychology and techniques from coaching people to make real changes that make their lives better. 

Ed spent 20 years pursuing a traditional version of success.  Rowing for Great Britain, studying at world leading universities, working in global businesses, and becoming an investor.  All that he managed to achieve in the end was a deep mid-life crisis.  Having been fired from his dream job in 2007. He was broke and broken, requiring a radical rethink.  He couldn’t find a book that was helpful, that covered the whole enchilada of life.  He found a coach who changed his life and set this book in motion.  He has worked through 10,000 hours of thinking, researching, learning, and experimenting about what makes a life well lived. 

October- Ben Smith

Back in 2015-16 Ben Smith became the only person in the world to run 401 marathons in 401 days and raised in excess of £330,000 for two anti-bullying charities in the process.  

The project won the coveted BBC Sports Personality Helen Rollason Award, along with other awards including the ITV Pride of Britain National Fundraiser of the Year Award.  

Over the past seven years Ben has been sharing his story across the UK.  Ben continues to undertake significant challenges and is taking on some ultramarathons later this year, including 6 ultras in 6 days in 6 US states!    

Ben spoke to students about his background and the significant challenges he has faced and overcome in his life. This talk included themes of bullying, sexuality and mental health. 

November - Dr Millicent Stone

Dr Millicent Stone is a practicing Consultant Physician and Entrepreneur, CEO and Founder of iOWNA, an award winning health technology company.  

She graduated from Medical school at the National University of Ireland and trained in Rheumatology, General Medicine and Medical Ophthalmology and her early career was strongly academic focused having trained as a Clinical Epidemiologist at University of Toronto and focused on clinical and genetic outcomes of young patients with arthritis. She created a world class clinical research program, The Spondyloarthropathy Methodology Research Therapeutics (SMART program) which she rolled out across North America and the UK. She moved to the UK and worked as a Consultant Rheumatologist at The Royal National Hospital Rheumatic Diseases, Bath and as Clinical Reader at University of Bath before being recruited to take up a prestigious appointment at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London.  

She left the NHS to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams to solve the complex web of connectivity between clinicians and patients in the healthcare ecosystem. She saw this problem from a clinician’s perspective trying to navigate a busy NHS teaching job and do the best she could for her patients with limited resources and as a mother whose daughter got a deadly form of cancer and needed a huge amount of support to survive and thrive.  

Her personal mission is to enable people to live longer healthier lives and this underpins all she does. To this end she founded iOWNA which is now operating in the NHS and internationally. This was a transformational time in her career and a period of intense personal and professional growth. She also hosts her own podcast on spotify and apple podcasts, live longer:the podcast which explores how art can help us live a longer healthier life. 

Dr Stone will talk about her journey and what she has learned about how to live a longer and healthier life and will include some practical tips for how people can do this. 

For the student session, the students will be given a task that will make them consider ways to enable people to live a longer and healthier life. This will be held as a competition, with prizes being awarded to the winning teams/individuals. Dr Stone will be bringing some former Kingswood students Max Brindley and Callum Michie with her to help run the student-based workshop.