Keep up to date with this year’s Summer School.  Tweets (incl photographs) are regularly posted by the ISSP team and appear to the right on this page.

You can also follow us on Twitter directly @YorkISSP

‘ISSP7-8’ is a termly event for years 7 & 8 running from 7 to 8 pm where high profile speakers enthuse and inspire through a 1 hour lecture.

For the final event in the series this year we are delighted that Ian Donaghy, a well-known York character who is larger than life is coming to talk about manKIND – The Power of Kindness. The talk will explore human nature and how communities are improved when we all work together.

Ian Donaghy’s infectious enthusiasm & humorous empathetic approach have made him a popular conference speaker all over the UK. Angela Rippon CBE describes him as “Highly entertaining & deeply thought-provoking”.

In 2014 Ian’s book “Dear Dementia: The Laughter & the Tears” was published by Hawker Publications & in under a year has reached 24 countries & been included on the Alzheimer’s Society Reading Well prescribed list of only 25 books for dementia care. His latest book “The Missing Peace: Creating a life after death” has been described as ‘ground breaking’, ‘uniquely beautiful’ and a ‘200 page cuddle’ . If you haven’t read them there may be an opportunity to buy them on the night after the talk!

During a 20 year career teaching young people with learning difficulties Ian was seconded by the Home Office to set up inclusion units in schools for vulnerable students focusing on the individual, celebrating what they can do to raise their aspirations.

Date: Thursday 7^th June
Time 7.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: University of York

Confirmation emails have now been sent out to all applicants.  If you applied but have not received your confirmation please check your spam/junk folders before contacting us.

Congratulations to our co-founder Jonathan Taylor on being awarded the MBE for services to the York Independent State School Partnership.

Review of ‘Young People & The Media’
Given by The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr John Sentamu

As we looked out the window yesterday afternoon, we knew nothing would make us go out again in the pouring rain and the chilly winds – except of course another great ISSP lecture, this time by the Archbishop of York … and we were not disappointed!

To begin with Dr John Sentamu talked about how older people have always been complaining about the young. In fact, they have been complaining for centuries. Even in 4BC Plato complained about the youth of his day.

The Archbishop went on to say that, more recently, Punks and Mods and Rockers (all before our time!) have been described by the media in a negative way. The media speaks negatively of young people nowadays by using words such as ‘hoodies’, ‘louts’, ‘thugs’ and ‘yobs’. This creates a cycle of mistrust and fear. Interestingly, the Archbishop quoted that the only time that teenagers are given sympathy in the media, is when they die. This certainly gave us something to think about.

Next, he stated that the digital revolution is happening fast. Facebook, Twitter and Apple products, etc, have only been around in the last ten years. The Archbishop then asked us to guess how many times a person would check their phone each day. 10? 20? perhaps 30? No, 150 times per day on average!

It is now a fact that social media is affecting our daily routine and behaviour. If, for example, you wake up in the night to check for messages, news or updates you will then start to suffer from tiredness and fatigue in the morning. This can then affect our work and our mood. The Archbishop confessed that he left his phone on day and night during the Olympic Games, when he was notified of every medal and goal scored!

We need to learn how to control our use of social media so that we can express our own opinions. At this time, we have a perfect opportunity. We can ‘tweet’, ‘blog’ and share our ideas with the world and we can influence people to make the best choices in life. However, we can’t just do this by ‘friending’ and ‘following’. We need to have a voice and we need to use social media as a helpful tool, not as a hindrance.

The Archbishop says that we should never see social media as ‘un-Godly’. Even though social media has a bad reputation, it is actually the users that cause this, by using it irresponsibly. We should use it to express ourselves and to create a better world. We should use it to communicate truth, love, care and compassion. Social media is a tool – not the master. Wise words.

After speaking, we were eager to ask questions. All-in-all we had a fascinating insight into the life of the Archbishop of York and how he uses social media in a positive way. It was an evening not to be missed. Thank you to everyone involved.

Mary Y8