Sixth Former Alex, who organised and led the webinar An Introduction to Linguistics: Society, Meaning and Learning from start to finish, played a central role in its success. His vision, initiative and attention to detail brought together expert speakers and enthusiastic students, creating an event that was both ambitious and exceptionally well executed.

With schools joining from across the UK as well as India, Pakistan and Kenya, the webinar became a truly international celebration of language, curiosity and learning. It stands as an impressive achievement and a strong example of student leadership in action.

“On March 2nd, Freemen’s hosted a webinar for young people interested in linguistics. We organised it because languages are quite a niche subject, so it was great to bring together so many people who are interested – whether casually or with the intention of studying languages or linguistics at university.

Our first guest speaker was Dr Kirsty McDougall from Cambridge, who spoke about her work in forensic phonetics, which involves using voice samples to help identify criminals. Next, we heard from Olivia Halsall, who explained the creative approaches to language teaching she has developed. Then, Dr Cecile Larralde gave an introduction to pragmatics and how context affects our understanding of sentences. Finally, Prof. Sascha Stollhans from Leeds spoke about attitudes towards languages.

The webinar was attended by a wide range of participants, including a school in Kenya. I believe attendees left with a broader understanding of language as a whole, which will hopefully support them in their A-level studies.” – Alex H