Speakers & Seminars

Speakers & Seminars

The Laurels has an impressive programme of visiting inspirational women speakers, all of whom are eminent in their particular fields such as the arts, sciences and public life. The experience of meeting these visitors can greatly enhance pupils’ knowledge and wider perception of the world and inform and support parents.

Recent Speakers:

Dunya Habash
Dunya is a Syrian-American PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge. A musician herself, she is currently writing up her dissertation on Syrian musicians in Turkey while also supervising music students and teaching at the Woolf Institute. Her research examines the effects of ‘integration’ on music-making and more generally on Syrian cultural practices and imaginaries after forced migration to Turkey due to the ongoing effects of the Syrian civil war.

Edmund Adamus

Edmund is a highly committed and dedicated professional in advancing authentic Catholic education centred on family values with parental rights front and centre through his program A Fertile Heart. Communicating success in this field to a wider audience for the common good. Seeking creative ideas and methods to further the dignity of the person and the culture of life. Inspiring others to aspire to hope in meeting life's struggles and challenges with greater confidence and humble dependence upon grace and Goodness.

Past Speakers

Dr. Theresa Okafor
Dr Okafor is a panelist at the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women New York 2010 and 2011 and came to The Laurels School to speak about her work with the UN. Dr Ofakfor is also a director of the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage and the CEO of Life League and is a winner of several prestigious awards including The Rhodes Youth Forum Award (Greece 2010); the Flynet Award (Nigeria, 2009) and a merit award from the National Association of Catholic University Students (Nigeria, 2008).

Sarah Yamani
Sarah is a role model for any young woman, she is a mother of four and is engaged in a number of projects which promote education for women and works as an investment analyst in London. She encouraged pupils to be true to themselves and to ‘reach for the stars.’ She recounted her own life experience and recalled that moving to the US from Saudi Arabia for her education was challenging but also enriching.
The pupils asked Sarah many insightful questions and she was thanked by them for her wonderful inspirational speech.

Dr. Aphrodite Papayianni
Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London and University of Oxford, teacher of Classics at The Laurels. Dr Papayianni delivered a Laurels Seminar Series on Byzantium in April 2015, she is one of the UK’s leading experts on the subject and gave an inspirational lecture to an enraptured audience.

Rt Hon Baroness Hooper
Spoke to pupils about her long and successful political career in the House of Lords and took tea with staff and pupils in the garden on a beautiful April day in 2015.

Dr Karen Bohlin
Head of Montrose High School in Boston, Massachusetts spoke to The Laurels about Empowering Girls: Why Virtue Matters in March 2015.

Tamara Rojo
Artistic Director and Lead Principal Dancer of English National Ballet
Presented to an audience of pupils, staff and parents focusing on the character development and virtues needed to succeed in the demanding world of classical ballet in December 2014.

Helvi Moore
Learning Mentor and Resilience teacher who has worked extensively with teenage girls and young women in helping them to foster self-respect and self-awareness through a transcendent vision of female personhood. She presents regularly at The Laurels leading the series of Education in Love workshops which covered themes for mothers of pre-teen and teenage girls helping to provide the understanding and communication to deal with issues in a clear and natural manner.

Clare Cannon
Editor of Good Reading Guide, an online book review site and speaker on literature. Clare presented an inspiring seminar on reading, literature and making good book choices for young women in October 2014.
Website The Good Reading Guide

Professor Rosa Lastra
Rosa is Professor of International Financial and Monetary Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. She has served as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, the World Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She has published several books and articles internationally. Professor Lastra spoke to students on the virtue of Diligence in their Character Development programme and the importance of planning and organisational skills in February 2014.

Louise Kirk
Author of Sexuality Explained delivered a talk to parents about preparation for adolescence in January 2014.