Boy Talk

When English teacher Mike Nicholson started a lunchtime drop in for teenage boys, he was mocked by colleagues who told him boys wanted to play football and no one would turn up. Instead they were queuing down the corridor. That gave Mike the idea of setting up a charity, Progressive Masculinity, to go into schools and give boys a safe space to talk about what’s on their minds. And they do! Everything from social media, pornography, ambitions for the future - and what to do if you get an erection in a science lesson?
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

Why are fathers too often ghosted in the social care system? How do we stop shying away from the most challenging questions in schools? And how can we revive democracy and counter polarisation beginning in schools? Just some of the thorny topics discussed with Polly Curtis the CEO of cross party think tank Demos.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

Do young men think big muscles is what makes a real man? Are they moving to the right and backing the populists? Are they obsessed with Andrew Tate? There's one man who knows the answers - because he's asked them - polling guru Luke Tryl, executive director of More in Common. In this myth busting conversation Luke tells us what young men say really matters most to them.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

This conversation will be eye opening to all those who want to understand the way status works for young men - what they need to do to become top dog, and what they then need to do to maintain that status. Seen in this light, the behaviours of some boys in school become clearer. Pride is at stake, so they act in a way that doesn't lose face with their peers. Sophie King-Hill has studied this in her research as an academic at Birmingham University. She specialises in sexual behaviours in children and young people, sexual health, masculinity and relationships. What she has to say will help teachers and parents engage with boys and young men in very different ways.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

What happens in the classroom when boys first go to school? Why do some boys fall behind? Why do some find literacy a chore, and managing to hold a pencil a real challenge? Why do boys then 'mask' the problem and fall further behind. Jo Heaton, experienced primary headteacher, who has worked in the North East for many years, and is now in charge of 12 schools, describes the realities for young boys growing up in working class communities - and what can be done to help them thrive.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

Alex knows what it's like to be a disaffected teenager. Kicked out of school at 13, he says he caused a lot of damage to other people, before getting the chance to turn things around. Now he is doing all he can to help young boys like him who feel they don't have a future. He is the founder of Boys Impact and author of Lost Boys: How Education is Failing Young Working-Class Men. This powerful conversation provides real insight into how boys think about status, aspiration, and their peer group - and what is needed to help them thrive.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson
 
 
 

What are the jobs of the future? What is the impact of AI going to be? How do boys and men fit into this story? There is no one better to ask than Sana Khareghani.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

Bill Lucas has spent a lifetime arguing for a broader education in which young people learn the dispositions - creativity, resilience, resourcefulness, critical thinking - they need to thrive in work and life. He has written more than 50 books on the subject and tells me that if boys are to thrive, we need to radical curriculum and assessment reform. Without it, too many boys will feel that school is not for them. Bill attacks head on the false binary between knowledge and skills - believing the debate to be absurd and damaging. You need both. He also talks about the controversial evidence that seems to suggest that girls are more capable of sitting still than boys and the implications for our education system.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

With debate raging over parity between academic and technical education, and with one million young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET), there is no one better to talk to than Ian Pryce who has been the leader of an FE college - Bedford College - for more than 20 years. Ian has strong views about the aspirations of young people, why parity of esteem can't be mandated, and why too often we compare high-end academic qualifications with low-level vocational qualifications and are then surprised there is a difference.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson

Stuart Manifould knows what it's like to work with boys on the frontline - often in challenging circumstances. Whether teaching in a tough inner-city school or on the streets of Crewe talking to disaffected young men, he is in the business of giving boys a second or third chance to find their feet and find their purpose. He is the CEO of the soon to open Dome Youth Zone in Crewe, and he is spending his time designing the best possible state-of-the-art space to attract boys who are in desperate need of an adult to trust and support to help them fulfil their aspirations.
 
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Edited and produced by Aedan Wilson