In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Sir William Perkins's School
Sir William Perkins's School
Guildford Road
Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 9BN
United Kingdom

Baillie Aaron

Baillie is the Founder & CEO of Spark Inside, a charity facilitating a more fulfilling, productive and rehabilitative prison culture through professional life coaching. Spark Inside has offered its Hero's Journey coaching programme to over 200 young people leaving prison, helping them realise their potential and live a more values-aligned, purposeful life. Baillie is a UK Ministry of Justice Policy Fellow, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and graduate of Harvard and Cambridge universities. She is passionate about empowering people to break through glass ceilings in order to realise their dreams – as well as travelling and dancing salsa.

Caitlin Pittol-Neville

Caitlin Pittol-Neville is currently a year 9 student here at SWPS. She enjoys science, music and maths, and has a strong interest in psychology.

Frida Roper

Frida is a student in year 8 at Sir William Perkins’s School. Full of curiosity and interest in the world about her, she has attended the ASPIRE women’s conference where she has assisted as a volunteer, including addressing the huge international audience!

Grace James

Grace is a year 8 student at Sir William Perkins’s School in Chertsey. She aspires to be an aerospace engineer in the armed forces. Amongst other hobbies, Grace is a member of the army cadet force, where she enjoys activities like canoeing and rock climbing, learns invaluable skills such as first aid and map reading, and helps out in the community through events such as supermarket bag packs and the poppy appeal.

Hannah Deakin

Hannah studied at Sir William Perkins's School from 2004 until 2006 when she was hospitalised following an accident playing netball on a school trip. Since then she has spent many years in a variety of hospitals and had to learn to adapt to a different life. She currently features on the National Portrait Gallery website and is the cover girl on the front of the motability WAV brochure. She aspires to meet the odds and walk again, become more independent and to make a positive influence on disabled people’s lives.

Lucy Bushill-Matthews

Whilst studying Economics at Cambridge, Lucy investigated Christianity and Islam and unexpectedly found herself compelled by what she had discovered to make a life-changing decision about her faith. Author of ‘Welcome to Islam- a convert’s tale’, Lucy’s career has transitioned from Financial analysis to Health Economics in a multinational, to working in the charity sector in the UK and South Africa. Lucy has been teaching Muslim children and teenagers in both countries to think about their faith and engage with it intellectually, practically, and through service to others. She has 3 children and a cat who loves walking over the keyboard.

Lucy Gray

Lucy is a student in the sixth form at Sir William Perkins's School.

Natasha Devon

Natasha Devon MBE is a writer, campaigner & television pundit. She is founder of the Self Esteem Team & the Body Gossip Education Programme, both working in schools to help teenagers, their parents and teachers with mental health & body image issues. To date, her award-winning classes have been delivered to more than 60,000 teenagers across the UK. This year, the Sunday Times and Debrett’s named Natasha one of the 20 most influential people in British Education.

Natasha Stavropoulos

Natasha Stavropoulos is an openly transgender woman, currently studying to become a Counselling psychologist at the University of Roehampton. Natasha originally moved to the UK from her native Greece at 18 to study. London was to become her home and the environment that allowed her to discover and become herself over two decades, transitioning in her mid-30s while working for an advertising agency.

Sherry Husselbury

Sherry Husselbury, a Biology teacher for the past 30 years, has spent the past 16 years at Sir William Perkins's School in a number of different roles. She is currently the Deputy Head. She has a personal tale to tell which describes a journey from the darkness into light which will, hopefully, deliver a message about self-image and modern day aesthetic surgery.

Susie Stamford

With over a decade working in executive coaching, and more importantly, real-life, in-the-trenches business experience, Susie Stamford is a Public Speaking expert and women's motivational Coach. After a long career offering financial solutions to fund high end technology she has served as a senior consultant with the U.S. based IPC Information Systems forging relationships with clients such as Kleinwort Benson and HSBC Bank. Ten years ago she become an Executive coach and now helps women into leadership and to overcome their fear of public speaking. She is a certified Executive Coach, NLP practitioner, has studied non-verbal communication skills and is a member of The Professional Speakers Academy.

Tony Birtley

Tony Birtley has been a reporter for 40 years, thirty of those as a Television Correspondent based overseas. He has covered some of the biggest conflicts since the Vietnam War, including Lebanon, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Iraq and Cambodia, and been wounded three times. Awards include Royal Television Society's Reporter of the Year for his reports from the Besieged Bosnian town of Srebrenica where he was the only journalist. He has a very understanding wife, Andrea, and three daughters and a son.

Uchenna Ngwe

Uchenna Ngwe studied oboe and cor anglais at Trinity College of Music, where she returned on a scholarship for a PGDip in 2004. Skilled as a performer in a wide variety of genres, she spent a season as Guest Principal Oboe with KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban. Recent work with Chineke! Orchestra as principal oboe includes live performances on Radio 3. Uchenna has also worked extensively in music education, developing online educational products. Uchenna will be joined by harpist Ruby Aspinell to perform for us.