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28 May 2021

Communication and stand-up at St Edward’s Independent School


Lead Happiness Consultant, Dave Keeling, was thrilled to be back on the road in May, and what better place to visit than the stunning St. Edwards Independent School in Oxford (think Hogwarts without the dementors) to work on communication and stand-up skills.

The challenge was to take a group of Year 13 students through a blend of sessions focusing on communication to build up to an evening of stand-up comedy.

The first day focused on Flip-it Thinking, with a variety of activities supporting thinking and communication styles, as well as interactions and storytelling. It resulted in constructing a love letter in a particular thinking style - something they all delivered with aplomb.

Students could explore how positive thoughts lead to positive actions, and how understanding our thought processes and the scripts in our heads can help us make better choices that positively impact our everyday engagements.

Building from the first day, the second session focused on growth mindset, and looked at risk taking, the power of collaboration and the four conditions for great memory. If your brain is given the right conditions, it can’t help but learn. Curiosity and questions play a big part in developing and strengthening the way we communicate and interact.

The final day was where the stand-up comedy training began. Taking the lessons from the previous two days, students used the confidence, learning and positive mindset they’d developed to embrace the opportunity to stand up and try and make each other laugh (something most adults would rather die than try).

The workshop involved improv games and  comedy tips, as well as tricks and techniques to de-mystify what comedy is and how to deliver it.

All the students had a go and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, which culminated in five of them volunteering to put on a mini stand-up show the following evening.

So all in all, it was a win/win for everyone. Students at St. Edwards got to try their hand at something fresh, new and exciting, while Dave got to wander around the grounds pretending he was in Gryffindor.


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