WOW-ed at the Southbank Centre

Mulberry attended across four days of the festival: the Southbank Schools Day on Wednesday 8th March; and the WOW Weekend from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th March. 65 girls attended in total, representing years 8-13. During the Southbank Schools Day, students attended workshops on fitness and self-empowerment, and on challenging gender stereotypes. Across the WOW weekend, Mulberry students attended talks, debates, panel discussions and workshops. They listened to world-class speakers on subjects including racism, socio-economic inequality, politics, activism, inspiring women throughout history, women’s health and science.

For the seventh year in a row, we had a fantastic range of student speakers taking part in various panel events across the weekend. Ayesha Begum and Abida Sultana in Year 12 hosted a ‘WOWBite’ session, in which four speakers led 15 minute talks on their own area of expertise; Ayesha later spoke on a ‘WOWDen’ panel, helping to judge a range of ideas to improve the lives of women and girls, submitted by members of the public. Mahreen Chaiwalla and Nisha Akhtar in Year 10 also hosted a range of WOWBite talks; and our fantastic Year 9 Magic Me group gave a performance of Decorum to an audience of hundreds at the Riverside Terrace.

We would like to thank the Southbank Centre for making us a part of this important festival, and giving our girls a platform from which to raise their voices for change.