19 Jul 2022
On Thursday 14 July, the Club welcomed members of our Westminster 100 Club, as well as other local businesses, to a special Westminster 100 Club networking reception.
The evening provided a great opportunity for likeminded business members of our local community to see the Club in action, discuss ways of supporting our young people, and hear a fascinating talk by Jeremy Dudman Jones*: ‘Stuff about the Brain – The effects of adolescence on the teenage brain and how that impacts the workplace’. Jeremy gave a brilliant insight into the what the adolescent brain is doing and how this may affect school, family and work life.
Guests learnt about the extraordinary number of neurons in the brain (c 86 billion!) and how the connections between develop exponentially from earliest birth. The neuron development enables the most effective learning between 1-13 years, and that as we age it’s a case of ‘use it or lose it’ as the brain prunes away those connections which are not used.
Key message: keep encouraging young people to learn as many things as possible - they can do it.
Jeremy explained how the brain plays tricks on how colours are viewed: with half the room seeing the famous dress as gold and white, with the other half saw blue and black!
Key message: don’t assume everyone sees the world the way you do!
The levels of melatonin in the brain dictate how our body clocks work – so those late nights to bed and late rising in the morning are a physiological response in teenagers – not just young people being lazy or difficult! This misunderstanding of adolescence goes back centuries, with even Socrates (499-369BC) writing:
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers”.
Jeremy tested the audience on the complexities of the brain - the Frontal Lobe, which does the thinking, planning, central executive functions and motor execution; the Parietal Lobe, which manages the somatosensory perception and somatospatial information; the Temporal Lobe, which is responsible for language function and auditory perception involved in long term memory and emotion; and finally the occipital lobe that deals with visual stimulation.
Key message: practice makes perfect!
Much of Jeremy’s fascinating talk endorsed the work of St Andrew’s Club: which provides a safe space, compatible with young people’s serotonin and dopamine pathways. These enable mood, memory processing, feelings of safety and security as well as pleasure and motivation. In young people, it is the dopamine which responds to addictive behaviours that might need to be moderated.
Key message: access to experiences and opportunities can be game changers in a young person’s perception of themselves.
You can watch Jeremy's talk on the brain here:
Stuff About the Brain - Adolescence and the Workplace - Jeremy Dudman Jones - Westminster 100 Club - YouTube
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| Jeremy explaining about the adolescent brain | Anthony Scott (Trustee), Jeremy Dudman Jones, Annette Fettes (CEO) | St Andrew's Westminster 100 Club community | Learning more after the talk |
*Jeremy has been teaching for over 30 years, and is currently Assistant Head Teacher at Greenford High School; a very large, diverse, inner city comprehensive school in Southall. In 2005 he developed an interest in Educational Neuroscience and helped establish LEARNUS, a pioneering think tank promoting the understanding of how we learn by creating a bridge between the academics in Neuroscience/psychology and practitioners on the ground: from teachers, students, parents to businesses and special interest groups. LEARNUS is a not for profit organisation, and Jeremy would be delighted to provide talks not only to schools, but to businesses too. He can be contacted at: jjones@greenford.ealing.sch.uk
The St Andrew’s Westminster 100 Club is a great way to support the work of the Club of enriching young lives. A short film was shown to inspire fundraising and engagement ideas: made to thank Forsters Law Firm, one of our key 100 Club members, for their amazing fundraising last year.
| Our thank you video to Forsters, Westminster 100 Club member. |
Businesses commit to raising £500 or more each year. Please contact Callum at callum@standrewsclub.com if you’d like further information and download our “How Can I Help?” leaflet to inspire engagement.
A huge thank you to everyone who attended and a special thank you to Jeremy for a fantastic talk!