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Education Outreach: Speaking to Students at Peter Symonds College

Max Thompson

12 December 2025

By Vinay Kapoor, Education and Engagement Officer

This week, our External Affairs Officer Connie Shaw and I visited Peter Symonds College in Winchester, one of the largest sixth forms in the country, to speak to A-Level Politics students. The visit formed part of our expanding schools and colleges outreach, aimed at helping young people understand the importance of free speech and raising awareness of the work of the Free Speech Union.

The talk aligned closely with the A-Level Politics curriculum, particularly students' study of pressure groups and how they work with government to influence political and social change. We explained how the Free Speech Union operates as a non-partisan, mass-membership organisation, using a combination of legal support, campaigning, political engagement and political education to defend and advocate for freedom of speech in the UK.

We introduced students to:

• What the Free Speech Union is and how we achieve our goals.
• Our Statement of Values, including our commitment to defending lawful speech while not supporting incitement to violence, harassment or libel.
• Key areas of our recent work, including:
  • the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act,
  • the debate surrounding definitions of “Islamophobia”, and
  • the Government's proposed “banter ban” in the Employment Rights Bill.
• Recent case studies from the FSU's work in the media this year, ranging from the recent case of Royal Holloway Student Brodie Mitchell to higher profile examples such as Graham Linehan and Hamit Coksun .
• How free speech issues often affect students directly, particularly as they prepare to enter university.

The Q&A that followed our presentation was very lively. Students asked challenging questions about the Free Speech Union's non-partisan status and how we engage with highly contentious issues, such as the burning of religious books. Others pressed us on our opposition to no-platforming , how this fits with the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, and whether certain forms of hate speech should and can be more tightly regulated.

We were very impressed by the students' willingness to engage critically, challenge our arguments, and test the boundaries of free speech in good faith.

If you are a teacher and would like to organise a similar talk for your school or college, please contact Vinay Kapoor (Education and Engagement Officer) [email protected].