MBE for woman for believes philosophy is at the heart of teaching

30 December 201931 December 2019 Paul Lagan 0 Comments

A woman who teaches pupils to think about some of the most complex ideas and issues in life has been made an MBE.

Emma Worley from Forest Hill has been recognised for her services to innovation in the New Year Honours list.
Emma co-founded The Philosophy Foundation in 2007 (then a social enterprise The Philosophy
Shop), and with her husband Peter Worley, she leads The Philosophy Foundation in its mission to transform thinking in education.

Truda Spruyt, Chairwoman of trustees for The Philosophy Foundation, said: “I’m delighted that Emma has been awarded the MBE and that the work she and The Philosophy Foundation have done to innovate in education has been acknowledged.

“She has worked tirelessly to bring understanding, wisdom and flourishing to young people. Next
on the agenda is bringing philosophy to more people, contributing to innovation in the
workplace as well as in schools.”

The Philosophy Foundation began in Lewisham schools in 2003 and work quickly grew until in 2007 Emma and Peter decided to set up a social enterprise to train other philosophy graduates to teach philosophy in schools.

the winning ‘Philosothon’ team when we ran the first primary philosothon in the country back in 2014 with 5 schools in Deptford (The Deptford Collaborative) — The winning ‘Philosothon’ team when we ran the first primary philosothon in the country back in 2014 with 5 schools in Deptford (The Deptford Collaborative)

They now work in schools across the UK and internationally as well as continuing to work in schools across in Lewisham.

The Philosophy Foundation is based at Forest Hill Library and run community events at the library and at other venues around Lewisham.

Emma has helped grow the organisation from a one-person start up to a charity that has
international recognition, directly reaching over 4,000 beneficiaries every year as well as running
sessions in multi-national organisations and local community groups.

Please support your local paper by making a donation

Please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing recently: “A free country needs a free press, and the newspapers of our country are under significant financial pressure”.

So if you have enjoyed reading this story, and if you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can buy our newspaper or make a donation, which will allow us to continue to bring stories like this one to you both in print and online.