Scholastic CPD Training and Workshops | Using books to build pupils’ empathy skills

About the speakers

Miranda McKearney
Miranda is a social justice entrepreneur who has spent 35 years turning kitchen table ideas into nationwide campaigns, culminating in founding The Reading Agency, a national charity, in 2002. The charity’s Summer Reading Challenge now involves 800,000 children every year.
Having “retired” to go trekking, she became fascinated by the building body of research showing that reading builds empathy. This has led to her founding EmpathyLab.





Professor Robin Banerjee
Robin Banerjee is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Head of Psychology, in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex. He directs the CRESS (Children’s Relationships, Emotions, and Social Skills) research lab, which investigates children’s social and emotional development, and involves close working partnerships with practitioners and policymakers in the areas of education and mental health.

Kate Clarke
Kate has spent over 20 years teaching in primary schools and is currently the Health and Well-being Lead at Pembroke Dock Community School in West Wales. She is passionate about sharing the power of empathy as both a teaching tool and a key life skill. A big supporter of EmpathyLab, Kate believes Empathy Day should be a key moment every school’s calendar.







Helen Rutter
Helen lives in the countryside just outside Sheffield with her comedian husband, two children and two lovely dogs, Ronnie and Billy Whizz. When she is not tapping away in her writing room she loves walking the dogs, playing board games and reading.