Ed Kirwan holds a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Bath and completed his Masters in ‘Leadership in Education’ from University College London in 2017. He is a qualified teacher and former Head of Chemistry. Ed’s experiences in the classroom and the deprived North London Community where he taught, compelled him to pioneer a progressive and worldwide educational movement called Empathy Week. 

 

Launched for the first time in 2020, Empathy Week is a film-based education resource and platform that empowers young people to take empathic action for the causes they care about. 

Ed's mission is to address the problems that exist in education across the world - teachers being time-poor yet having a requirement to deliver social, moral, spiritual and cultural education. 

 

This year of 2020, schools in 48 countries, across 6 continents downloaded Empathy Week resources with a reach of over 400,000 students. 8400 classrooms took part this year and downloaded the online-research based projects over 700 times. Some of the stories Ed shared, were filmed by him whilst documenting The Homeless World Cup in Mexico and Slum Soccer in India.  

 

Ed is already looking ahead to next year's Empathy Week, which will centre on the topic of sustainability. In 2021, he is planning to expand the project to reach all primary school-aged children and provide differentiated lessons tailored for SEND - special educational needs and disabilities.