Ben Mearhart joined King's in 2022 and is the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Lead. 

Tell me a little more about your career before King’s.

One of my first jobs was working with the Disney Channel as a researcher and from there I moved into teaching dance, drama and P.E.. This naturally led to becoming a class teacher and then increasingly senior roles – ultimately leading to being a joint-headteacher.  Cultivating safe, supportive and nourishing environments for children has been a consistent focus and this then grew into supporting diversity equity and inclusion, including with Show Racism the Red Card, Think Equal and The Black Curriculum.

What attracted you to this role?

The opportunities to support a diverse, international pupil body with their experiences of attending a prestigious boarding school. Support that would hopefully enable them to be well-placed to cultivate safer, more supportive and nourishing environments as their own lives and careers unfold.  

What do King’s do to ensure diversity and inclusion that might be different in other schools?

We have three whole school equity objectives – parallel narratives are embedded for each subject, our anti-discrimination framework is trusted and protected characteristics do not equal negative outcomes. These are golden threads for the DEI work we look to feed and grow. Practically, these can influence how we support our curriculum reviews, anti-discrimination responses and data analysis. In terms of what might be different from other school, we have started to introduce an increased emphasis on embodied (somatic) listening to help support our school community to feel more authentically connected and that King’s can be a home that works for everybody.

How can we individually create a more inclusive space?

It might sound cringeworthy, or oversimplistic, however connecting with care – with ourselves and with others – and noticing how we feel, what might help and noticing how others seem to feel and what might help them. This feels like a consistently helpful start. From there, noticing how our frames of reference might be influencing our responses – how we organise around what we experience – can provide helpful insights into when spaces feel more or less inclusive for us and for the people we share them with.

What do you do when you’re not at King’s?

Parenting and pretending to be an adult mainly.  When not working and when time allows, I also find it beneficial to connect with experiences and ideas that support my mental health (including my relationship with my nervous system). These are challenges I’ve come to more authentically fairly recently and this feels important for how I would like people to feel when they’re with me. Beyond this I watch a lot of football, mainly women’s football, and I especially enjoy watching Barcelona’s women’s team, including live when we can.  

What is at the top of your bucket list?

The less-socially-palatable answer would be to live deep in the woods away from most of the world. Failing this, I would like to spend a lot more time authentically connected to my own experiences and those of others.  Feeling this way more consistently is currently top of my bucket list.

If you are an OKS, parent or member of staff and would like to take part in our community spotlight series, please get in touch! Email: community@kings-school.co.uk