Solihull School
Solihull School Headmaster Charles Fillingham was one of the speakers at the recent Independent Schools Partnership Network (ISPN) Conference in London, revealing how Solihull is turning academic subject-led festivals into powerful engines for outreach and impact - helping to strengthen local ties, and position schools as thought leaders.
Using Solihull's experience in organising both a Festival of Languages and a celebrated Shakespeare event, both of which are returning with even wider national participation and engagement in the next eighteen months, Mr Fillingham explored how schools can become forces for change, using their cultural capital, facilities, and partnerships to revitalise subjects like languages and the arts and engage thousands of students beyond their own communities.
In the last two years, Solihull has also organised an Engineering Fair and an AI Symposium - with local schools invited to attend at no cost. The Shakespeare Festival returns on Saturday 14 March 2026, with A Level students from independent and state schools from across the West Midlands and from as far afield as Bath, Manchester, London and Norwich, attending to hear lectures from celebrated Oxbridge scholars, and academics from leading universities, as well as a performance of Much Ado About Nothing by the Jesus College, Oxford Shakespeare Project and a range of hands-on workshops and activities. The second National Festival of Languages, organised in partnership with HMC and involving schools from across England, returns in Spring 2027 with a bold ambition to inspire more young people to explore careers using languages and reverse the national decline in languages being taken at GCSE and A Level.