The Children have Spoken

This morning, while flicking through the i Newspaper over a cup of tea, I came across something that stopped me in my tracks. “Peace is the word, according to Oxford,” the headline read. It turns out that peace has been crowned Oxford’s Children’s Word of the Year for 2025—chosen by 35% of children across the UK, aged six to fourteen. That’s more than AI, more than resilience. Peace.

I sat back and smiled. Not just because it’s a beautiful word, but because it’s one we’ve been championing all year through Liverpool Heartbeat. From our school workshops to community events, we’ve been planting seeds—encouraging young people to think about peace not just as the absence of conflict, but as something active, something they can build in their own lives and communities.

Seeing this national headline felt like a quiet confirmation of everything we’ve been working towards.

When we unveiled the Peace Wall at the Beatles Museum earlier in 2025 year, we hoped it would become a place where children and families could pause, reflect, and add their own messages of hope. And when hundreds of voices came together at the ‘Give Peace a Chance’ concert in September 2025 at the Tung Auditorium, it felt like Liverpool itself was singing the message back to the world.

To see that same message echoed so clearly in the voices of thousands of children across the country… well, it’s humbling. It tells me we’re on the right path. That the next generation is listening, thinking, and yearning for something better. And it reminds me why we do what we do—not for headlines, but for moments like this, when the spirit of peace takes root and begins to grow.

Let’s keep going. The children have spoken.

Rob x