On the beautifully sunny 4th of July we had the pleasure of attending the 14th annual Festival of Education. With over 5000 attendees it was certainly a day full of listening
and learning with various sessions and talks from impactful role models in our education system.
Fun with Findel
Wellington College hosted over 450 speakers at the festival so it is definitely a task finding the right sessions for you. However if you love arithmetics, games and music, Venue 4 was the place to be! Anthony Reddy and Dave Godfrey guided us listeners through Euhu, a platform part of the Findel group's, incredible 'MAP' scheme. It features 5 simple yet effective strategies that teachers can encourage students to apply when dealing with mental arithmetic questions. And for each one they utilised different characters such as parrots and kangaroos and catchphrases like "Double and Adjust" or "Manipulate the Calculation" which is most definitely stuck in everyone who attended's heads. The friendly pair kept the session engaging and playful with their sing alongs and intense rounds of the game Bing Bong Zong! More about the learning material can be found on their website https://www.euhu.co.uk/map.
Elevate with Audrey
During the midday over at Venue 10 was the bubbly Audrey Pantelis who touched on what it truly means to be included and elevated as a teacher and in the work environment. She shared her experiences with being new and thrown into the deep end at her school and what mindset she applied in order to get through challenging moments. One of the funniest and best take-aways was her 'style it out' concept where you remain cool and casual regardless of an obvious or 'embarrassing' mistake. Audrey also shed light on the topic of retention in the workplace where she urged leaders to be prompt with praise and rewards for hard workers in their community. The insightful session ended with us being given the well-being task of working on a specific aspect relevant to our roles for the next academic year. As a way to improve ourselves not only as educators or workers but as people. More about Audreys wonderful experiences and insights can be found at https://www.elevationcc.co.uk
The rest of the day was spent visiting and speaking with various stallholders such as Canva for Education and the event partner's AQA stand who were particularly delightful to engage with. Not to mention the great food and mascots, including the Euhu unicorn and the smily black cat which added to the splendid vibes of day one at the Festival of Education.
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