Cabot Learning Federation

Bristol Met Hosts Primary & Secondary Education Conference

Over 400 hundred teachers and support staff from both secondary and primary schools descended on Bristol Metropolitan for the inaugural East Central Bristol Education Conference.

With a conference theme of ‘Speaking and Listening’ Teachers from Summerhill, Begbrook, St Josephs and Oldbury Court primaries joined staff from Bristol Brunel and Bristol Metropolitan academies to provide colleagues an opportunity to sample best practice and harvest ideas from across the differing school phases.

The day began with a welcome from Steve Taylor, Principal of Bristol Metropolitan, Nick Garrick, CLF Primary Hub Co-ordinator and Duncan Cruickshank, Head of Begbrook Primary, before David Carter, Executive Principal of the Cabot Learning Federation, launched the event and presented to teaching staff the importance of the conference and his vision of how this partnership should develop considering the challenges facing education both now and in the future.

Marcella McCarthy delivered an enlightening and entertaining keynote next, entitled, ‘The Challenge of Literacy’. Marcella is a former lecturer at Oxford University, an active writer and researcher and a practicing teacher at a comprehensive secondary school and Marcella certainly gave staff plenty to digest and consider in her thought provoking presentation.

After coffee staff went into their pre-chosen workshops and with a comprehensive assortment of over 25 topics to choose from, there certainly was a diverse and wide-ranging list of subjects on offer. Over lunch staff were also given the opportunity to find out about Aggressive Replacement Training (ART) before the final workshops of the afternoon.

The conference closed with a plenary from Steve Taylor, Nick Garrick and Duncan Cruickshank.

Staff who attended the event were keen to mark the success, Jenny Marley, St Josephs Primary said, “This has been a very interesting day, attending an event like this has been really useful.”

Loretta Wright, Summerhill Primary said, “Marcella’s talk was truly inspiring and has given me lots of ideas to take back to the classroom.”

Jenny Shaw, Begbrook Primary said, “It has really been enlightening to hear about the progression of our children from primary to secondary and how we can further develop the skills our pupils need to become successful learners and also aid transition.