Hope Secondary Conference on Closing the Gap

Hope’s Secondary Teaching & Learning Conference took place earlier this week, bringing together colleagues from our current secondary partner schools, as well as Graham and George Pindar Schools in Scarborough. The one-day conference which had a theme of ‘Closing the Gap,’ took place at Manor CE Academy.

The keynote speaker on the day was education trainer and author and former secondary head, Mike Hughes. Over a period of many years Mike has developed a deserved reputation as an inspirational and innovative trainer/facilitator and is widely regarded as a leader in the field of learning. He is best known as the author of hugely influential books such as And the Main Thing is… Learning, Tweak to Transform and Closing the Learning Gap. His latest publication The Magenta Principles™ was the focus for Mike’s keynote presentation.

Colleagues had the opportunity to attend a workshop chosen from a range of topics including: Driving improvement by increasing retention of information; Snappy starters and Great Games for Literacy – Do they understand it? Taking your questioning techniques further; Metacognition in action. How to effectively model thinking strategies; Graphic Organisers in the classroom: using visual tools for structuring thinking and learning; Evidence informed practice with iPad; iPad for formative assessment and retrieval practice; Unconscious bias: how to eliminate social stereotypes within the classroom; and Mindfulness.

Marc Rowland, a national expert in closing the gap for disadvantaged pupils, closed the day. Marc will be working with staff across the Trust next year on a Hope strategy to ensure all our pupils, regardless of their background, are enabled to reach their full potential.

This was an inspirational, thought-provoking day which colleagues fully engaged with.

8 January 2019