There's something very special, and very enjoyable, about being in a room packed with determined, enthusiastic language teachers. Friday was one of those special days for the second (now annual!) Newton Abbot language conference. With about 65 language teachers in the room from across the area, including both primary and secondary colleagues (and 2 head teachers) there was a really positive, determined attitude. In most cases teachers had requested to come on the course, something which I always find sets a great tone for the day.
I had been asked to present 2 sessions- 1 about how we have built engagement at Route 39 Academy, principally stemming from conversations that my Principal, governors and I had with a number of students before I began actually teaching in the school in order to find out how they viewed languages and how we could then improve their attitudes to the subject and to their learning.
I was also then asked to run a session on the "new" National Curriculum, which, for me, is more about freeing up teachers than restraining them- trusting the professionals to develop an effective system for their own schools. Anyway, if there are any things that you'd like to see in more detail then yell and I'll add the relevant documents to the post.
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