The English UK South West Annual Conference
Teaching conferences are at the heart of the professional development of our teachers
At Language Tree, we completely embrace professional development and a belief in the power and importance of lifelong learning.
We are really proud to be part of English UK South West and to have been part of the organising team preparing their annual pedagogical conference.
We believe that through events like these, we can inspire our teachers in the classroom and develop their professional pride in the job they do.
Teachers use many metaphors to describe what they do. Sometimes they say they are like actors because ‘we are always on the stage.’ Others think they are like orchestral conductors ‘because I direct conversation and set the pace and tone.’ Yet others feel like gardeners, ‘because we plant the seeds and then watch them grow’.
Jeremy Harmer
English UK South West Annual Conference: How we tell our story
Our Principal – Joel Ashton – is currently the Chair of English UK South West and he has been part of the team organising this year’s annual conference.
The conference took place on 16th November in Bristol at the University of the West of England. Our year round team of staff had a great time soaking up new ideas and meeting with colleagues from across the region.
This year’s theme was ‘How we tell our story’. The talks and sessions reflected on the role of stories and storytelling in the classroom. With talks from Jeremy Harmer, Jamie Keddie and Aardman Animations, we were given an invaluable opportunity to hear from some of the best story tellers around!
When we sing together: a talk by Jeremy Harmer
The first talk of the day was from Jeremy Harmer, the renowned author, educator, and speaker. He is widely recognized for his influential works on teaching methodology and classroom practice. He is also a musician and this interest often serves as a foundation to his writing and teaching practice.
When we sing together explored the shift in children’s social interactions from playing together outdoors to increasingly isolated indoor activities, exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdown, which heightened mental health issues and loneliness. Harmer posed the significant question of how we can address this as language teachers.
Fostering community and collaboration is crucial in our classrooms. Not only does it serve our education aims, but also our duty to support and encourage our students. Harmer offered suggestions on how teachers can create a supportive, interactive environment where learners engage, connect, and thrive together, combating isolation and enhancing language acquisition.
Insights from Jamie Keddie
Jamie Keddie is a unique voice in the language teaching world. He delivers, and empowers other teachers to deliver, innovative lessons built around storytelling. At the conference, there was the opportunity for attendees to go to both a talk and a workshop session run by Jamie.
The talk, titled Using story to curiosify your students, examined the inquisitive nature of humanity and how we can harness this in the language classroom. Through his engaging story telling style, he showed us simple but effective techniques behind narratives, considering the positions of listeners, readers, and storytellers. We were left with so many great ways to build this into our own classrooms and explore the world of storytelling with our students.
A workshop with animation legends, Aardman
Known internationally for creating beloved characters and box office hits such as Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Chicken Run, Aardman hosted a unique session at the conference.
They invited us all to an incredible animation workshop with one of the animators who has worked on some of Aardman’s most famous productions, including Chicken Run 🙂
We learnt how to use the Animate! with Aardman app in the classroom. With just a few bits of modelling clay and their clever app, students can quickly and easily create amazing short stop motion animations. Our team certainly had fun giving it a go themselves!
Through Animate!, students can script, narrate, and bring their ideas to life. It is such an exciting language learning tool for students of all levels and ages.
Aardman‘s app is the perfect way to strengthen students’ language proficiency, while fostering teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity.
These were just a few of the talks we saw at the conference. We gained so many ideas to build into our classroom teaching and our ongoing teacher professional development.
Through continuous professional development, collaboration, and innovative teaching practices, our team can adapt, grow, and inspire.
Events like the English UK South West Annual Conference further enrich this journey, providing our team with new perspectives on storytelling and creative teaching methods. Conferences give teachers the opportunity to network, sharing their stories and ideas with their peers.
By embracing lifelong learning in the ethos of our school, we aim to create engaging, responsive classrooms where every student gets to enjoy using their English in an authentic and interesting way and every teacher is given the opportunity for personal growth.
Come and join us in 2025 and share in the new stories we look forward to creating next summer…
Get in touch and find out more about our programmes and plans for Summer 2025!
