We provide a conference annually for all of our teaching staff. Classroom support staff are also welcome to attend. The subject matter always changes but is focused on innovations in teaching practice supporting everyone to provide the most up to date approaches to our children. 

Past subjects have included:

Great Learners - Growth Mindset. 

Philosophical Teaching and Learning

Metacognition and mindfulness

Inclusion 

Curriculum 

This year was on science and include workshops covering a wide range of science subjects for teachers.

2024 will be focussed on behaviour with Tom Bennett.

Thomas Bennett OBE is the founder and director of researchED, a non-profit organisation that runs teacher conferences about research and education. He is the author of several books on teacher training, the most successful of which is Running the Room: the teacher's guide to behaviour. In 2015 he was appointed the UK government's advisor on school behaviour, or ‘behaviour tsar,’ and is in charge of the Behaviour Hubs program.

The beginning teachers toolkit summary 

 

Will Ord is a regular contributor to our conferences.

Will has trained teachers in over a thousand primary and secondary schools all over the UK and in twenty-five countries. Drawing on 30 years of meditation practice and work in schools, Will Ord gives teachers a “no-nonsense” practical guide to developing key learning capacities (attention, self-regulation, wellbeing etc.) with children and adults.
Will has also given keynote speeches at national and international conferences on many aspects of teaching, learning, school development, and education in the 21st century.
Will has been working full time in education since 1996. As Chair of the Educational Charity SAPERE (2003 – 2006), and as a Professional Officer for ACT - the Citizenship Education Subject Association - (2002 - 2004), Will gained invaluable experience working with the DfES, the QCDA, LAs, Ofsted, AREIAC, the Citizenship Foundation, as well as many primary and secondary schools. Will has also been an author of several text books for students and teachers, articles for magazines and journals, and was a regular writer for the TES. He was also an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University.

The conference day is exclusively for Aquila staff and governors. 

• This linked really well with work we are doing in school, and backed up things that I had said to staff, as well as giving further things to consider - so fantastic!

• Will was a great speaker - the ideas at the end were particularly helpful, and we aim to implement these in school. 

• Great information share, lots of activities to try back at school.

• An engaging speaker who was amusing, approachable and very informative.

• It was, again really useful to be encouraged to think about how i question, and how i respond myself to questions.

• The best part for me was the Lego pictures. Conflito and communication.

• Teachers took practical ideas away which was useful

• Really enjoyed the session. Lots of useful information to use within the class. 

• Extremely beneficial.  Ties in with what we are working on as a school this year.  Great to have some practical ideas to use within the classroom.