Conference

Drove to the East Midlands last night, with another colleague from another school in the LEA, to take part in a conference looking at the Black Pupils' Achievement Project. A fine drive - we talked non-stop - and we arrived just in time for a delicious dinner: sundried tomatoes and artichoke salad, cannon of lamb with fondant potatoes, caramelised betroot and fresh veg with a jus d'orange, chocolate brownie with banana ice cream, and coffee with tablet and mini chocolate fondant filled meringues. Delicious! We had time to briefly run through our presentation, then I sat up chatting until 1am with the leader of our project and presentation and a friend of hers.

We were first on this morning, and I was glad of a tasty, filling and not too greasy cooked breakfast beforehand. The presentation, which included a couple of models of teaching methods ("articulate" and visuals/oracy/questions model), was well received. There were three main parts - an overview and explanation of the course, given by the course leader, leading the conference in an interactive activity modelling the teaching idea, "articulate", led by my colleague, and my brief presentation of my research, explaining how the course leads into working on a Masters. I had to rush my section, unfortunately, because the first two sections went on a bit too long! However, I managed to demonstrate one effective strategy, and a couple of people afterwards said that it was helpful and they are going to use it.

Good discussions afterwards about the BPAP strategy in our individual schools. Very interesting to hear what other schools are doing. I think it would be good if we could start a teaching and learning group at our school, with members of each department, so ideas and strategies could be shared with all members of staff on a subject-specific basis, although still with a cross-curricular emphasis (eg on literacy, or BPAP).

Another issue that was raised is the paucity of good, relevant images on the web of black people, and other ethnic minorities, for example in Catholic churches. There are images of black people in Pentecostal churches, for example, but very few in Catholic churches. Someone suggested that I write to parents to see if they have photos they would be willing for us to use in lessons, so that our visuals could become more representative of the communities that our pupils come from. I'm planning on following that up.

Right. I think I'll head to bed and get some rest before tomorrow - when I have a parents' evening with my form!