Kings Fund Conference 2019

Today, 4 of our students not only attended the Kings Fund Conference in Leeds, but they were speakers there, too! This has been a fantastic opportunity for our students as it’s a national conference focusing on mental health and youth services across the UK, and was a chance for them to present findings from research they took part in regarding youth services in Doncaster and how they could ‘live their best lives’.

Alfie, Kate, Scarlett and Rex have been completely amazing today from start to end, taking the delayed trains in their stride (with a hot chocolate – thanks Anna!)  and keeping their composure when we arrived at Horizon in Leeds.

The conference was split into workshops and breakout areas, ours focused on supporting young people in communities using a capabilities approach.

All 4 students spoke confidently, clearly and ‘eloquently’ (a word used by a conference delegate!) and did themselves, me, Anna and Carrie from Doncaster Council, and XP, proud!

 

During the Q&A session at the end Scarlett even received a round of applause from the professionals who attended our workshop as a result of her answer to a question about the negative effects social media is having on young people. Well done Scarlett!

It’s been an absolute pleasure spending the day with Rex, Alfie, Kate and Scarlett and multiple professionals stopped us to tell us how impressed they were with the young people – one lady stopped the girls to tell them how courageous they were for having the guts to stand up and present to a room of around 35/40 people – they told her “it’s just what we do!”.

Well done – that’s how we XP!

Who is Ron Berger?

Ron is a teacher and carpenter who lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. His role as teacher at Shutesbury Elementary school allowed him to develop a pedagogy that is now being used in over 160 schools through his current work as Chief Program Officer of Expeditionary Learning.

His book, An Ethic of Excellence has inspired many practitioners to take a values driven pedagogy and deliver this practically through Expeditionary Learning Core Practices.

He is widely recognised as one of the best educators in the world.

Examples of his work can be seen below:

http://vimeo.com/49934863

http://vimeo.com/44053703

http://vimeo.com/38247060

and here is a link to a recent article written by Ron.

RonColor

 

About Tait

Tait Coles is Vice Principal for Learning and Innovation at Dixons City Academy, Bradford.  He is excited about SOLO Taxonomy, Project Based Learning (PBL), leadership and pedagogy and developing independent and resilient learners. Tait is extremely interested in using “New Technologies” to engage and enthuse students. He is passionate about learning……it’s all about the learning.

You can view Tait’s blog here

Follow Tait on Twitter @totallywired77