9th Annual Conference

Preparing Young People for Their Futures

26th February 2019

Date | 26th February 2019

Venue
Coin Street Conference
Centre
108 Stamford Street,
London
SE1 9NH Twitter
@WholeEducation
Nearest station | Waterloo
#WEpreparED
^ Basement
Southbank Rooms 1, 2 & 3

< Ground floor

Reception, sign in &
Neighbourhood room

Third Floor
Max Nasatyr, Fred
Miller & Lil Patrick
Coin Street Conference Centre

As a national not-for-profit network, as well as reinvesting proceeds from

events and programmes to develop and subsidise our core offer, projects and
programmes, we aim to work with like-minded, values-driven organisations.

For the past two years we have held our annual conference at Coin Street
Conference Centre.

Coin Street Community Builders is a social enterprise whose aim is to make

the South Bank neighbourhood a great place to live, to work in, and to visit.

They have transformed a largely derelict 13 acre site into a mixed use
neighbourhood by creating 220 co-operative homes, shops, galleries,
restaurants and bars, a park and riverside walkway as well as sports facilities.

The Centre sees over 80 hours of free and affordable community activities
every week, offering families and children high quality and affordable
programmes and providing integrated childcare and early years education.

Coin Street also offers training & employment support via one-to-one
sessions, peer-to-peer tutoring & mentoring to boost confidence & attainment,
as well as an employment and learning programme for 18-30 year olds.

Coin Street firmly believes in a diverse economy and community to maintain

the neighbourhood as a place where people feel happy, healthy, safe and
secure; a place that enables people to connect with each other, where they can
build their confidence and skills whatever their age and feel they belong.

All income generated from the Conference Centre is invested back into
the local community as part of Coin Street’s social enterprise principles.
Welcome
This year, our conference theme is Preparing Young People For Their Futures. It raises a
number of questions: What does the future hold - for life, learning and work? What will the
jobs market look like for young people starting school today? What should school’s role be in
preparing young people for their futures? How can we help young people take ownership of
their futures?

The theme calls to mind the wealth of confusing, often conflicting, news headlines and
research reports presenting sometimes dystopian visions of the future. We do not accept the
most extreme of these- of robots and automation leading to mass joblessness, of increasingly
divided societies fractured by fake news and social media. Some jobs will disappear, but others
will change or be created. There will be both upheaval and opportunity. There will be winners
and losers; our nagging concern is that with our current trajectory these may replicate or
exacerbate existing inequalities.

Many discussions about the future suggest that much of what schools do is obsolete. We
disagree. Many of the things that schools do will continue to be relevant. At the conference
you will have the opportunity to discuss with, and hear from, experts, practitioners and other
leaders on how schools and systems can better prepare young people for their future.

We will build on our 2018 conference Attainment is Not Enough, where Andreas Schleicher
argued there is an urgent need for us to take a broader approach to preparing young people for
their futures. We will look at which competencies and domains of knowledge are increasingly
important and how to develop them.

Overall we seek to provide inspiration, challenge and thoughtful reflection for you - school and
system leaders up and down the country committed to an evidence informed approach to better
preparing young people for their futures.

We hope you will leave feeling inspired, energised and refreshed

Lord Knight is the Chair of the Whole Education Network. He previous served in the cabinet as
Schools Minister and Employment Minister.
Agenda
Welcome and introduction
10:30 Douglas Archibald, Director, Whole Education Network

Keynote 1 | ‘Perspectives on preparing young people for their futures’

10:35 Professor Sir Venki Ramakrishnan

Keynote 2 | ‘Perspectives on preparing young people for their futures’

10:50 Professor Rose Luckin

Responses and reflections on preparing young people for their futures | Panel discussion
11:05 Chair: Lord Knight. Contributions from Alex Beard, Alex Quigley, Sam Twiselton & Jenny Williams

11:40 Break

12:00 Extended exploratory sessions | Learning from the experts and each other

Is your curriculum Two-for-one Futureproofing your

future ready? | Unpicking
curriculum freedoms
and opportunities to
prepare young people for
their futures
teaching | Approaches workforce | How can
to deliver academic you build your team
success and wider to confidently prepare
skills for all learners young people for their
futures?

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Expert workshops | Ideas into action: what can you can do now?

Irresistable learning Making sense of Teacher coaching | Understanding the

that lasts | Primary metacognition | Key Catching the zeitgeist brain | Implications
curriculum intent into to preparing young and making it work to for teaching and
implementation people to thrive? improve learning at all learning
levels

3:25 Expert workshops | Ideas into action: things you can do now | Part II

Their futures, our Collaborative Teacher motivation Natural born

responsibility | Making learning | Improving | What can we do to learners | Workshop
your curriculum work outcomes while improve recruitment and discussion
for white working class developing life skills and retention?
boys (secondary)

4:20 Break
Our Collective Commitment for the Future
Sir Tim Brighouse and young people reflect on what they’ve heard.
4:30 You share what has resonated.
All of us agree our next steps together.

5:30 Close
Opening session
10:30-11:40
Keynote speakers | Professor Sir Venki Ramakrishnan & Professor Rose Luckin

Perspectives From Leading Global Thinkers on Preparing Young

People For Their Futures
Provocations followed by panel debate hosted by Lord Knight. Contributors include Alex Beard, Alex
Quigley, Sam Twiselton and Jenny Williams

What does the future hold - for life, learning and work? What will the jobs market look like
for young people starting school today? Leading international experts including Venki
Ramakrishnan and Rose Luckin will provide provocations on how we better prepare young
people for their futures.

Professor Sir Venki Professor Rose Luckin Alex Beard

Ramakrishnan

Venki received the Nobel Prize
in Chemistry in 2009 and
was knighted in 2012. He was
elected President of the Royal
Society in 2015. At the Royal
Society’s Broad and Balanced
Curriculum Symposium he
argued for a more rounded
education for young people,
outlining the need for a
broader curriculum to better
prepare them for their futures.
Rose is Professor of Learner
Centred Design at the UCL
Knowledge Lab in London. Her
research involves the design
and evaluation of educational
technology using theories
from the learning sciences
and techniques from Artificial
Intelligence (AI). She is an
international expert on the
effects of AI on education.
Alex has worked in education
for a decade. After 10 years
as an English teacher he
completed his MA at the
Institute of Education before
joining Teach For All. He
spends his time travelling
the world in search of
practices shaping the future
of learning and has written
for the Guardian, FT, and
Independent. Natural Born
Learners is a user’s guide to
transforming learning in the
twenty-first century.
Closing session | Conference Dinner
16:30-17:30
Featuring Professor Tim Brighouse, school leaders from the WE Network and the
voice of local young people

Our Collective Commitment for the Future

Sir Tim Brighouse and young people reflect on what they’ve heard across the day. What are the most
urgent challenges and immediate opportunities that we can take to ensure we are preparing young
people for their futures?

Your voices will be featured across the session, sharing your insights, good practice or questions with
colleagues. Together we agree our next steps and actions to take to help deliver a ‘whole education’.

Conference Dinner
Keynote from Lord Knight
18:30 Drinks reception
19:15-21:00 Dinner

Our annual conference dinner and drinks reception

will take place in a Central London hotel, a 15 minute
walk from the conference venue across the river.

Jim Knight is the Chief Education Adviser at TES

Professor Tim Brighouse
Global Ltd. He is a member of the House of Lords and
a visiting Professor at the London Knowledge Lab
of the Institute of Education.As a UK government
Tim began his career by teaching
minister his portfolios included schools and
for a number of years. He was Chief
employment.
Education Officer in both Oxfordshire
and Birmingham, where his work
was quoted by Ofsted as “an example
to all others of what can be done, “I wish I attended this as a teacher.
even in the most demanding urban It would have made me think
environment.” During his tenure twice about leaving a job I loved. I
as Professor of Education at Keele
University he founded the ‘Centre
believe passionately in the values
for Successful Schools.’ He served as that were spoken about it would
Commissioner for London Schools have felt empowered to continue!!”
until 2007.
Key conference strand:

Curriculum
Whole Education exists to promote a fully rounded education, and to help schools confidently
and effectively deliver such an entitlement in the current climate. While schools are being
encouraged to reengage with curriculum and ensure a broad and balanced education, doing so on
the ground is as practically challenging as ever.

Given national prescription and accountability pressures, many schools haven’t focused on
curriculum design. Even in an age of autonomy and academisation, system pressures meant
many schools’ freedoms didn’t feel real to teachers or leaders. Many delegates on Leading and
Managing Curriculum Change said they had thought of curriculum mostly as timetabling.

In the last 18 months, there has been a shift. Provoked by HMCI’s interest in a deep and rich
‘whole education’ curriculum, there has been a welcome recognition that the curriculum must
be about more than working backwards from the content of exams. Many schools are discovering
they have more choices than they realised.

So far, so positive. But some have cautioned that the new Ofsted framework’s emphasis
on curriculum could just become another narrow measure. Others have warned a rushed
implementation risks compromising good intentions. All the while, stories from the frontline
highlight ongoing examples of a narrowing curriculum. Arts and MFL provision have been
dramatically scaled back in some schools. Funding pressures persist.

Since our inception we have argued a ‘whole education’ should help develop the skills, qualities
and knowledge young people need to thrive. You could say this is a ‘whole education’ curriculum
intent. This has never been about a syllabus or timetable- rather it is a mindset to best deliver
this intent. So, how can we ensure the welcome interest in young people’s curriculum diet leads
to a true ‘whole education’ that prepares all young people for their futures?

What next?

Leading a Whole Education is a key part of our core offer for national primaries and
secondaries. Leading to Impact is a leadership programme for leaders within a locality. Both
support leaders to engage with Ofsted’s emphasis on curriculum intent, implementation
and impact. They provide top tips, challenge and inspiration to confidently and effectively
deliver a ‘whole education’ that learners need to thrive in learning, life and work.
12:00-13:30

Opening exploratory session

future
Is your curriculum Ofsted ready? Unpicking curriculum freedoms
and opportunities to prepare young people for their futures
These sessions feature a mix of intimate table sessions focusing on a particular insight or persective,
hosted by a leading national expert; discussion with peers; and closing reflections from a panel of the
experts.

Themes for practitioner debate and discussion:

1. Revisiting attainment is not enough: what 5. Using the best primary practice to successfully
curriculum choices are you making? embed an integrated curriculum at KS3

2. Intent, implementation, impact: the 6. Busting myths around the time we have: what
opportunties of the system’s focus on curriculum curriculum space is really available?

3. Young people’s choices: What can young
people’s choices tell us about our curriculum
choices?
4. What does outstanding EYFS look like?
7. Where arts thou? How can primary arts drive a
‘whole education’ and nurture indepedence?
8. How can we seize the curriculum agenda and
take advantage of the renewed interest in a quality,
‘whole education’?

Experts include:

David Crossley Professor Mick Waters WE school leaders

David is Whole Education’s
Associate Director. David
created the DfE’s Raising
Achievement Transforming
Learning (RATL) programme
involving more than 700
schools. David’s ideas derive
from his four Headships. He
is an Educational Advisor for
the DfE.
Mick works with schools
in the West Midlands
in raising standards.
Mick has been a teacher,
Headteacher, Director of
Curriculum at QCA and
worked with Birmingham
and Manchester LAs. His
book Thinking Allowed
was published in 2013.
School leaders from across
the Whole Education
network and a range of
settings and phases (early
years, primary, transition
and secondary) share
curriculum choices they
have made to prepare
young people for their
futures.
Key conference strand:

Teaching and Learning

“There is growing evidence that accumulating essential life skills, as well as
social and cultural capital, is instrumental to future life prospects”

We believe good teaching is more than delivering knowledge and improving academic attainment
- although both are vital. Good teaching instills a lifelong love of learning, helps young people to
apply their knowledge in real contexts and develops their wider skills and qualities.

We believe that supporting teachers to trial certain pedagogies and approaches - like
metacognition, collaborative learning or oracy- can help them improve academic outcomes right
away, while also developing young people’s essential life skills.

Effectively doing so means supporting teachers and teams to engage with research - to
investigate what works in their context and build their professional capital. Evidence should
empower, not disempower, teachers. Advances in neuroscience are also giving us a new
understanding of how young people learn, and can further support teachers to confidently and
effectively deliver a ‘whole education’.

In this strand we ask: what are some of these ‘both/and’ pedagogies? How we can empower
teachers to confidently and effectively deliver an engaging ‘whole education’ that prepares young
people for their futures?

What next?

Spirals of Enquiry is a proven, international model for transforming learners’ futures. By

putting learners at the centre, it helps teachers take evidence-informed action to break
down their barriers to learning.

Lab Classrooms is a key part of our core offer for schools. It empowers teachers to trial new
approaches in a safe and supportive environment, and provides structure and guidance on
effectively implementing and asessing their practice.
 12:00-13:30

Opening exploratory session

Two-for-one teaching: T&L approaches to deliver academic
success and wider skills for all learners
These sessions feature a mix of intimate table sessions focusing on a particular insight or persective,
hosted by a leading national expert; discussion with peers; and closing reflections from a panel of the
experts.

Themes for discussion, expert debate and table sessions

1. Is metacognition key to helping young people 4. Supporting your team to engage with research
thrive in a changing world? and find out what works for your learners

2. Talking sense: can oracy improve young 5. Outdoor learning: developing life skills and
people’s exam results and help them be confident, improving exam results
articulate communicators?
6. Can a flipped classroom give your teachers
3. How can we effectively implement more time to deliver a ‘whole education’?
collaborative learning to develop teamworking
and improve attainment?

Experts include:

Amy Gaunt Christine Howe Anita Kerwin-Nye Alex Quigley

Amy is Director of Christine is a Anita is Director of Alex is a Senior

Programmes at Voice developmental Strategy and Engagement Associate at the EEF,
21 and co-author of psychologist and Emeritus at YHA and founder of following 15 years
Transform Teaching Professor of Education Every Child Should. She in schools. He is co-
and Learning through at Cambridge University. is an advisor to CLOTC author of the EEF’s
Talk: the Oracy She has spent 20 years and Institute of Outdoor Metacognition and Self-
Imperative. A former researching how children Learning and one of the regulation report. He is
primary teacher, she develop through working leads behind Outdoor also author of Closing
led the development of together in groups. Citizens. She’s a national the Vocabulary Gap,
oracy in the primary leader in inclusion. and writes for TES and
phase at School 21. Teach Secondary.
Key conference strand:

Building your team

“We should focus on the greatest source of variance that can make the differ-
ence – the teacher”

The most important resource schools have is their teachers and leaders. In order to deliver a
‘whole education’ that prepares young people for their futures we need to attract and invest in the
best people.

The recruitment and retention challenges are well reported. Great teachers are leaving the
profession or even leaving the country to teach overseas. It is getting harder and harder to attract
the best candidates to the sector.

This is a system-wide problem caused by a range of factors, many of which are beyond schools’
control. But with government energy consumed by Brexit and austerity policies making
significant new funding unlikely, schools can’t wait for a solution from government.

So we ask: how can schools make the most of the choices they do have to try and take control of a
recruitment and retention challenge that threatens to undo much of the progress of recent years?

We will be investigating what the data tells us about the reasons teachers are leaving and
approaches that could make a meaningful difference. We’ll also explore longer-term school-led
solutions to sustainably develop greater teachers and leaders and deliver a ‘whole education’ that
prepares young people for their futures.

What next?

Strategic HR in Education supports Trust leaders to take joined up thinking and action for
effective recruitment, development and retention. Using expert people strategists from
within and beyond education, it supports schols to network and learn how to:

+ Create a network for people committed to developing strategic HR in education

+ Inspire schools to develop sustainable, long-term and cost effective HR approaches
+ Support HR leaders to apply new learning in their context through bestpoke mentoring

Film Club is a completely free programme from our partners IRIS Connect designed to
assist you in getting your teachers talking about teaching practice and formative feedback.
12:00-13:30

Opening exploratory session

Futureproofing your workforce: how can you build your team to
confidently prepare young people for their futures?
These sessions feature a mix of intimate table sessions focusing on a particular insight or persective,
hosted by a leading national expert; discussion with peers; and closing reflections from a panel of the
experts.

Themes for discussion, expert debate and table sessions

1. Is initial teacher training fit for purpose?
2. How can we use teacher coaching for
sustainable, meaningful development?
3. Could flexible working be the way forward for
attracting and retaining the best teachers and
leaders?
4. What do we know about the data behind
teacher motivation and could it help us with
recruitment and retention?
5. What should we be aiming for when we create
quality CPD?
6. How can artificial intelligence help your
teachers more time to deliver a ‘whole education’?

Experts include:

Sam Twiselton OBE Emma Hollis, Rachel Lofthouse,

Sheffield Institute of NASBTT CollectivED Leeds Beckett
Education

Dr Emily Perry, Vivienne Porritt, Dr Sam Sims,

Sheffield Institute of Founder of WomenED UCL Institute of
Education Education
14:30
Ideas Into Action Breakout sessions round I
Irresistable learning that lasts |
Primary curriculum intent into
implementation
Our collective challenge for curriculum is to make it
so irresistible than young people don’t want to turn
away from it. Too often curriculum is determined by
working backwards from the exams at the end, with an
acceptance that it won’t be fun. How do we flip that, so
children don’t ever want learning to end? In this session
Mick Waters draws on his vast experience of curriculum
design to explore how you can create irresistable
learning at primary.
Session type Primary
Speakers
David Crossley; Mick Waters
Making sense of metacognition | Key
to preparing young people to thrive?
There is a collective understanding that learners
increasingly need good metacognitive skills to thrive. A
strong understanding of their own learning can prepare
young people to succeed in their futures as well as
improving outcomes in the classroom.
In this session Alex will draw on the new Education
Endowment Foundation guidance report on
‘Metacognition and Self-regulation’, exploring what
the evidence says and what we know about effective
implementation.
Session type Primary and secondary
Speakers
Alex Quigley (EEF)
Teacher coaching | Catching the
zeitgeist and making it work to
improve learning at all levels
Developing a purposeful, powerful coaching model can
be transformational for schools, embedding a culture of
learning and development at all levels. But coaching has
often been misunderstood, badly implemented or poorly
sustained. Professor Rachel Lofthouse is a national
expert and Director of CollectivEd at Leeds Beckett. She
will share insights from research which can support you
to create and embed a coaching model that can deliver
on your school’s priorities and develop your team to best
prepare young people for their futures.
Session type Primary and secondary
Speakers Rachel Lofthouse
Understanding the brain |
implications for teaching and
learning
In recent years there has been increasing interest in
the relationship between neuroscience and education.
Subjects like ‘brain, mind and education’, ‘educational
neuroscience’ and ‘the science of learning’ attract a
great deal of attention. At one extreme it is argued that
neuroscience has little or nothing to offer to education.
At the other it is sometimes seen as the ultimate solution
to maximising learning. This session will consider
the issues involved. In particular it will explore some
practical implications for teaching and learning.
‘Neuroscience-informed’ teaching? No brainer!
Session type Primary and secondary
Speakers
Derek Bell, Jeremy Dudman-Jones
15:25
Ideas Into Action Breakout sessions round II
Their futures, our responsibility |
Making your curriculum work for
white working-class boys
How can you ensure your curriculum delivers for all
your learners including white working class boys? David
Crossley is joined by experts and practitioners to argue
that to narrow this gap we must rethink how we use
work experience and vocational pathways to support
the curriculum, recognising their huge potential for
developing life skills, identity and future aspirations.
Session type Secondary
Speakers
David Crossley; Ruth Lupton; Mary-Claire Travers; Jenny
Williams
Collaborative learning | Improving
outcomes while developing life skills
Christine Howe has spent over 30 years looking at the
potential of interactive learning styles like collaborative
learning in the classroom. Her research has concluded
that not only is it a powerful way to improve attainment
for young people, it can also develop wider skills and
qualities while doing so - such as team work, problem-
solving and communication. As well as presenting
her research she will also investigate some of the
common challenges and myths around successful
implementation, looking at why it is often thought to
be too difficult for teachers to do well and helping you
design effective group learning for your context.
Session type Primary and secondary
Speakers
Christine Howe
Teacher motivation | What can
we do to improve recruitment and
retention?
The recruitment and retention challenges facing schools
makes delivering a ‘whole education’ confidently and
effectively a persistent challenge. In this session Sam
Sims will help you interpret and understand the data on
teacher motivation. What are the real reasons for these
challenges and how can you learn from other schools
and sectors to combat them?
Session type Primary and secondary
Speakers
Dr Sam Sims
Natural born learners: workshop and
discussion with Alex Beard
After starting out as an English teacher in a London
comprehensive, Alex now works at Teach For All, a
growing network of independent organizations working
to ensure that all children fulfil their potential. To this
session Alex brings his expertise from Teach for All
in community engagement which is locally-rooted but
globally-informed, as well as his international research
on the future of learning for his book, Natural Born
Learners: a user’s guide to transforming learning in
the twenty-first century, from Silicon Valley to Seoul,
Helsinki to Hounslow.
Session type Primary and secondary
Speakers
Alex Beard
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