Making your school a space for learning

The Education Show returns on the 17-19 March for three days of innovation, ideas and insight, all under one roof. Education Business looks forward to the event.

The Education Show is the recognised education and learning community platform, which will once again attract in excess of 10,000 visitors to the NEC Birmingham.

A rich offering of new content, inspiring training and development, and pioneering educational suppliers will be available throughout the show. From innovative teaching resources and practices to educational charities and organisations, Education Show 2016 will be providing all of the insight you need for a successful career in the world of education. Each year, the show attracts professionals from primary, secondary and higher education backgrounds, all offering a wealth of knowledge and experience in their field.

Speaking to visitors at the Education Show, the one reason that they give for attending year on year is ‘to learn’. Each year they visit the show to gather advice, guidance and ideas from both the exhibitors and the top quality training and continuing professional development programme on offer.

Last year, 60 per cent of the 10,000 strong audience were first time visitors. The total number ranged from those involved in primary school (40 per cent), secondary school (10 per cent), early years (nine per cent), further education (eight per cent) and higher education (five per cent).

Of the leaders and decision makers present, 33 per cent were head teachers, 24 per cent deputy head teachers, six per cent principals, eight per cent directors, five per cent governors, four per cent school business managers and bursars, the 20 per consisted of other senior leadership positions. In total, leaders made up 19 per cent of the total visitor audience. The show is ideal for those looking for inspiration and innovation in general teaching resources, school services, teacher training, SEN resources, assessment tools, educational toys, computer software, interactive resources, and outdoor play furniture.

School leaders summit
Exclusively focused for those with a leadership role in a school, the School Leaders Summit will address innovative new ways to enhance education in schools and provide an atmosphere where like-minded educators can learn, network and share ideas.

The sessions will cover subjects ranging from overcoming life with levels, effectively using pupil premium to raise student attainment and teacher recruitment. A panel discussion on ‘Effectively raising attainment with pupil premium’ will reveal the secrets to spending successfully to maximise achievement. Kirsty Tonks and David Deacon will look into the barriers present to learning, choosing the best strategies for your school, using curriculum freedoms to close the gap, and reviewing your audit trail.

With the looming teacher recruitment crisis, how are you promoting your school to prospective teachers? The decreasing school budgets means that recruiting students is an increasingly popular strategy to secure additional funding. How are you marketing your institution to parents and students? A second panel will showcase their tips on identifying your school’s unique selling point, what’s worth investing in to drive in teachers and students, why traditional advertising no longer works, and the importance of utilising the web and social media.

Teacher and Behaviour Guru Tom Bennett will address strategies for behaviour management and offers advise for staff on how to tackle low-level distractions. Finally, James Lissaman will tackle the best ways of incorporating the key elements of a good assessment system and translating these into the classroom, ensuring that you are challenging pupils effectively and setting appropriate targets, tracking and effectively measuring pupil progress post levels, and demonstrating progress for Ofsted, governors, and parents.

Maths and science theatre
The Maths and Science Theatre will immerse educators in teaching techniques and effective learning strategies through seminars, workshops and demonstrations to enhance maths and science lessons.

There is nothing particularly new about the concept of flipped learning or the flipped classroom - giving work to pupils before a lesson. What does make a significant difference is the use of technology to enhance this experience. Kirsty Tonks, assistant principal at Shireland Collegiate Academy will take a deeper dive into the journey of MathsFlip; an Education Endowment Foundation funded project which looks at the impact of adopting a flipped learning method with Year 5 and 6 pupils in mathematics. Along with Jen Devaney, the project manager, ‘Flipped classroom: Reinventing your maths lessons’ will demonstrate how using technology to deliver this methodology can accelerate and deepen the learning.

The ATM perspective on assessing mathematics in the new curriculum exemplifies how to use rich tasks to assess both content and process skills. During Heather Davies’ session on ‘Assessing mathematical thinking for KS1, KS2 and KS3 teachers’, ATM will explore a task and the best approaches available.

Also discussing mathematics, David Youdan and Nigel Steele of IMA trace out the key skills for educating better mathematics educators in their session on ‘Creating tomorrows Head of Maths’. David Youdan is the Chief Executive of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, working in support of Council and directing the Secretariat. David has worked on the NCTL Maths Initial Teacher Training Scholarships programme since its inception. He launched the IMA MathsCareers website, possibly the most successful STEM careers website with about 250,000 visitors each year.

Elani McDonald will also address the demands to incorporate IT into advancing teaching of maths and science as a process of bettering understanding of STEM subjects.Middlesborough College’s Richard Spencer, finalist of the secondary Global Teacher Prize, provides his top tips to get students interested in science, while there will also be a seminar exploring what ‘outstanding’ levels of science looks like and how you can replicate this for students – from primary to A levels.

Central feature theatre
The Central Feature Theatre, dubbed the heart of the show, will be hosting seminars and discussions addressing the changes to assessment. Focusing on teaching innovatively to improve literacy skills across all subject areas, the Theatre will look at assessment changes across primary and secondary educational institutions.

The keynote will be presented by Nick Gibb, Schools Minister. Having served as Shadow Minister for Schools from 2005 to 2010 and as Minister of State for Schools from May 2010 to September 2012, Gibb is responsible for teachers and school leaders, curriculum, assessment and qualifications, school accountability, underperformance and improving school-to-school support, and school admissions, exclusions and attendance.

Elsewhere, Nadiya Hussain, winner of the Great British Bake Off, will be discussing ‘Growth Mindset and Educational Story’, James Lissaman, assistant head teacher at De Lisle Collge, presents on ‘Life after levels: How are your peers progressing?’ Hear how this primary and secondary school have faced the removal of levels and their victories so far, including the incorporation of the key elements of a good assessment system and translating these into the classroom, setting appropriate targets, tracking and effectively measuring pupil progress post levels, and demonstrating progress for Ofsted governors.

With a new curriculum that pushes for Mastery how do teachers make sure that this can happen? In his talk on ‘Developing Mastery in the classroom through personalising learning’, Kevin McLaughlin of Old Mill Primary School will discuss how developing a personalised learning approach can help children master the content the curriculum demands of them.

Additionally, ‘Practical steps: Life without levels’ will question whether new assessment systems are robust enough to enable senior leadership teams to monitor the effectiveness of the curriculum that is being taught in the classroom. ‘Engaging students: Gaming through the curriculum’ will inspire visitors by showing how quizzes, virtual reality and video games can be adapted and utilised in the classroom to further enrich lessons.

Early Years and SEN Theatre
The Early Years and SEN Theatre is a dedicated space focussing on the challenges and opportunities currently facing SEN and early years professionals. The sessions will provide advice on meeting the needs of early years and SEN students.

Rosie King, storytelling activist and winner of Emmy Kid’s Award, will be addressing the audience in her keynote on ‘What’s great about autism?’ after a seminar on ‘SEN: Making the most of your budget’ looks into a number of insights that can help SEN departments spend effectively and with impact.

Meanwhile, ‘Continuous Provision in the Foundation Stage - Play as a differentiation strategy’ will seek to clarify the reality of differentiating in early years.

Hosted by Alicia Blanco-Bayo, pre-school manager at Kirkham Grammar School, the seminar will also look at how play can be differentiated, how to plan for differentiated play, and how to orientate children so that they can initiate play that had previously been differentiated. Finally, Beccie Hawes, head of service at Rushall Primary School, looks at ‘Supporting effective teaching and assessment of reading in your Reception classrooms’.

Learning through technology
Brand new for 2016, the Learning Through Technology Zone is dedicated to educators who want to source the latest technology products and services for education establishments.

This specific technology‑focused zone is a key opportunity to reach educators who are interested in purchasing learning technology products and solutions. With computing now part of the curriculum and technology becoming increasingly prominent in the learning environment, educators need to develop their skills and resources.

Over half of schools in the UK anticipate that by 2015, over 50 per cent of teaching time will incorporate ICT. Therefore, the Education Show will be leading the technology transition once again. Additionally, following the mass success of the National Curriculum Theatre at last year’s show, Scholastic’s Reading Hub builds on the company’s mission to help support reading schools and will include seminars and workshops by best-selling children’s authors, international literacy experts and practitioners on guided reading, reading assessment, Reading Recovery and more.

An added feature this year will be a reading clinic where teachers, literacy coordinators and head teachers can sit down with consultants and discuss the needs of their school, and how experts can help.

UKTI International Business Theatre
The UKTI International Business Theatre at stand A19 in Hall 2 will provide delegates with everything they need to reach out to new markets and grow your business.
Just last year UKTI helped over 31,800 UK companies begin exporting, winning them a share of over £50bn worth of sales. With ambitious targets of doubling British exports to £1 trillion and getting 100,000 more UK companies exporting by 2020, now is the perfect opportunity for you to benefit from their guidance and expertise to grow your business overseas.

Doing business overseas is vital to the growth and prosperity of UK companies of all sectors and sizes.

Firms that choose to export experience a 34 per cent increase in productivity in the first year, and firms that are currently exporting experience 59 per cent faster productivity growth than non‑exporters. UKTI is committed to providing you with the advice, intelligence and funding in order to allow you to explore export opportunities and enable your success in overseas markets.

The UKTI Export Theatre will host talks introducing the full range of UKTI support and market insight from UKTI specialists.

Why exhibit?
The Education Show is continuously growing and developing to meet the demands of its audience. The show attracts visitors from across the entire education landscape, including primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, further education colleges and universities. Over 10,000 visitors attended the 2015 year’s event, all of whom are passionate about delivering the best possible learning experience to their pupils and students.

This year’s show will have a host of first time exhibitors. Among the many taking to the NEC floor for the first time is outdoor learning specialists E.den Play. On Stand G58, E.den will be promoting their revolutionary MyPod, a uniquely optimised space, combining multiple outdoor play opportunities under one roof. With a selection of outdoor facilities, including classrooms, caves and kitchens, outdoor play enthusiasts should make their stand a must-see. Also in this field, Honey-Bee Adventures on Stand D32-E31 will be showcasing their dynamic children’s play equipment, including manufactured climbing frames and outdoor play equipment that you can pull apart and piece together for a different adventure every time.

Taking creative learning back inside the school building, East Peasy Plays on Stand E98 provide fun-packed musicals, plays and musical resources for pupils of all ages. With a bulk of Christmas time products, including the ‘Christmas Eve Kerfuffle’ and ‘Santa and the Beanstalk’, this is the stand to get your pupils humming all day. Memory Owl, on Stand F107, enables teachers to teach times tables visually through stories. Using narrative stories and interactive quizzes, lessons can be taught individually, collectively or at home. Of the more creative exhibitors, Yellow Door will be promoting their Let’s Investigate – Farmyard Footprints, a set of eight robust stones perfect for investigative play throughout a setting. Also on this stand, G01, Yellow Door will be showing delegates the award‑winning dinosaur bones, which are causing lots of excitement across early years and KS1 settings, and are perfect for budding palaeontologists and for learning early measuring skills. Learning Materials on Stand A89 will be exhibiting a mixture of our most popular series and our latest titles on show. Written primarily for SEN students, one of the products on show is Recognise Emotions, a series of six titles designed to help students understand expressions and feelings.

Getting to the NEC
The NEC is just ten minutes by train from the centre of Birmingham and 80 minutes from London. Birmingham International airport and railway station are within the same complex as the NEC to make your journey more comfortable. Birmingham International train station is just a five-minute walk under a covered bridge link from the show, linking Education Show with all major cities in the UK.

The NEC is situated eight miles East of Birmingham city centre, at the hub of the UK motorway network. Visitors from any direction can travel to The NEC site directly using the following motorways – M1, M5, M6, M6 Toll, M40 and M42.

The NEC is also easily accessible from all London airports. The most convenient is Birmingham Airport, once you’ve landed on Birmingham, you can take the Air-Rail Link which operates every two minutes and has a one-way travel time of 90 seconds. The link operates daily between 0515 and 0200, connecting the airport passenger terminals and The NEC.

Further Information
www.education-show.com