Today saw the welcome return of the me+ maths and English conference at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium.
In its fifth year, the event offers a platform for practitioners in further education to share best practice.
Helping to kick off proceedings, the Association of College’s senior policy manager FE, Catherine Sezen, said: “This is a unique event held for the sector, by the sector. It is so good to see the collaboration at teacher level.”
The annual conference is organised by maths and English managers from providers across the Tees Valley, including Stockton Riverside College, Hartlepool College of Further Education, Northern School of Art, Middlesbrough College and Darlington College.
With speakers from across the sector, today’s event included workshops with Russell Stannard, Helen Hewlett, Trevor Hewlett, Jonny Kay, and Rebecca Matthews.
Leading a session on using digital skills to enhance the classroom, Russell Stannard said: “Today has been amazing to see people working together in groups and wanting to discuss and share their ideas. Even sitting down together, before the session starts, you can see the discussions taking place.”
Following the limitations of the last two years with the restrictions of covid, he said: “You can forget how effective a conference is.”
Leading a session on supporting adult learners with functional skills, Phill Hall, is a work-based learning functional skills co-ordinator with Stockton Riverside College, NETA Training and Bede Sixth Form College.
He said: “The fact that today’s event is about providers supporting providers shows that we are all focused on our learners’ best interests. The buzz you get here is because people are inspired to learn how they can be better at their own practice, to offer better provision, giving their students a better chance of success. Everyone loves to see a student succeed.”
Redcar and Cleveland College’s programme area lead for English, maths and digital technologies, Natalie Chapman, said: “It’s great just to collaborate with other organisations and share good practice and to hear from practitioners with expert knowledge on how things are moving forward in English and maths.”
As the me+ conference is now in its fifth year, Natalie added: “You start to recognise faces as we get to know the maths and English teams at other colleges, we all face the same challenges and so it’s good to be able to bounce ideas off each other.”
The AoC’s Catherine Sezen added: “I’m an English teacher myself and so I know what it’s like to work with students who have experienced failure. It is not just about teaching English and maths, it’s about building self-confidence, boosting self-esteem and helping people believe that they can do it.”
