Events in London

Developing creativity and independence through literacy: Rethinking approaches to reading & writing inset

January 23

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Story Shorts Cinema Session for teachers & pupils inset

January 29

NFT3, BFI Southbank. £5 per pupil; £1 for accompanying adults; £30 for teachers attending without students.

This entertaining, interactive session is an introduction to studying film for Key Stage 2 pupils. Children view short films taken from the Story Shorts and the new Story Shorts 2 resources and use these to discuss key themes such as story and character. The session will provides pupils with a framework for looking at film which can be applied to all moving image and will encourage them to become more active viewers.

Anne Frank, a Story For All Times inset

January 30

NFT3, BFI Southbank, £8 per student; £1 for accompanying adults; £30 for teachers attending without students.
This event is designed to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day and for Anne Frank Day to remember the extraordinary story of Anne Frank and to introduce it to a new generation. There will be extracts from filmic and TV adaptations of the story and other short films made on a similar theme will be screened and discussed. We hope to have a speaker from the Anne Frank Trust talking about their work, and a screenwriter from the latest BBC adaptation to talk about the process of adapting a famous diary for the screen. Suitable for KS3 English, PHSE and Citizenship curricular areas.

MADD for literacy: Developing a creative approach to literacy through Music, Art, Dance and Drama inset

February 2

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Assessment for learning: Writing (Primary) inset

February 11

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Jewish Book Week litfest

February 21

Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1

Jewish Book Week has contributors from around the globe. There are over 50 sessions in London and 30 nationwide on contemporary issues which radically affect our sense of ourselves as individuals and members of diverse communities.

Planning and progression in literacy (Primary) inset

February 24

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Approaches to non-fiction reading and writing: Moving on (Primary) inset

February 27

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Using ICT and English in the Foundation Stage and KS1 (Primary) inset

March 4

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Film and Shakespeare for SATs: Star Cross’d Lovers on the Silver Screen inset

March 5

NFT3, BFI Southbank, £8 per student; £1 for accompanying adults; £40 for teachers attending without students.

This event for Key Stage 3 English students is designed to familiarise them with filmic adaptations of the Shakespeare set text for SATs : Romeo & Juliet. The morning will comprise a presentation with clips giving an overview of Shakespeare on film and focusing in particular on filmic adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, with interactive student activities. In the afternoon there will an introduced screening of Franco Zeffirelli’s classic Romeo and Juliet (1968). This is an ideal opportunity for students to develop their understanding of the play through a different medium and to appreciate Shakespeare in a different context.

Poetry – can we do better? inset

March 5

Addressing the concerns of the OFSTED survey and report on the teaching of poetry (Primary)
Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Speaking & Listening Conference: Teacher talk, learning talk inset

March 9

Examining effective classroom talk (Primary)
Institute of Education, London, £150. For more details please contact

Film and Shakespeare for SATs: Much Ado about Something inset

March 11

NFT3, BFI Southbank, £8 per student; £1 for accompanying adults; £40 for teachers attending without students.
This event for Key Stage 3 English students is designed to familiarise them with filmic adaptations of the Shakespeare set text for SATs : Much Ado About Nothing. The morning will comprise a presentation with clips giving an overview of Shakespeare on film and focusing in particular on filmic adaptations of Much Ado, with interactive student activities. In the afternoon there will an introduced screening of Kenneth Branagh’s celebrated Much Ado About Nothing (1993). This is an ideal opportunity for students to develop their understanding of the play through a different medium and to appreciate Shakespeare in a different context.

Promoting boys’ achievement in literacy inset

March 20

Developing multimodal and multimedia approaches (Primary)
Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Using ICT in English at KS2 inset

March 25

Institute of Education, London, £150. For more details please contact

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival litfest

March 29

Christ Church

Peru’s foremost and most distinguished writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, will give the very first Chancellor’s Lecture introduced by the Chancellor of The University of Oxford, Lord Patten, in the Sheldonian Theatre - designed by the seventeenth century architect Sir Christopher Wren. Wedgwood, England’s finest china company, brings us The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu to talk about Englishness in celebration of their 250th anniversary. And the eminent historian David Starkey will talk about Henry VIII.

Improving writing through guided writing at KS2 inset

June 9

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Starting Stories Inset inset

June 10

Learning Space 2, BFI Southbank, Price: £150 per teacher, includes refreshments, light lunch & FREE copy of a bfi Starting Stories DVD teaching pack.

This INSET offers a rationale for working with films as texts to develop language and literacy skills in the classroom and aims to give teachers confidence in using the award-winning bfi resource Starting Stories and the new Starting Stories 2. The material covered also links with objectives outlined in the National Literacy Strategy, focusing on ‘talk for writing’ and the development of ‘shared writing’.

Teacher talk, pupil talk: Speaking, listening and learning, inset

June 15

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Starting Stories Cinema Sessions for teachers & pupils inset

June 17

BFI Southbank, £5 per pupil; £1 for accompanying adults; £30 for teachers attending without students.
This session provides an introduction to thinking about teaching film at Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. The session develops children’s media literacy by giving them a simple framework for analysing films and introduces them to key vocabulary that can be applied to any film.

“Between the covers”: Improving literacy through bookmaking inset

June 19

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Story Shorts Cinema Session for teachers & pupils inset

June 24

NFT3, BFI Southbank. £5 per pupil; £1 for accompanying adults; £30 for teachers attending without students.

This entertaining, interactive session is an introduction to studying film for Key Stage 2 pupils. Children view short films taken from the Story Shorts and the new Story Shorts 2 resources and use these to discuss key themes such as story and character. The session will provides pupils with a framework for looking at film which can be applied to all moving image and will encourage them to become more active viewers.

Using phonics to tackle literacy problems inset

July 3

Institute of Education, London, £130. For more details please contact

Making Connections: Building Literate Communities in and Beyond Classrooms inset

July 10 - July 12 2009

45th Annual International UKLA Conference, Greenwich University, London.
Speakers include: Robin Alexander, Cambridge University, Malorie Blackman, Author, 
Teresa Cremin, The Open University, Jonathan Douglas, Director, National Literacy Trust, Angela Thomas, University of Sydney, Sarah McIntyre, Petr Horacek, and David Roberts - Illustrators and artists. Visit the website for more information.