News articles
The Sunday Times Festival of Education 18-19 June 2015
Described as "the Hay-on-Wye of education", and now entering its sixth year, The Sunday Times Festival of Education is an exciting, inclusive event which really has something for everyone. From small beginnings as a one-day conference, to having cemented itself as the UK's premier forum for thought leadership, innovation and development in education, the Festival continues to attract many of education's most forward-thinking advocates, practitioners of change and policy makers. For teachers and lecturers, it has become a “must-attend” educational event.
This year over 4000 Festival-goers are expected to attend, with the chance to hear from over 200 influential speakers including: Andrew Adonis, Angela Lee Duckworth, Michael Wilshaw, Sebastian Faulks, AC Grayling, Alain de Botton, Alastair Stewart, Carol Dweck, Christine Blower, Claire Fox, Julian Cope Ken Robinson, Tinie Tempah and Piers Morgan. The Festival also boasts an eclectic mix of themes; previous years have seen Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali discuss faith in schools, Imogen Stubbs and Alexander Armstrong read poetry and the racing driving Sir Jackie Stewart and AA Gill present on dyslexia.
Attendees can expect discussion and debate around creativity in the classroom, the changing impact of technology, and how we can better support students with SEN to name a few. Schools and teachers can bring their classes and engage in exciting, interactive, fun workshops and camouflaged learning activities that will entertain and educate all learners, and help them walk away with new ideas and a renewed excitement for education.
Collect valuable CPD hours
More and more schools and colleges are seeing the CPD value of the Festival and now send groups of teachers, senior leaders, support staff and, in some cases, their entire staff. In a time of possible resistance to new policy and change, the Festival will see staff return highly motivated, inspired, challenged, and full of new ideas to improve their teaching.
Testimonials from previous Festival attendees:
“It is probably the most cost-effective CPD I’ve done in years” – Sir Mark Grundy, Executive Principal, Shireland Collegiate Academy
“I have rarely, if ever, felt so empowered to improve my own teaching and to help others improve theirs. I have just spent two days at the Sunday Times Festival of Education and it was simply amazing” – BH, Assistant Head, Loreto College, St Albans
“If you ever have the opportunity, I would urge you to attend the Sunday Times Festival of Education.” – Neil Hopkins, Headteacher
“If you’re a teacher and you’ve never been to this two day event…what possible excuse could you have?” – Hannah Tyreman, Learning and Development Manager, Reading College
The 2015 Sunday Times Festival of Education will be held at Wellington College from 18-19 June. Visit the website for tickets.
Supply Cha!nge - Make Supermarkets Fair - Workshop Thursday 28th May 9.30-1.00pm
Think Global is hosting a workshop for charities and civil society groups interested in fair trade, the social economy, and exploring some of the ethical issues of global supply chains. The workshop will focus on the issues behind supermarket ‘own brand’ products.
When: Thursday 28th May, 9am-1:30pm
Where: Think Global, 32-36 Loman Street, London, SE1 0EH
Suitable for: Those involved in campaigning, policy, lobbying, fair trade promotion or awareness raising.
Skills Seminar Report Published
On Tuesday 24th March, Think Global hosted a seminar for 20 specialists on the topic of ‘How to make the Hourglass Economy work for young people in the UK’. The event was inspired by the recent Skills Commission Report ‘Still in Tune?’, which found that the UK vocational and education system is inadequate for the needs of contemporary workplaces and policies; and by Think Global’s own work on global skills and training issues, over the past several years. Read the seminar report here.
The World's Largest Lesson
In September 2015 the world will have a plan. What's yours? Help to create The World's Largest Lesson.
This September the United Nations will announce the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a set of goals for the world that aim to make our planet fair, healthy and sustainable by 2030.
After the goals are announced, The World’s Largest Lesson will take place, with teachers in schools all around the world educating their students about the SDGs. This will help students understand the significance of these new global goals to their futures, and the crucial role they could play in realising them.
The World's Largest Lesson will be delivered with support from Think Global, Unicef, TES and Education International. It forms a key part of Project Everyone, a drive led by writer and film director Richard Curtis which aims to ensure everyone knows about the SDGs.
Think Global is working to create a bank of teaching and learning resources that cover all the SDG themes and that can help teachers research and deliver The World's Largest Lesson.
A competition has been launched inviting teachers from across the world to submit creative and exciting lesson plans about the SDGs. These will be rated by teachers and the winning ideas will be developed and published as a set of resources for teaching The World's Largest Lesson.
Competition closing date: 17th April 2015 | Ratings completion date: 1 May 2015
For further details, and to submit your lesson ideas, visit the TES website.
Think Global to host 'Attitudes to Development' seminar
Think Global will be hosting a national seminar called ‘UK Public Attitudes to Development: Building New Responses’ in June 2015, thanks to a grant from DEEEP. We will be working in collaboration with Bond to deliver this training. 30 participants from UK INGO’s (International Non-Governmental Organisations) will be attending, including marketing, campaigning, fundraising and education experts.
Think Global Awarded Nuffield Foundation Grant
Think Global have been awarded a grant by the Nuffield Foundation to create a ground-breaking teaching toolkit for maths and geography classrooms. Working in collaboration with Oxfam UK, the Maths Association, Maths in Education and Industry and teachers we will create a toolkit to support maths and geography teachers in secondary schools, and their students, to engage with international development, and specifically issues of female empowerment, through the innovative use of real development data in classroom activities.
Danish teachers take part in Think Global training
Fourteen Danish high school teachers are returning to Denmark today following a workshop on ‘Developing a Global Learning School’ by the Think Global team.
Global Educator of the Year Award 2015
Headteachers, teachers, parents, governors and students are encouraged to make a nomination for Think Global’s new award celebrating educators who are helping young people to become good global citizens.
We are looking for that person who is making a special difference in inspiring colleagues and/or students to develop a better understanding of the world and the role they can play in making it more just and sustainable.
We welcome nominations of classroom teachers, teaching assistants, school governors, head teachers, and anyone who works in the broader field of education.
The winner of the award will win prize money of £500, and their work will be featured by Think Global on our national teacher website, to help inspire other schools and teachers. The winner's school will also receive two free places on Think Global's top-rated online CPD course, ‘Developing a global learning school’ run by our trainers who are teachers specialised in global learning (worth £1,000).
The award will be judged by representatives from organisations including Think Global, the British Council, the Department for Education and the Department for International Development.
The deadline for nominations is 16 March 2015. Visit our Global Dimension website for more information, and to download a nomination form.
Conference Report published: Global learning is good education
The report from last November's conference, Global Learning is Good Education: How we can work together to inspire schools and teachers to create a sustainable, fairer world, has just been published, and can be downloaded from the Think Global website.
Think Global calls on Ofsted to recognise 'the global' in its education inspection framework
In our response to Ofsted's consultation on the framework for inspection of education institutions, we have called on the inspection body to explicitly recognise the importance of preparing young people for life and work in a globalised world.
