FE English Swap Shop

#FEswapShop

Written by Hollie Barnes, an English practitioner who had an idea and made it happen.

On Friday 25th June 21, educators from all areas of English up and down the UK came together in an inclusive, knowledge swap.

How’s it different to other English CPD I hear you say?  Where do we start?

The day saw three parallel spaces for all those teaching English in FE:

Room 1: 16-19 (Pathway) classrooms

Room 2: Adult learning

Room 3: ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages).

The day wasn’t your typical buzzword bingo CPD session nor was it your typical blanketed English approach, it was a day tailored to educators in all areas and showcasing current (and in the words of Elizabeth Draper (@draperel) ‘Tried and Tested’ methods and approaches.

There were two sets of inspiration workshops from exploring ways to tackle Cultural Poverty in writing skills with Josh Spears (@Worldsmith1680) to creating a whole college reading culture with Elizabeth Draper (@draperel) and inclusive of a management session on preparing for the next academic year, post-covid with Jonny Kay (@jonnykayteacher).

Sandwiched between that was a jam-packed hour of educators sharing their practice in Teach-Meets. Each room filled with attendees from each pathway of English sharing the trials and tribulations of resources, technology and sparking new conversations.

Finally, to consolidate the day, all pathways came together to participate in an Ideas Room session. Check out the video below to find out more details about how it works. In a Nutshell, through the application of the thinking environment, educators came together to discuss in a equal manner, new ideas or think through concepts from the day.

A seedling idea which grew in an Ideas Room on Wednesday evening back in February soon came to life to be something much bigger, much bolder than originally thought. The day was a huge success, amplifying English and all those involved in it, along with, and we are hoping to run more FEswapShops in the future.

A huge thankyou to all of those who attended, hosted rooms, facilitated and worked their magic on the tech to get us going in ideas rooms. Another big thankyou to Chloë Hynes (@ChloeFibonacci @PDNorth_FE)  and Touchconsultings team (@touchcons_FE), in particular, Alison Tanik and Joss Kang!

You can stay tuned by signing up to PD North Newsletter or following the Hashtag #FEswapShop #EnglishFE on twitter!

Until then, you can check out the curated programme below: