Time
Session
Location
08:15
Arrival, Registration and Refreshments
Marble Hall
09:00
Welcome
Address by Dr Anthony Wallersteiner, Head of The Stowe Group, and Luke Radley, Stowe Head of Teaching & Learning
Roxburgh Hall
09:30
Keynotes
Tom Sherrington: "Inclusive Teaching: The choreography of teaching a whole class at once" (Secondary Staff)
Discover the art and science behind teaching a whole class simultaneously in this insightful session. Focusing on the 'choreography' of classroom instruction, the session explores key strategies and routines that ensure every student is actively engaged and learning; moving beyond assumptions to intentional, systematic planning. Tom delves into practical methods for checking understanding, building prior knowledge, fostering agency, and managing the dynamic needs of thirty learners at once. With an emphasis on real-time feedback, scaffolding, and developing independent learning routines, this session offers actionable solutions for creating truly inclusive classrooms.
Emma Turner: "An introduction to the world of evidence informed instructional design in the primary phase." (Primary Staff)
What we teach and how we teach are interconnected. Designing these for the primary phase involves looking through multiple lenses: subject disciplines, child development, cognitive science, and the unique nature of the primary phase.
In this session, Emma will explore how evidence informed approaches to instructional design in the primary phase can help ensure that all learners receive a joyful and impactful, “introduction to the world”.
Ugland
10:30
Refreshments and Networking
Sixth Form Centre
11:15
Workshops
Jonnie Noakes: “Visible Learning - Lessons from Educational Research” (Secondary Staff)
This session offers a comprehensive introduction to the evolving educational landscape of artificial intelligence. Attendees will gain insight into the opportunities and challenges that AI presents within schools and classrooms. The session will explore practical strategies for teachers to harness AI tools to enhance lesson planning, assessment, and engagement, while also considering ethical and safeguarding issues. Crucially, it will address how educators can empower pupils to use AI responsibly and effectively, ensuring that students develop critical thinking, digital literacy, and the skills needed to navigate the future. Whether you are new to AI or looking to deepen your understanding, this workshop will provide actionable guidance and thoughtful discussion on integrating artificial intelligence into teaching practice.
Emma Turner: “Designing the primary day” (Primary Staff)
Join Emma as she builds on the themes from her keynote to explore unique elements primary that influence effective instructional design. In this engaging session, Emma will examine practical strategies for teaching, alongside exploring the important roles that play, purposeful talk, and the structure of the primary day have in supporting learning.
Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their current practice while exploring evidence-informed approaches. The session will provide a range of practical ideas and strategies that teachers can confidently implement in their own classrooms.
12:00
Lunch
Networking Hub with refreshments
State Dining Room
13:00
Breakout Sessions
Academic Area
14:00
Keynote
Tom Sherrington: "The Learning Rainforest - Mode A and Mode B Teaching in Practice" (All Staff)
Join Tom for a dynamic keynote session where he will explore the innovative concept of Mode A and Mode B teaching, focusing on how blending everyday, robust instructional practices with a variety of learning modes can invigorate classroom experiences and promote student agency.
The session will provide practical examples and strategies, demonstrating how teachers can seamlessly integrate strong, direct teaching alongside approaches that encourage creativity and independence.
15:00 to 17:00
Department Planning Time
Department Bases
WHS: Roxburgh
SHS: Ugland
Code
Session Title
Speaker and Details
For
A
Artificial Intelligence: What do teachers need to know?
Jonnie Noakes (Guest Speaker)
ALL
B
What did YOU learn from school? For good or ill?
Dr Andrew Webber
This session will reflect on our own experiences of education (with a focus upon secondary school) and will consider the learning experiences we had as children. What have we taken with us into adulthood? What things have we learned to never do and what things inspired us to become the teachers we are today? This session promises to be an interesting journey into the past - with the future very much in mind.
C
Effective Modelling: Making Thinking Visible in the Classroom
Laurence Kirkwood
Modelling is one of the most powerful ways teachers can support learning, yet it is often rushed or assumed rather than made explicit. This session explores how effective modelling helps pupils understand not just what to do, but how to think through complex tasks. Drawing on ideas from Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction and Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion, we will look at strategies such as live modelling, worked examples and guided practice that make expert thinking visible and manageable for students.
D
Microsoft Excel Formatting & Data Processing for Teachers
Bryn Davies
How to use Excel formulas in Teacher Mark Books or Departmental Mark Books for: Filtering by Categories Conditional Formatting Calculating Averages Calculating Counts (Totals) Rankings of values Look Up tables VA calculations (Att. vs MEGs) Grade Distribution Tables
E
Making Space for Reading: The Science of Reading for Pleasure
Lucinda Stockley-Battams
This session explores the evidence behind reading for pleasure, practical ways to embed it in and beyond the classroom, and how the Library can support you and your department.
F
Boys will be Boys
Jos Herbert
Being a teenager is harder than it has ever been. Being a teenage boy is more confusing than it has ever been. Girls in England consistently achieve higher grades at GCSE, with 70.5% of girls achieving grade 4/C or above in 2025, compared to 64.3% of boys. The attainment gap in secondary school remains around 4.5 months (in favor of girls) as of 2024. In 2024/25, 64% of girls met the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths, compared to 57% of boys. In early 2024, boys were over 1.5 times more likely to be suspended and more than twice as likely to be permanently excluded than girls. So what can we do to help support the boys and young men we teach/coach? This session will highlight the challenges facing them to start a discussion about how we can promote positive masculinity to make our schools safer, happier places for everyone.
G
Creativity as a High-Performance Strategy (Not a Soft Add-On)
Keir Downey
Creativity is not about self-expression alone. It is the ability to generate, test, refine and transfer ideas under constraint. That ability now underpins high performance in education, work and life.
H
Teachers as Students: love of subject as the heart of teaching
Dr Gavin McCormick
This session will look at the topic of lifelong learning and love of subject: starting with a look at the educational ideas of the 19th century scholar Mark Pattison, we will consider why being an active researcher and extra-curricular reader in one's subject area (and others) might be considered a vital activity for all teachers. Thoughts will be shared on how this can animate us in the classroom, and how it can shape our engagement with our subjects beyond the walls of our schools.
I
Every interaction matters: school life through the trauma informed lens.
Sophie Rickner
What is trauma? How does it present and how can we get people to a place of recovery? Practical solutions and examples to help create environments of psychological and physical safety.
J
Using Mini Tests to Check for Understanding and improve reflection and feedback
Amanda Ayres
Looking for effective ways to gauge pupil understanding and boost meaningful reflection? Learn how concise ‘Mini Tests’ as assessments can provide instant insights into student learning, guide targeted feedback, and encourage thoughtful self-reflection. Whether you want to strengthen assessment for learning or refine feedback practices, this session delivers practical ideas and proven methods to make your classroom more responsive and interactive.
K
The link between sleep and learning.
Leah Abbott
A short, science-informed look at how sleep helps the brain lock in new learning, strengthen memory, and prepare for the next day’s challenges. We’ll explore what happens in the brain while we sleep and why even small improvements to sleep habits can make a real difference to how well we learn, think, and remember.
L
Learning through Enquiry - a discussion into the principles of LTE
Natalie Wilson
LTE centres on nurturing curiosity and encouraging learners to ask meaningful questions. It involves engaging critically with evidence, developing deeper understanding through investigation, and reflecting on how knowledge is constructed. This session will focus on how this can be embedded into the classroom for any phase of school.
M
PSHE - an effective tool to bring about cultural change in a school?
Liz Huxley Cappuro
This session will take a deep dive on some of the strategies and tools that can be implemented to bring about an effective cultural change within a school.
N
Conservatoire HE applications for Drama/Music colleges
Jason Riddington-Smith
Guidance on the Conservatoire pathway in UCAS and for other institutions outside of UCAS. Specifically targeting Drama, but can equally be applied to Music colleges. Focus and guidance on personal statements and self tape requirements along with in person audition advice.
O
Structuring Participation: Practical Kagan Techniques for 100% Engagement
Martin Quinn
This practical session explores how Kagan cooperative learning structures can transform classroom participation, ensuring every pupil is actively thinking, speaking and accountable. Rather than relying on hands-up questioning or unstructured group work, participants will experience simple, repeatable structures that increase engagement, improve oracy, support inclusion and raise academic accountability. Staff will leave with immediately usable strategies adaptable across all subjects and key stages.
P
Creating a culture of mattering in the classroom
Frankie Holloway
Psychologists have identified mattering as a core need for children and adolescents to ensure healthy development. Yet research suggests that a significant number feel they do not matter to others. This session explores how to intentionally and practically create a culture of mattering in the classroom and beyond.
Q
6th Form Intervention strategies - do they work?
Tom Elwell
We'll consider the intervention strategies that we use in the 6th form at Stowe and decide whether they have meaningful impact on the pupils educational attainment.
6th Form Teachers & Tutors
R
Inclusive Language - Have I Said the Wrong Thing?
Sarah Squires
Inclusive language changes rapidly. This session will discuss the importance of inclusive language and how to navigate the challenges surrounding it.
S
Belonging Before Behaviour: Why Connection Is the Foundation of Conduct
Dr Sinead Lyons-Deyzel
Behaviour rarely begins with defiance - it often begins with disconnection. In both boarding and day settings, pupils’ sense of belonging directly influences their conduct, motivation and wellbeing. This session explores how small relational moments - in classrooms, corridors, houses, and on the sports field - shape culture more powerfully than policies alone. We will consider why some pupils disengage quietly, why others seek negative attention, and how consistent adult presence and connection can prevent escalation. Suitable for teaching, boarding and pastoral staff, this practical session offers simple, evidence-informed strategies that strengthen belonging without adding workload - helping us build a culture where pupils feel seen, valued and secure.
T
Generative Learning in Action
Becky Stanworth
Generative Learning in Action helps to answer the question: which activities can students carry out to create meaningful learning? It does this by considering how we, as teachers, can implement the eight strategies for generative learning set out in the work of Fiorella and Mayer in their seminal 2015 work Learning as a Generative Activity: Eight Learning Strategies that Promote Learning. At a time when a great deal of attention has been paid to the teaching and learning from the perspective of effective instruction, Generative Learning looks at the flip side of coin and considers what is happening in the minds of the learner. This session takes a teachers-eye view of a range of theories of learning and keeps their application to the classroom firmly in mind through the use of case studies and reference to day-to-day practice.
U
The Amazing Mini Whiteboards
Caroline Bagshaw
Join for an inspiring session centred on the innovative use of mini whiteboards in the classroom. Discover practical strategies for harnessing this versatile tool to promote learning, feedback, and participation. Whether you’re seeking fresh ideas to support assessment for learning or ways to refine what you already do, this session will equip you with tried-and-tested techniques to make lessons more dynamic and inclusive.
V
Myths, Legends, and Realities of ADHD
Vlasta Pickering Pollakova
Back by popular demand (a repeat of last year), the session aims to review some beliefs about ADHD (including some common misconceptions), to emphasise some of the strengths that individuals with ADHD often demonstrate, and to open up a conversation about the daily realities of learning for individuals with ADHD (for instance the prevalence of co-existing conditions, common hurdles and some useful strategies).
W
Supporting Early Literacy in the Early Years
Lucinda Geliot
This practical training session explores how Early Years practitioners can support children’s early literacy development using evidence-informed strategies from the Education Endowment Foundation Early Years Toolkit. The session focuses on key skills such as phonological awareness, vocabulary development, storytelling, and early writing.
Practitioners will explore simple approaches including rhymes and songs, interactive storytelling, and mark-making opportunities that can be easily integrated into everyday practice. Through discussion and practical activities, participants will gain ideas for creating literacy-rich environments that support children’s early reading and writing development.
EYFS
To book to attend the event please complete the booking form.