Opening Doors to Ambitious English: A Forum for New Approaches

• An Opening Doors and English Association event
• G35/G37. Senate House, London
• Tue 8 October 2024, 10:30 - 15:00
• £10, including refreshments on arrival
• Space is very limited, so we would appreciate it if only one teacher per school and one advisor per organisation could register
• 10 free tickets are available to members of the English Association: to claim your free ticket please email [email protected]
  This is going to be a very special event for schools already pioneering with the principles and strategies which can open doors to excellence for every pupil. It could be you have asked yourselves questions like:

• How do other schools apply ‘Opening Doors’?
• How can approaches be spread across a school?
• Which units are working particularly well?

Please come to London on 8 October to hear these issues and many others addressed via case studies and presentations from teachers. Of course, the Opening Doors team will be on hand to answer questions and we are building in time for networking and informal exchanges of ideas. Sometimes, that part is valued the most! You will be able to return with a new agenda for the next steps of English development and with a buzz of creative possibilities.

This face to face event and its nominal cost is made possible by the support of The English Association.

It’s now ten years since the first book was published so it’s also time to celebrate your terrific work with your pupils. Some of you are new to this thinking. Others have worked with us for a decade. You are all welcome!

Sara Abbas: My name is Sara Abbas and I have been teaching for 13 years at Mulgrave Primary School. I have taught a range of age groups, from year 2, to year 6 and I am passionate about English in particular. My degree is in Philosophy and Politics, and I wanted to find a way to combine the two when I started teaching, so I introduced and developed a Global Learning Curriculum at Mulgrave, 10 years ago, where teaching children with a global lens through the use of rich and diverse texts has become our Unique Selling Point. Using these rich texts combined with The Opening Doors strategies, has developed our curriculum for English further, which has has immediate impact across the school.

Louise Trim is Headteacher of Hordle CE Primary School in Lymington and was previously the English Lead for over fifteen years, an AST and SLE supporting other schools in Hampshire and beyond. She has worked tirelessly to develop an English curriculum which has rich text choices at the very heart. Staff at Hordle aspire for children to develop a love of reading and writing and this has been achieved through careful reflection and adaptation of units. The curriculum was always devised with the intention to meet the needs of all learners, supporting those less able writers yet still having the scope to challenge and extend the more able.

Claire Marchant is UKS2 phase leader at Hordle CE Primary School and has been English Lead since being appointed in 2021. All at Hordle strive for excellence in English and are always looking to provide rich learning opportunities for all children. The team has spent the last few years working closely with Leah Crawford, embracing Opening Doors units and adapting existing units to incorporate the Opening Doors principles and strategies in order to inspire learners and raise standards in writing. Claire has been a key member of the team to plan and deliver Opening Doors Hub CPD for other schools - opening the doors of her classroom, sharing planning and pupil outcomes in books to support the development of others.

Uhzama Jabeen has over 16 years of teaching experience and is currently a Year 6 teacher and English lead at a larger than average primary school in Birmingham. In her role, as well as monitoring the quality of teaching and learning, and implementation of the English curriculum in her setting, she leads on writing moderation training to support schools within her community. Outside of school, she is a marking programme lead for the Key Stage 2 statutory English Reading test and has worked to support teams across the country during the marking process.

Shelly Geeson is a primary co-headteacher based in the East Midlands. She has been a teacher for 20 years, graduating from Homerton College, with a BA in English with Education and PGCE in 2004. Throughout her career, she has taught in a diverse range of school with experience in both key stages and the early years. She has also been a SENDCo and worked in teacher development and initial teacher training during her career.

Host or Publisher The English Association