October 2015

The know zone

  • Worth the risk?
    Julia Harnden examines the value of spending precious leadership time and resources on risk management. More
  • Sea-change for ‘coasting’ schools
    The Education and Adoption Bill 2015-16 would give the Secretary of State (SoS) greater powers to act when schools are deemed to be ‘coasting’ and to create academies. Katie Michelon of Browne Jacobson LLP explains the changes. More
  • The taxman cometh
    Changes to the Lifetime Allowances limit are likely to mean more of us paying tax on our pensions, says Stephen Casey. More
  • Independents’ Day
    Barbara Stanley reports from ASCL’s annual information conference for leaders in the independent sector. More
  • Speakers cornered
    Attending conferences can be an excellent way for senior leaders to soak up a lot of important information in a relatively short space of time. More
  • A free new digital resource for schools
    Sport England is a public body, working to increase the number of people who play sport regularly with the aim of making their lives better through sport. Schools play a vital role in the provision of community sport with 39 per cent of sports facilities in England on school sites. More
  • Backing EBaccs?
    The government is proposing that every pupil should take EBacc subjects at GCSE . What are your views? Does your school already offer EBacc to all pupils? Do you agree or disagree with the government’s proposals and why? Here, ASCL members share their views. More
  • Leaders’ surgery
    Hotline advice expressed here, and in calls to us, is made in good faith to our members. Schools and colleges should always take formal HR or legal advice from their indemnified provider before acting. More
  • Last word
    Showing some appreciation can make a real difference to someone’s day, week, month or term. It’s cost-effective and all it takes is two little words… More
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Attending conferences can be an excellent way for senior leaders to soak up a lot of important information in a relatively short space of time.

Speakers cornered

For senior leaders, attendance at high-quality conferences is an excellent way to gather a large amount of key information within a limited time but, to be of most value, the intelligence gathered needs to be disseminated back at school. Here are a few guidelines on how to make the most of your conference-going:

When listening to speakers, ensure your notes capture the essence of their presentation. Differentiate between your general thoughts and the action points that you would like to take back to your school.

After the conference, ideally on the train or once back at home, read through your notes to ensure that you are taking the essential messages into school the following day. If you choose to wait until you return to school to do this, you may lose some of the momentum, as you will very quickly be caught back up in the day-to-day business within school.

At ASCL conferences, copies of presentations are, where possible, included in your delegate pack and a ‘clean’ copy is provided via an email link following the event.

Consider how you will disseminate what you’ve learned to the rest of your team and, if appropriate, the wider school body, including governors. One approach is to have a standard item on meeting agendas where people can feedback on any professional development that could allow for a subsequent discussion at a later meeting. Once again, it’s prudent not to wait too long after the conference for the initial feedback.

Network well

Some of the greatest benefits in attending a conference can come during the less-structured times. Effective networking can have an extremely positive impact; a conversation in the coffee queue can lead to partnerships between schools with like-minded individuals. Rarely in school will you manage to get uninterrupted time to have discussions on some of the key educational issues with others either from your region or from around the country.

Make the most of these openings by sharing ideas and by taking ideas away with you. Being proactive will help; for example, having business cards readily available can help improve the networking opportunities and enable you to make small notes on any card you receive to remind you of what that person or organisation can bring to your own setting.
If the conference has workshop options, decide in advance which ones to attend. If more than one colleague is coming from your school then that will often make choices easier but a lone attendee will have to carefully target which workshops to see.

Exhibitions are also a feature of many larger conferences. Exhibitors will frequently offer excellent discounts on their products for those delegates who show interest during the day. Spend some time going round the exhibition space to find out how to maximise the offers available.
This may not always mean simply looking at new products from new providers as often some of your existing suppliers may be exhibiting upgrades or demonstrating new product features that could have an impact in your school.

Ask a question

Generally, conferences are less interactive than courses but there will often be chances to question a speaker. This is an opportunity that should be taken whether to clarify your understanding of a point made, to deepen your awareness of an issue or to raise a concern with the speaker. If you are asking questions, try to be succinct but there may, of course, be opportunities to follow up questions with the speaker during one of the break periods or via email at a later date.

Through our conference programme, ASCL provides an unparalleled range of regional and national professional development activity. As the new academic year begins, ASCL offers a wide range of conferences to meet the needs of members and non-members alike.

During 2015-16, ASCL will offer more than 40 conferences including our annual conference in March that attracts more than 1,200 delegates, the popular regional information conference series in the autumn term and several new events, such as the conference for pastoral leaders and the curriculum and assessment conference in the spring term.

More than 4,000 delegates attended ASCL conferences during the last academic year with 99 per cent of delegates saying that they would recommend them to others. Our conferences are led by our own specialist team, current headteachers, other senior leaders or experts drawn from a range of organisations, including the DfE and Ofsted.

You will get more from a conference through planning beforehand and actively engaging in all aspects of it during the event. Conferences can be a really valuable part of a wider continuing professional development (CPD) approach and careful dissemination of your learning from the event can ensure it has maximum impact upon your return to school.

Find out more

Here are some of the conferences that we will be running over the course of the next academic year. You can find out more and book your place by following the links below:

For a full list of courses and events visit www.ascl.org.uk/pd

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