PEP Teaching and Learning Conference 2023

Booking for the inaugural Portsmouth Education Partnership Teaching and Learning Conference is now available via Eventbrite.

Our conference ‘Portsmouth Reads’ will be held on Wednesday 8 March 2023 at The Marriott Hotel.  With inspirational keynote speakers, interesting and informative workshops, stallholders, plus prizes and giveaways there is something for everyone who is passionate about the teaching of reading in Portsmouth, from early years to post-16.

Further information about each of workshops to enable participants to make their choices can be found below.

Early bird tickets are now on sale for the price of £85 + VAT if you book before the end of January 2023 (thereafter full price tickets will be £100 + VAT).

Book your ticket

Workshop descriptions

• Supporting struggling readers in secondary (Vicky Parker)
  Ofsted carried out a research project on struggling readers in secondary schools (October 2022). The Portsmouth Educational Psychology Team had already recognised the need to get the right support in place by being clear on the underlying barriers to older children’s reading, writing and spelling skills, and selecting interventions and pathways that target these specifically.
• Implementing Destination Reader (Hollie Gibbens and Wendy Fowler)
  Destination Reader is a pedagogical based approach to teaching reading through engaging daily, structured sessions that support all children to read with greater understanding, enjoyment and purpose. Learn how this approach (not scheme) is inspiring pupils and staff in just one of our many Portsmouth primary schools who have introduced Destination Reader with significant impact.
• Ready to read! (Ella Harbut and Sue Bowler)
  Early Years Advisory teachers Ella and Sue will be sharing information and ideas about reading in the early years. The successful ‘Read with Me’ project promotes partnership working between nursery and Year R settings, libraries and parents so that children can access a number of specifically selected high quality picture books and a range of reading skills before, and as they start school.
• Reading and pupils with EAL: the strengths they bring to reading, overcoming EAL specific barriers and the importance of representation in books (Karen Thomas and Marie Allen)
  With so many different languages spoken by children and families in Portsmouth and Bilingual Learning Assistants supporting in 20+ community languages, the acclaimed Portsmouth EMAS team are keen to help colleagues understand the barriers that face EAL pupils in learning to read English and how we can better support them in the classroom. Their specialist knowledge and signposting to resources is shared in this workshop.
• ‘I really want to read: Engaging parents in reading with their children’ (Caroline Prince and Simon Philip)
  Children’s author Simon Philip is passionate about sharing his love of books, reading and writing. In this workshop he discusses the importance of reading for pleasure but even more crucially he will be sharing relatable ideas about how to encourage children and their parents to read for pleasure!
• Improving Literacy from primary through to secondary: What does the evidence suggest are the best bets? (Steve Smith, HISP)
  Director of our local HISP Research School at Thornden, Steve Smith is a real expert on evidence-based practice and is able to helpfully direct professional colleagues to research that will inspire and support leaders and teachers in work and programmes that organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation have highlighted.
• Sensory impairment and reading (Marie Lloyd)
  Marie Lloyd, Manager for the local authority Vision and Hearing team shares implications for the teaching of reading with children who have additional sensory needs and ideas to upskill staff in schools and early years settings who work with these particular children and young people.
• Phonics progression to support reading and spelling (Sarah Hilditch and Natalie Wilcox)
  Want to know more about phonics and how the progression from Key Stage 1 into Key Stage 2 and beyond can support children’s spelling skills. Sarah and Natalie have both been involved in helping to produce resources to support teachers across Portsmouth, such as the Phonics in 5 videos on ‘Increasing the repertoire’ and ‘Controlled exposure’, along with a Phonics and spelling progression mapping tool.