This Saturday, the primary community will come together for the second time at the #PrimaryRocks event. Building upon the popular Twitter chat and grassroots movement, the event will take place at Medlock Primary School in Manchester, where 200 teachers and SLT will meet for a day of laughs, learning and positivity. The #PrimaryRocks ethos is innovation, collegiate learning and a passion for teaching.
Back in 2014, teachers were waking up to Twitter as a valuable source of CPD. A chance discussion between Gaz Needle (a primary headteacher) and Rob Smith, of Literacy Shed fame, led to the initial #PrimaryRocks chat. Week on week, the numbers taking part swelled as word spread of the event. What had been a small, but dedicated, group of participants has now risen, with more than 100 teachers taking part some weeks. It is is often informative, insightful and irreverent, bringing out people’s personality as well as their professional knowledge.
Each chat poses four questions, which are submitted by the #PrimaryRocks community or asked by the host. They focus on areas as broad as general pedagogy and as narrow as ways to improve key stage 2 writing assessment. The chat is hosted by members of the #PrimaryRocks team, who moderate and pose further questions to elicit clear explanations of the viewpoints given.
The live event this weekend will take this grassroots approach to the next level, bringing together veteran speakers and new voices to deliver top-quality CPD. As with all things #PrimaryRocks, the event is by teachers for teachers. Last year saw keynotes from Hywell Roberts (author and educational consultant) and Stephen Lockyer (deputy head and educational author). Lucy Powell, then the shadow education secretary, also spoke to the attendees.
This year, the tickets went on sale, and sold out within 100 minutes, showing the appetite for this event among classroom teachers. It is worth bearing in mind that this event is on a Saturday, meaning teachers are giving up their weekends to attend. Speakers have been given a single ideal that they have to aim for: make the #PrimaryRocks community think deeply about their own pedagogy. Why do they do what they do? Why do they teach the way they teach? Is there a better way?
‘Be open to new ideas’
This will also be the challenge to the community when Gaz opens the day: be open to new ideas and be reflective in order to improve. This is the #PrimaryRocks way.
The day itself will start with a welcome by Gaz, #PrimaryRock’s regular host, followed by the first keynote speaker, Paul Dix. Paul is a behaviour specialist and will be sharing some of his tips and tricks. This will be followed by the first set of workshops featuring Sarah Wright, Stephen Lockyer and Julian Wood.
Lunch is provided for all of the delegates and will be rounded off with an ice cream van and a singalong hosted by Stan Cullimore, former member of the Housemartins.
After lunch there will be more workshops, this time featuring Sean Harford (Ofsted’s national director), Tim Taylor, Allana Gay, Sinead Gaffney and Mike Watson.
The final keynote of the day will be delivered by Michael Tidd (primary assessment specialist and TES columnist). His workshop last year was standing room only and therefore he was a must-have for keynote speaker this year.
To round off the day, the members of the #PrimaryRocks team will share some of their reflections on the day.
And for those who couldn’t secure tickets, or if you are learning about #PrimaryRocks for the first time, please get involved by joining the community every Monday night from 8pm-9pm, and if you want to submit a question to the community go to bit.ly/PriRocksQuestionForm. You won’t regret it.
The #PrimaryRocks team are: Gaz Needle, Rob Smith, Angela Goodman, Tim Head, Jenna Lucas, Graham Andre, Sophie Merrill, Richard Farrow, Leah Sharp and Bryn Goodman. This year’s event is being supported by some high-profile sponsors, including TES, which is the dedicated media partner.
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