By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The British School, Rio de Janeiro held their 2nd Education Conference, “Crossing Frontiers: Leadership and Language” in Rio from April 10th to 12th earlier this month with the aim to develop leadership at all levels and to develop language teaching and learning in a multilingual environment.
The three-day event was held on their grounds in Botafogo, and had over ten speakers and over thirty different work-sessions. The conference was co-sponsored by Cambridge Examinations alongside Discovery Education.
Ben Walden, formerly a Shakespearian actor, was the first keynote speaker on April 10th, discussing ‘Inspirational Leadership – Inspired by Shakespeare`s Henry V’. Dr. Cindy Moss, Director of Global STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Initiatives for Discovery Education, gave a keynote speech on the second day.
Mr. Craig Woollard, Staff Development Coordinator for the school explained, “The conference was first established two years ago. At The British School, we had always previously organized three days of dedicated training for teachers prior to the Easter break. However, two years ago, we decided to host a biennial conference that was available not only to our own staff but also to educators from across the region.”
Woollard continues, “The main focus of our first conference was assessment of learning and Talk for Writing. This year’s conference focused on different levels of leadership and on language learning. The content was different in many aspects although it was interesting to see how many times Dylan Wiliam, who was a keynote speaker two years ago and who is known for his expertise in the area of formative assessment, was mentioned by this year’s speakers.”
The format for the 2017 event was similar to the last conference in that the workshops lasted a whole day so that the delegates could receive in-depth training rather than bite-sized professional development. The school says they hired bigger screens for this conference and provided simultaneous broadcast of the keynote speeches.
Head of the school since January 2012, John Nixon, said in a statement on the conference web site, “Once again, we are proud that our school is offering this outstanding opportunity for professional development, the prospect of lively interchange of ideas, and the possibility for networking.”
Adding, “As we learnt from our very first conference two years ago, our three-day event provides us with a rare chance to listen, discuss and reflect on our professional practices when compared to our busy day-to-day lives within our own institutions.”
The British School, Rio de Janeiro, was started in 1924, with a curriculum focuses on a British-style education leading up to the IB diploma. There are approximately 2,000 students across three separate campuses in Botafogo, Urca and Barra da Tijuca.
* This is a Sponsored article by The British School, Rio de Janeiro.