Following the success of last year’s festival, Wellington College Festival of Education will be held in Shanghai on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st October, after which it will move to Hangzhou, on Sunday 22nd October, before completing its journey in Tianjin on Monday 23rd October.
Here is a selection of topics you can expect to explore and discuss with our 20 international experts and speakers in Shanghai:
- Early Years focus: dedicated sessions for early years educators and parents
- Wellbeing: an inquiry into examination stress, body image and mental health
- A developing romance: aspects of the relationship between Chinese and British education
- Exploring education: sessions challenging accepted ideas and fundamental concepts of teaching
With two locations in Shanghai, the festival offers plenty of food for thought for all who attend:
- Experience two days filled with presentations and sessions atWellington College International Shanghai.
- Enjoy an early years focus, with specific workshops and presentations given in Chinese or bilingually, at Wellington College Bilingual Shanghai.
Be inspired by the impressive lineup of speakers, get involved with workshops and activities, and connect with other educators, teachers, students and parents.
Here are a few highlights from the team of expert speakers:
STRAND 1: Early Years focus
SESSION: Creating Outstanding Early Years
SESSION: Permission to be happy
Speaker: Shonette Bason
Motivational speaker, international consultant/trainer for primary education as well as being a published author. Shonette's passion for primary education shines through with her innovativeness, enthusiasm and dedication to impacting on young children’s learning.
SESSION: Butterflies under glass? Assessing children’s learning in the Early Years.
SESSION: STEAM ahead – the Arts of inquiry-based learning in the Early Years.
Speaker: Pam Mundy
Pam Mundy is a highly skilled professional 0-18 education specialist and an international speaker, author and consultant. Director of Pam Mundy Associates and Director of International Early Years, Pam is also a qualified CIS Team Leader, an International Schools Inspector who works at strategic and executive level with a variety of school groups, business and educational organisations. Pam is currently interim consultant Director of Education for St Albans School International and has recently held the positions of Chief Academic Officer for Knightsbridge Schools International and Director for Quality Assurance and Professional Development for the World Class Learning Group, based in Houston, Texas.
STRAND 2: Wellbeing
SESSION: Routes through the IB
SESSION: Recent IB research into examination stress and anxiety
Speaker: Julian Jefferys
Julian Jefferys works for the International Baccalaureate as an IB World School manager with a focus on supporting schools globally to implement the IB programmes to the highest possible standards.
SESSION: Top Tips – a practical inquiry into the best way to work with Third Culture Kids
SESSION: Cross-cultural umbrella: an explanation of different types of cross-cultural experiences and how they interact in the education of Third Culture Kids.
Speaker: Tanya Crossman
Tanya Crossman has a degree in Asian Studies from the Australian National University and a diploma in Mandarin from Beijing Language and Culture University. She has coordinated many TCK camps in China and Cambodia, as well as speaking throughout Asia about the cross-cultural experience and its impact on learning.
STRAND 3: Exploring education
SESSION: How the arts shape and change a developing mind
SESSION: Why Mahler? The meaning and significance of great music.
Speaker: Norman Lebrecht
One of the most widely-read commentators on music, culture and cultural politics. He is a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint and other publications. Norman’s many books - The Maestro Myth, When the Music Stops, Mahler Remembered and The Life and Death of Classical Music have been translated into 17 languages. He is also a popular lecturer at major cultural institutions and universities. He has been invited to speak at the Universities of London, Yale, and etc.
SESSION: The convergence of Chinese and British education systems
SESSION: Bigger babies – how the infantilizing of society is reflected in education.
Speaker: Michael Bywater
English author, cultural commentator, satirist and broadcaster. His books include Big Babies, Or, Why Don’t We Just Grow Up?, and the acclaimed Lost Worlds: What Have We Lost and Where Has It Gone?. He has contributed to all the quality British daily and Sunday newspapers and countless magazines for over 10 years.
SESSION: Challenging and supporting more able learners (two distinct and separate talks)
Speaker: Ian Warwick
As Senior Director of London Gifted & Talented (www.londongt.org), Ian has published extensively in the field of education, with dozens of articles and chapters in national and international journals as well as a book on worldwide education for the more able.
SESSION: Dilemma-led learning – teaching with moral purpose in mind
SESSION: Head, Heart, Hand – the importance of paying attention to bodies, emotions and thoughts and how they contribute to memory and learning.
Speaker: Debra Kidd
Debra Kidd has worked in education for 25 years, teaching children from the ages of four right through to post-graduate Master's students. She is now a columnist for Teach Primary, a regular writer for Teach Secondary and is the co-founder and organiser of Northern Rocks – one of the largest teaching and learning conferences in the UK.
STRAND 4: A developing romance
SESSION: Adapting the advantages of Chinese and British strategies and attitudes in the teaching of mathematics
Speaker: Hailian Simon Zou
Hailian Zou has taught in both Chinese and A-Level curriculum for all modules including pure mathematics, statistics and mechanics, always achieving an outstanding teaching performance. He was invited to be a mathematics and form teacher in the BBC documentary ”Are our kids tough enough?” which has drawn a lot of attention and was a widely discussed focal point regarding the differences between Chinese and Western education in 2015. Currently, Hailian Zou is the headmaster of Hangzhou Yulan Cambridge International centre, which was founded in 2010 in Hangzhou Zhejiang Province.
SESSION: Identifying, developing and assessing the soft skills
Speaker: Dr Terry Qian
Terry has long worked in advanced positions within the education field, including the headmaster for Peide School, associate director for Beanstalk International Bilingual School, director for international education at Communication University of China. He is now independent scholar, governor of Wellington College China and trustee of the Beijing Center for Chinese. His presentation “Bear’s paw and fish: A gently biased comparison between Chinese and Western Education” has been viewed online for more than 10 million times.
Learn more about the Festival’s speakers by scanning the QR code below:
There will be plenty to think about as the festival strives to enlighten, illuminate meaningful educational issues, and provoke thought about important issues in education today.
Oct 20-23, RMB100 (Day Ticket), RMB150 (Full Festival Ticket)
Wellington College International Shanghai, see listing here
Wellington College Bilingual Shanghai, see listing here
Book now your Festival of Education tickets by scanning the QR code below:
