PFS Conference Oct 2004 "One Step Beyond"

Playing for Success

Teachers from ‘Playing for Success’ Study Support centres gathered at Bolton Arena last week for the ‘One Step Beyond’ Conference. Sam Allardyce was the Keynote Speaker who launched the two day training event, which was hosted by Study@BWFC.

The event focused on Professional development for teachers based at football stadiums, rugby grounds and other sporting venues from all over the country.

Delegates were treated to a range of workshops aiming to engage learners and suitable ‘out of hours’ activities for both primary and secondary students. Some of the more unusual workshops focused on origami and magic which aim to inspire and relax learners as well as developing team knowledge about the brain to enable more effective learning. Alan Jones from Solstice Training took delegates through some of the basics of Neuro-Linguistic programming, similar to the work of TV ‘mind reader’ Derren Brown. Delegates were amazed with his ability to know what they were thinking and were also then taken through exactly how he did it! Following on from this the techniques were then linked to learning activities, such as a spelling strategy, based on eye movements!

Another amazing workshop was led by poet Ian Macmillan who worked with delegates to write poems about football managers clichés. The boy did good, the ref was blind, bounce backability and we was robbed, all featured in the poems. This work was then used by on BBC Radio 3’s show with Mark Radcliffe that evening!

Other workshops showed delegates how to use the latest technology in their sessions, such as video conferencing and datalogging and how to make maths more fun. At Study@BWFC, teachers were put through their paces on an exercise bike, by students from Gilnow Primary school. This was of course necessary in order to record and analyse their pulse rates and temperatures and no teachers were permanently injured!

Delegates also experienced some good old Bolton hospitality with a trip to Smithills Hall and a ‘Murder Mystery Evening’ with a wedding theme! Study@BWFC would like to thank all those for taking part and making ‘One Step Beyond’ a conference to remember.