The following is a guest post from Anne Williams wherein she promotes the Teaching & Learning conference she has organised on 2nd July in Leeds. I’ll be speaking there and so will loads of other rather excellent people. Tickets are selling fast so don’t miss out.

At the end of June last year, I was hosting a visit from two other schools when a particularly portentous email dropped into my unsuspecting inbox: ‘Confirmation: school is happy for you to host a conference on 2nd July 2016’. @Sabato0612, who I was drinking coffee with at the time, will bear witness that I spluttered on my coffee and squealed, excited and terrified in equal measure. It has been exciting, terrifying and exhausting most days since. (And I may have seen the wrong end of 2am a time or two.)

So what possesses someone to host a conference like this? In my case, two things. The first is that I’m very, very proud of the people that I have met, both in real life and virtually via Twitter. Silly as it might sound, I wanted to show them off to other people, both in my school and beyond. The second reason is that I wanted to serve my city and my region. Service means lots of things, to lots of people; ultimately, surely, it is doing what we are good at, where it is of use, rather than not doing it. This is what I can do. My hope and belief is that people who don’t know each other yet are going to know each other better and, hopefully, there will be tangible benefits for students that come out of those connections.

This is going to be good ‘do’. I’m genuinely delighted that so many people I know are buying tickets, but if I’m honest my greatest conference-related-joy of each week (and there are many) arises every time I see a ticket sale to someone I have never heard of.

I haven’t put the final touches to the programme yet (details are still coming regarding sessions to Teaching & Learning Leeds – tickets are also available there) but the conference is designed to be many things to many people. My aim is to provide a smorgasbord of workshops and experiences.

I’m so glad that @LearningSpy will be giving the keynote. David has had as much impact on my daily practice as anyone I know, through his books, tweets and talks. I teach better because our paths have crossed and I might not agree with everything he says, but I’m going to listen, I will learn, and I’m delighted that others will get the opportunity to cross paths with him too.

We have an array of treats in store with @geogphil on Lesson Study, @cijane02 and @PsychologyMarc on evidenced based use of Growth Mindset, not to mention @HuntingEnglish, @Xris32, @Edutronic_Net, @GoldfishbowlMM, @joeybagstock, and @londonirish83, all regular and exceptional contributors to these kind of conferences, all promoting learning and teaching on a school wide level. Read about their sessions. They could make up a conference on their own. The talk I’m most excited about is from @s_donarski who’ll be speaking on ‘Teaching: an end in itself’. As a classroom teacher myself I want to applaud everyone who will stand up and champion teaching for the sake of learning. Thank you, Sarah.

I’m also delighted that we have speakers on T&L that I have met and admired in RL (real life) as the teenagers call it. Mike Scott will have his delegates half way up the climbing wall while persuading them of the value of team work if I know him. He is a wonderful speaker with an infectious passion for the potential of outdoor learning to support work within the classroom. Neil Smith will be delivering a session on improving questioning skills. I know his lessons from the perspective of a TA. He is the real thing. Mark Smith’s work on GIS and spatial data has been ground breaking at a national level, he is an expert. Nic Ford is one of those Academic Deputies who is as exceptional in his understanding of technology as he is clear that his job is to promote learning first, last and everything in between.

My hope is that many of the sessions will be of as much interest to the primary delegates as to secondary ones. But to be on the safe side, there is a full programme of primary-specific talks. Phil Hardy will speak on ‘Collaboration in Preprep Education’, Kay Lord will analyse the pros and cons of peer mentoring in the primary setting and @JulesDaulby will run a session on practical strategies for SpLD pupils. And finally we have sessions from @redgierob of The Literacy Shed and James Shepherd on Mastery in Maths.

One of my personal passions is remembering that one size does not fit all where kids are concerned. I know that I’m not alone in this. So we have a series of talks for practitioners who share this passion. David Sugden is Professor of Special Needs at Leeds University and we are very lucky to have him with us in July. Sally Cooke is a truly extraordinary SENCO. She also works with my child. As a colleague and as a parent I cannot recommend her wisdom highly enough. Claire Trott has worked both in schools and at Loughborough University to help students with dyscalculia, I’m delighted that she can join us. So many schools are still finding their feet regarding our EAL students. The challenges of EAL are too often grouped in with those of SEND. We need to stop. Their only similarity lies in their need for us to be aware of the particular. Fortunately @ktlangspec is more than qualified to help, this is one not to miss if it has bearing on your practice. And finally @TrueEnglish365 is running a session that I have very high hopes for (no pressure Amy). She is going to collect together into one room, people who are responsible for spending PP money in order to create lasting links to work the challenges together. Please tell the people in your school who this applies to. Her vision is to create links which will long outlast the conference.

We have a wonderful range of talks on Literacy, the Humanities and English as a specialism. I’m afraid this probably reflects the fact that I’m organising the conference. But I’m going to blog on these talks separately. Enough to say, for now, that some of the most generous and collaborative people I know are speaking on everything from creating a culture of reading for pleasure to tips on structuring longer essays. Oracy and debating will figure large, as will new specifications and the value of libraries. It’s just possible we have a few English teachers attending …

And last but not least we have talks on leadership and whole-school issues. (You will note I started with teaching and learning and ended with leadership. The leaders who are coming will applaud me all the way.) Lucky lucky us, we get to hear @jillberry102 speak, and @ieshasmall’s session on ‘No leader is an Island’ will, I know, be grounded, true and without artifice. Leo Winkley is going to speak on state-independent partnerships; Jack Williams and @tstarkey1212 have complimentary sessions on the use of social media; and Helen Clapham’s session on working with external agencies will be of enormous value to those who face that challenge. @Sabato0512 , @victoria91gm and @SarahReeve9 are people that I’m ridiculously excited about introducing to each other. All three are grounded and practical practitioners working the challenge of ‘building resilience’ in sensible, thoughtful ways.

Last, but not least (in fact another favourite) we have @APitsillis and her team from Canons School (@kevbartle ‘s school) on Grassroots Leadership. Kev’s vision is equalled in its wonderfulness by those he appoints to fulfil it (he would want me to say exceeded by). This will be a session for all those who believe that leadership takes many forms and should operate throughout a school.

When I began, I mentioned conference-related-joys. There are many and most of them are you. Thank you all for getting involved.