Between 19 and 21 March, educators from all fields are being invited to the NEC Birmingham to gather inspiration and insight for their school. Having expanded last year, The Education Show 2015 is taking a different approach in order to help visitors tackle today’s education challenges.
Year on year, one of the reasons visitors give for attending The Education Show is that they are there to learn. Each year they visit the show to gather advice, guidance and ideas from both the exhibitors and the training and continuing professional development programme, all of which is provided free of charge. Organisers recommend that you check the www.education-show.com website at regular intervals to see the seminar sessions listed as the programme develops. Since the show covers a wide range of topic areas, the chances are that you will find something of relevance and interest.
On arrival, probably the first place to head for is the show’s information point. Once again this is managed by the British Educational Supplier’s Association (BESA), whose representatives will be on hand to share their knowledge and experience and make sure that you make the best of the time you are there.
If you are looking for incentives and reward schemes for your students, a visit to stand H61 might be in order. Here you’ll find Westfield4Schools, suppliers of badges and achievement awards, who will have a large range of products on display. Its new information wheels, used to help pupils learn times tables, fractions and divisions have already proved popular with schools.
In November this year a report written by Tim Oates of Cambridge Assessment Group, with the backing of schools reform minister Nick Gibb, suggested that UK textbooks are not up to scratch. The Publishers’ Association chief executive Richard Mollet and Caroline Wright, BESA director, were quick to disagree, emphasising that UK educational publishers create world-class teaching and learning materials which are used in schools all over the world. TeeJay Publishers, for example, will be discussing its new set of core mathematics textbooks and support materials at The Education Show. TeeJay, which will be on stand E31, is now the largest supplier of mathematics resources in Scotland, selling to almost every secondary and independent school and over 95 per cent of primaries. The company is also offering to send schools copies of all its books to sample for free.
The Creativity Hub on stand G12 takes a slightly different approach to inspiring children to read. Its games and playthings are designed to foster imagination, empathy and self-esteem. Its award winning game Rory’s Story Cubes is a simple storytelling game for all ages that has just passed the three-million-sales mark globally this year.
Meanwhile, on stands F49-E50, teaching, learning and assessment resource developer EducationCity will be offering visitors the chance to see its range of engaging activities for children aged between 3-12 years old and for those with special educational needs.
On stand L52 will be NCFE, a registered educational charity with a strong heritage in learning going back over 150 years. NCFE offers a wide portfolio of qualifications including apprenticeships, qualifications which support study programmes and traineeships, fundable qualifications for adult learners, high-quality distance learning models and V certs for schools.
The Education Show, NEC, Birmingham, 19-21 March. For more information and to register visit www.education-show.com
