Reading’s Institute of Education (IoE) has launched a module that supports mentors in developing their theory and practice, whilst enhancing their professional development. Through this course:
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Mentors can achieve significant Continuous Professional Development via this new distance learning course.
Cancellation due to weather conditions: Education Studies Annual Lecture: Inside the beast; the politics and law of education, by Sir David Bell, 1 March 2018, 6pm
We regret that unfortunately, the decision has been made to postpone this lecture, due to the weather conditions and the forecast which indicates that it will be getting worse later on today.
We hope to reschedule at some point in the near future and will keep those who have registered informed by email and will post notices regarding this here on our news feed.
Many thanks for all the interest; the lecture was heavily over-subscribed, and we are very sorry to disappoint all those who wished to attend.
Join our free twilight information sessions covering our BA in Children’s Development and Learning, our Foundation Degree and our new BA Education Studies, which focuses on a wide range of careers with an educational influence.
Join us for these free, informal early evening events at our London Road campus, just 15 minutes from Reading railway station.
Our undergraduate education events cover our highly regarded Early Years programmes and our new, flexible education BA with a societal and world context.
Monday 9 April 2018 16.00 – 18.00
- BA Education Studies
– Room location TBC
Monday 9 April 2018 16.00 -18.00
- Foundation Degree in Children’s Development & Learning
- BA Children’s Development & Learning
- Postgraduate Certificate in Early Years Practice with Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS)
Building L22, Room 102
Monday 14 May 2018 16.00 – 18.00
- Foundation Degree in Children’s Development & Learning
- BA Children’s Development & Learning
- Postgraduate Certificate in Early Years Practice with Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS)
Building L22, Room 102
To book a place on any of these events, please complete our information evenings booking form.
Or for any further information please email us:
educationstudies@reading.ac.uk
Free Postgraduate Initial Teacher Training events
Please do come to one of our regular twilight information meetings, covering all routes into teaching for both Primary and Secondary Postgraduate programmes, are held at the Institute of Education, RG1 5EX.
Book or make an enquiry by email: schooldirect@reading.ac.uk; pgceprimary@reading.ac.uk; or pgcesecondary@reading.ac.uk.
| DATE | TIME | BUILDING & ROOM |
| Monday 5 March 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Primary L022-113 |
| Monday 5 March 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Secondary L022-114 |
| Monday 9 April 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Primary L022-113 |
| Monday 9 April 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Secondary L022-114 |
| Monday 14 May 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Primary L022-113 |
| Monday 14 May 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Secondary L022-114 |
| Monday 4 June 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Primary L022-113 |
| Monday 4 June 2018 | 16:00 – 18:00 | Secondary L022-114 |
We look forward to welcoming you.
The University of Reading will host its fourth Early Years conference on Wednesday 7 March 2018
Following on from the Institute of Education (IoE)’s successful Early Years conferences of the last three years, we now turn our attention to ensuring change is sustainable and long lasting. This year’s Early Years Conference has as its theme, Sustaining change: enabling environments, skilled practitioners and partnership with parents.
Quick link to booking form
Conference organiser Dr Helen Bilton said:
“Last year’s conference saw delegates emerging feeling reinvigorated and refreshed. That is what we have planned for them this year – with a different focus.”
Previous delegates said:
“The day was thought provoking, inspiring, great resources, friendly teachers.”
“I liked the mixture of keynote speech plus workshops, and the opportunity to share ideas and network.”
“The talk was inspiring, the workshops were useful, all great ideas.”
See below for full details, including booking links. For further information, please email education-events@reading.ac.uk.
WEDNESDAY 7 MARCH 2018, 09:30 – 15:00, LONDON ROAD CAMPUS
PROGRAMME (Various exhibitors will be with us all day)
09.00 Refreshments, networking and welcome
09.30 Introduction
09.40 In conversation/keynote
10.45 Break
11.15 Workshops
12.30 Lunch
13.15 Workshops (as above)
14.45 Evaluation
15.00 End – but you are welcome to stay and mingle!
How do I find out more?
If you are a subscriber, you will be sent a link to the booking form and a workshop timetable in October when bookings open. Otherwise, please visit
or email mailto:education-events@reading.ac.uk for further information.
Cost, which includes refreshments and lunch
£95 online if you book and pay on-line by credit/debit card
£120 if you require an invoice
Calling all UG students! Don’t miss your chance to have your say.
We want to ensure that you have everything you need to succeed in your studies and have a great time at university. That is why we take the National Student Survey (NSS) and other surveys extremely seriously – it means we can listen, understand and act on your views.
“Every child has a right to achieve their full potential.” IoE researcher to be key speaker at Westminster symposium examining childhood equality
“There are unfair barriers hindering some young people,” says Dr Carol Fuller of the University of Reading’s Institute of Education (IoE).
The educational sociologist suggests that in the formal atmosphere of our current schooling system, with its focus on academic performance above all else, some children can feel they are a failure and just don’t belong.
She and other academics from the field of childhood learning will present a provoking symposium in February that will look at how greater equality can be promoted through education so that both children and society can benefit. Organisers will question the long term impact of our current education system that prioritises academic performance over other important skills.
Carol and her colleagues are set to share their important – and sometimes startling – findings on childhood equality and well-being at the event, titled “Promoting Educational Equality: from the bottom to the top”.
They hope that the discussions and ideas shared during the symposium at Westminster’s Portcullis House on 27 February 2018, will help start a movement that will eventually redress social inequality in children’s educational experiences.
Carol says:
“I am very much informed by my research and the idea that every child has a right to achieve their full potential. But there unfair barriers do exist and my work looks at how resilience, confidence and self-efficacy can aid children break down those barriers. Not only is it the right of every child to achieve their full potential but this naturally has benefits for society as they become contributing adults.
“In the research I am working on with the Ufton Court Education Trust, we are scrutinising the role of outdoor residential experiences on under achieving students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. We are exploring whether these activities have an impact on the children’s educational attainment. The impetus for this research was my longstanding ambition to help children achieve and become the best they can be.”
Carol is passionate about how children’s personal achievements can not only help the youngsters themselves but also benefit society as a whole, producing more resilient, productive adults. Raising the aspiration and achievement of all children and in particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds must be achieved to reach a fairer and more balanced society, she believes.
Carol’s Ufton Court research has seen the study group of children developing the confidence to speak up and participate, sometimes to a startling degree, in a way they wouldn’t have in the traditional classroom.
What is powerfully interesting is seeing how these positive effects translate back in the classroom, producing statistically significant outcomes. Persuasive anecdotal evidence is also pointing to the activities having an all-round benefit to the children’s lives outside of school too.
The Promoting Equality symposium will focus on how best to encourage much greater equality via what organisers term a “bottom up approach to education as well as a more holistic approach to learning”.
This approach can be reinforced by resilience building activities such as those Carol is exploring in her research at Ufton Court. Not only could this improve educational outcomes, but in looking forward, it could also support children’s mental well-being – an increasing area of concern – and the character traits needed to succeed both at school and in adult life.
So how do we foster the qualities that support young people in meeting life’s changing demands? What skills and knowledge will they need to succeed educationally?
This research-led event will examine these issues closely and look at the value of alternative places and spaces for learning with a particular focus on children and young people who, for differing reasons, can face a future of disadvantage and marginalisation. The symposium will draw on a range of expertise to consider how to ensure a fairer future for all children.
Reserve a place to join these important discussions by emailing c.l.fuller@reading.ac.uk.
Promoting Educational Equality: from the bottom to the top
Westminster Portcullis House
Attlee Suite
27 February 2018, 2 – 4pm
Music at Reading – Remembrance Festival: Ben Pedley memorial concert
Join the University of Reading Festival Voices and Festival Sinfonia to perform in Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
on Saturday March 10, 7.30 pm, University Great Hall, London Road campus.
Please join the University of Reading Festival Voices and Festival Sinfonia as they perform Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in the Ben Pedley Memorial Concert on Saturday March 10, at the University Great Hall. Students, staff, alumni and community singers and orchestral players are welcome to join for this performance of this modern favourite which depicts the horrors of war, and conveys the urgent need for nations to come together in peace.
The rehearsals for the Remembrance Festival are 9.30am – 4.30pm Saturday 10 February and 24 February at the University of Reading London Road campus. Parking is free, and drinks will be provided. Please bring your own lunch. The dress rehearsal is 2 – 5 pm, and the concert is at 7.30 in the University Great Hall. Participation fees are £15 for students currently studying at University or school; and £20 for University of Reading staff and alumni, and community participants. Click here to book your place to perform in the Remembrance festival. Tickets for the Ben Pedley Memorial concert are £12 / £8 (concessions) and may be purchased in the online ticket store
This concert is the culmination of our Remembrance Festival marking the centenary of World War One. We commemorate the life of Ben Pedley, a second year Chemistry student who died in a road traffic accident in 2017. We present music that was meaningful to Ben in the first half of the programme, celebrating his love of a diverse range of songs and piano music. The second half of the concert is a performance of Karl Jenkins: The Armed Man, A Mass for Peace, which is conducted by Patrick Barrett, the University Chamber Choir director.
Event organiser:
Dr Rebecca Berkley
Artistic Director Music@Reading, Director Academic Voices, Universal Voices
University of Reading, Institute of Education, London Road Campus, 4 Redlands Road, Reading, RG1 5EX | T: + 44(0) 118 378 2694 | E: r.m.berkley@reading.ac.uk| W: www.reading.ac.uk/education
Music@reading: www.reading.ac.uk/music
Mathematics and stories? A transformative approach to teaching and learning mathematics
The idea of using story-picture books in mathematics lessons may sound eccentric to some, and yet this is precisely what Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai, Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education (IoE), has been advocating over the past few years. You can read more about Vincent’s research and the MathsThroughStories.org initiative that he founded in this series of monthly blogs highlighting key research activities here at the IoE.
Why mathematical story-picture books?
“You don’t learn to cook through having swimming lessons – why are maths and English different?” – I came across this interesting quote when I was going through questionnaire data of one of my pilot research projects, which set out to explore teachers’ perceptions on using stories in mathematics teaching. In fact, this teacher was not alone. Other teachers shared her view: “Tenuous links” and “It won’t happen, Maths and English don’t mix”. These perceptions are very important to me as a mathematics education researcher and as a mathematics specialist teacher educator because, in my view, they represent misconceptions that need to be urgently addressed.
These past few years, I have been communicating to as many in- and pre-service teachers as I can to highlight to them that story-picture books, when used effectively, can be an incredibly powerful mathematics teaching and learning tool. Specifically, the narrative component can help children to contexualise mathematical concepts in everyday scenarios in a way that children can become emotionally invested in, while page illustrations can help them to visualise the mathematical concepts in question. Meanwhile, children also have opportunities to practise using both mathematical terms and general vocabularies that they find in the story – an important connection to be made particularly when my other research project found significant correlation between children’s language abilities and their mathematical word problem solving performance.
What is MathsThroughStories.org?
When I further explored the rest of the questionnaire data – this time with a focus on teachers’ perceived barrier to the integration of stories in their mathematics instruction, a large number of teachers in my study expressed that they had either never heard of the approach (i.e. the use of stories in mathematics teaching) or that they liked the idea, but did not know any mathematical story-picture books that they can use. These views prompted me to create MathsThroughStories.org, which contains the world’s largest database of recommendations for 500+ mathematical story-picture books. The website also features lesson plans, book reviews and exclusive interviews with some of the world’s most popular authors of these stories.
In the short span of ten months since the launch of the website in March 2017, MathsThroughStories.org has now been viewed nearly 100,000 times by over 15,000 teachers and parents from more than 130 countries globally. Not only have I been amazed by these statistics, I have also been fascinated by the way teachers and parents actively help to promote my initiative and its website among their peers and fellow parents.
This blog entry is not intended to give you a detailed report of my research as it can be found elsewhere. What I hope to achieve, with this blog entry, is to simply raise an awareness of the potential pedagogical benefits of mathematical story-picture books. If you like what you have read so far, I should be grateful if you could help to promote the MathsThroughStories.org website in whichever way you can!
You can find out more about this transformative approach to teaching and learning mathematics either on the MathsThroughStories.org website, or the upcoming Special Issue (Summer 2018) of The Mathematical Association’s Primary Mathematics journal that Vincent edits, or from a book chapter called ‘Bringing Mathematics Alive through Stories’ which Vincent is the lead author in an upcoming edited book, titled ‘The Strength of Story in Early Childhood Development – Diverse Contexts across Domains’ to be published by Springer later in 2018.
CONTINUING THE JOURNEY: A CONFERENCE FOR NEWLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS, Reading, 24 JANUARY 2018 | 13.00 – 18.00
Ready to recharge your batteries, meet other NQTs and receive some up-to-date training? We would be delighted to see you at our seventh annual NQT conference, for primary and secondary NQTs.
Alongside opportunities for professional contacts with peers, the conference will provide you with valuable subject-specific workshops, as well as addressing different educational themes. You will have the opportunity to visit MERL (The Museum of English Rural Life) and the renowned Learning Hub here at our London Road campus.
“A great afternoon with lots of happy NQTs, who had fun meeting up with colleagues and staff, and who took away a plethora of good ideas from the workshops.”
Stephanie Sharp, tutor and organiser, looks back on last year’s NQT Conference.
Workshop selection may be made when the final Programme Workshops 2018, containing topics and synopses, is sent to you.
WHEN: Wednesday 24 january 2018 | 13.00 – 18:00
WHERE: Institute of Education, London Road campus Redlands Road, RG1 5EX
COST (includes refreshments and lunch):
£40 online if you book and pay on-line by credit/debit card: store.rdg.ac/NQTConference2018.
£50 if you require invoice: e-mail education-events@reading.ac.uk with the subject heading: NQT Conference 2018 invoice request.
PROGRAMME
12:45 Lunch, registration, networking, workshop sign-up and welcome
13:30 Workshops Session One
14:45 Workshops Session Two
16:15 Workshops Session Three
17:15 Subject drop-in and networking with NQTs and tutors
18:00 End