Charney Primary Conference - Day 1 - Part 1


Two weekends ago, I was in the Vale of the White Horse, south of Oxford for the 20th Charney Manor Primary Conference.
This has been organised by Simon Catling for the last two decades. I taught in the morning, and then drove over to Oxford, arriving in plenty of time to get my room in the old Manor House, and settle in before the first lot of sessions. There were over 40 delegates, the largest attendance, and there were people from a large number of countries.
After tea, it was time for Session 1. After a welcome from Simon Catling, I heard Anne Dolan talk about Place-based learning. She has a book on 'Powerful Primary Geography' coming out in June 2017.
I first met Anne when I was presenting GeoMedia courses at Salzburg University, which I used to do with Karl Donert.
After Anne's session, it was time for Sharon Witt, who has been a big influence on work that I've done over the years. She was talking about miniature play and children's narratives.
Fran Martin and her Canadian colleague Fatima Pirbhai-Illich talked about places, spaces and boundaries in geography classrooms.
Stephen Scoffham talked about Young People's ideas of different nations and cultures, and Takashi Shimura shared a Japanese perspective, showing how the ideas from this conference have influenced Japanese education.
Rachel Bowles finished by talking about half a century of education. An excellent start to the weekend. And then it was time for the evening meal...

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