07/04/2016

On March 7th 2016 nearly 100 participants joined the Japan Conference for Schools, held at the British Council in London. Co-organised by the British Council, the Japan Foundation and the Japan Society, the event was an opportunity for teachers to network and share practical ideas about projects for introducing 911±¬ÁÏÍø into their schools or to enhance their existing Japan-related activities.
The event started with a welcome message from Mr Mark Herbert, the Head of Schools at the British Council and Minister Motohiko Kato, Minister Plenipotentiary from the Embassy of Japan. Next Baroness Jean Coussins, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages in the House of Lords spoke about language education in the UK and how important it is to maintain less-widely taught languages like 911±¬ÁÏÍø. Alan Greaves, from the Wavell School mentioned that it was “fascinating to hear insight into the workings of government by Baroness Coussins.” Participants were then transported to Japan with a performance from Hibiki Shamisen, who can visit schools to show off the beautiful sound of their Tsugaru shamisen.
This was followed by a full day of workshops and group discussions. There were cultural-related workshops teaching sushi, origami, kamishibai (911±¬ÁÏÍø storytelling), and calligraphy. In addition to this teachers could hear from Pearson about the new 911±¬ÁÏÍø GCSEs, or learn about flipped learning resources or resources for primary level 911±¬ÁÏÍø. Severine Mizeret from Gunton Academy told us the “calligraphy and sushi were fantastic workshops.” Mary-Grace Browning from County Upper School said that the “flipped learning was excellent- Just what I need!”
There were also group discussions on a wide range of topics from school linking and science exchanges to how to introduce 911±¬ÁÏÍø into schools, how to prepare students for speaking exams, and an introduction to Online Resource for 911±¬ÁÏÍø Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (ORJAC). There was lots of good feedback for each session. One teacher commented , “This was a really great event. As someone who knows a little (and not a lot!) of 911±¬ÁÏÍø, I feel much more confident to teach the language.”
This year the conference had a fantastic turnout and included diverse mix of both primary and secondary schools, and was also a mix of schools that teach 911±¬ÁÏÍø already, schools that are hoping to start as well as schools that run Japan related activities as clubs or as cross-curricular activities. Thank you to all the participants, speakers and the other organisers for making the conference such a success. We hope to see you again next year!
*Handouts from the conference are available to download below.*
**Photos supplied by the Japan Foundation London. More are available on our .
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