Report of the 2002 Weekend
5/6 October 2002
The sixth residential RE Teacher Weekend was hosted by the St. Gabriel's Programme at Wokefield Park Executive Centre, near Reading. In all 190 delegates attended from all over the country each going to five different seminars over the course of the weekend. These were led by twenty-eight RE professionals and covered a huge variety of different subjects. These included 'Citizenship', 'Using drama to teach about Jesus', 'ICT and RE', 'How to manage a successful RE Department', 'RE is Really Exciting', 'Use of Artefacts', 'Early Years', 'Attainment Target 2', 'Hinduism', 'Spirituality' and lots more.
In the afternoon, after the buffet lunch, with a slight change to proceedings, there were three keynote speakers instead of one. These were Barbara Wintersgill (HMI), John Keast (QCA) and Lat Blaylock (PCfRE). In the evening, before the formal sit down dinner, delegates learnt about the exciting RE and the Environment Project (REEP) with a glass of wine! At the dinner teachers got to know others from their area on their tables and afterwards they relaxed by dancing the night away to the 70's, 80's and 90's disco!
There were a couple of marked changes this year due to delegate feedback from previous years.
The time of year changed from the end of June to the beginning of October. Teachers had suggested
this as it meant that after the Weekend they could 'hit the ground running' and would be able
to implement all that they had learnt straight away instead of having the long summer holiday
to forget it! The other change was that teachers could now choose five seminars instead of
the traditional four, meaning that they could cover more topics over the two days.
Teachers left on Sunday lunchtime feeling revived, inspired and enthused about their subject and its importance within today's schools. They had the chance to make friends and contacts, meet teachers from far away as well as cultivate and foster local networks. They were able to share experiences and ideas with like-minded professionals and, perhaps most importantly, left with a renewed zest for teaching ready for the rest of the school year.
