This is the first, virtual and free UNESCO ASPnet Conference in the UK.

Is this conference for you?

• Do you aspire to educate children and young people to build peace, reduce poverty and help drive sustainable development?
• Do you want to transform education into a peaceful and sustainable world?
• Do you want to share effective strategies for human rights education?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then this is the essential education conference for you. We welcome educators and school leaders who are interested in finding out more about UNESCO ASPnet.

On the Day

We are excited to present an inspirational lineup of speakers and workshops hosts who will be sharing innovation and examples of best practices in education for peaceful sustainable development.

The conference will include speakers from across the world, including UNESCO UK Commission London and UNESCO ASPnet Paris, UNESCO ASPnet Japan, Greece, The Gambia, Poland and Cuba.

In the morning we have keynote speeches and presentations:

• James Omer Bridge, General Secretary UNESCO UK Commission.
• Ms Julie Saito, UNESCO ASPnet International Co-ordinator Paris.
• Ms Keiko Ogura, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Japan.
• Jannette Cheong, introduction and launch of the UNESCO ASPnet Arts & Culture for Peace Initiative: Finding peace with ourselves and our planet.
• Trizzha Felcianao, Youth Advocate Greenpeace.

Before lunch we will breakout for workshops. Please choose the workshop you would like to attend whilst booking your ticket:

• Teaching safely: How to Remove Bias and Stereotypes from the Classroom with Shonagh Reid.
• Learning, Thinking and Teaching Philosophically with Marcelo Staricoff.
• Inner Peace: The Foundation for Healthy Connection with Fiona Clarke and Jasmine Osiris (MindwithHeart).
• Storytelling, Connecting & Inclusivity with Harriet Marshall (Lyfta).
• Biophilic Education Movement for Peace and Sustainable Futures with Rosina Dorelli and Roy Leighton.
• Speak Your Truth with leading arts charity Eastside.

After lunch we will have the UNESCO ASPnet Schools Show Case, followed by inspiration from The East Side Freedom Library and a panel discussion:

• Schools globally show what they have achieved and gained through membership of ASPnet.
• Rebecca Bollands, Peace Project Coventry Schools U.K.
• Vera Medina, UNESCO ASpnet National Coordinator Cuba.
• Vera Dilari, UNESCIO ASPnet National Coordinator Greece.
• Malgorzata Herbich, UNESCO ASPnet National Coordinator Poland.
• Lamin Jarjou, UNESCO ASPnet National Coordinator The Gambia.
• Shamiela Davids and Elizabeth Stephan, Hockerill College U.K.
• Sinead Earley, Anglo European School U.K.
• Inspiring Solidarity in a Midwestern US City: The East Side Freedom Library. Peter Rachleff, East Side Freedom Library, St. Paul, Minnesota, Founding Co-Executive Director.
• Panel Discussion.

Workshop descriptions

There are 6 workshops for you to choose from. You will need to choose your workshop when you book.

Teaching safely: How to Remove Bias and Stereotypes from the Classroom with Shonagh Reid.

This workshop explores; how we reduce bias and focus on curiosity as educators, how we remove damaging stereotypes from teaching and learning, and strategies for creating a curriculum which is reflective of the world we live in. We will look at why bias exists, why it is underpinned by fear and how we can move beyond this. You will also be directed to where to find resources and support for a more safe, diverse and representative curriculum.

Learning, Thinking and Teaching Philosophically with Marcelo Staricoff.

In this workshop we will explore how Philosophy equips students with a lifelong love of learning that enables them all to thrive emotionally, socially, culturally and academically. In this workshop we will cover; how to embed Philosophy and a Philosophical approach into all aspects of the curriculum and of school life, including the use of Why Books, Wonder Walls, Thinking Pages, Concept Lines, PMIs and many more ideas, all illustrated using examples from children across the Primary age-range.

You will explore how to introduce Philosophy to the students from a very early age by focusing on questions that do not have answers, have many answers or are impossible to answer! How Philosophy and Philosophical Discussions can be used to remove barriers to learning and to transform all student’s intrinsic motivation to want to learn and their perception of the learning process and of themselves as learners. Also how Philosophy can contribute so significantly to closing the ‘word gap’ and to enriching the students, school, home triangular partnership.

Come to this workshop if you are interested in:

• Strategies that make students, staff and families feel comfortable with and embrace uncertainty from a very early age.
• The wonders of a philosophical approach to the curriculum and how this enables the classroom to function as a values-based, dialogue-rich, aspirational community of enquiry where all students are able to thrive.
• The idea of launching your lessons and topics using a philosophical learning objective.
• The principles and practical ideas that underpin The Joy of Not Knowing™ philosophy of education and pedagogy.

Inner Peace: The Foundation for Healthy Connection with Fiona Clarke and Jasmine Osiris (MindwithHeart).

In this workshop we will experience how mindfulness exercises help cultivate inner peace, and how empathy practices transform the way we listen to and connect with others. The workshop will cover what the ancient Greeks meant by ‘Know thyself’, a taste of cultivating inner peace and how to bring peace, empathy and understanding to our communication with others.

Come to this workshop if you want to:

• Explore research-based tools to cultivate inner peace and connection.
• Practice ‘Just Like Me’, where we focus on our similarities and common humanity to build empathy, reduce bias and disconnection.
• Experience how mindful empathic presence can transform our communication with others.

Storytelling, Connecting & Inclusivity with Harriet Marshall (Lyfta).

This workshop focuses on emotional literacy, (inter)cultural capital and global citizenship, and the learnings we can take from immersive digital storytelling pedagogy and practice. You will have the opportunity to explore the opportunities, challenges and impact of working with digital immersive storytelling to support global learning in educational settings. You will receive an overview of the meaning(s) and significance of the following concepts when learning in an increasingly uncertain world: cultural capital, emotional literacy, global citizenship and critical media literacy.

You will also gain an insight into the research exploring how digital immersive storytelling is supporting young people to grow in confidence about meeting and connecting with new people with different backgrounds or from different countries than themselves, and how it is helping young people better understand the meaning of complex (sometimes abstract) concepts such as values and key issues within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Come to this workshop to explore:

• Digital immersive learning and learning from documentary films from around the world.
• The significance (but complexity) of cultural capital, social and emotional learning and global citizenship in school contexts.
• A different approach to supporting the development of critical media and digital literacy with all ages.

Biophilic Education Movement for Peace and Sustainable Futures with Rosina Dorelli and Roy Leighton.

A conversation on peace building in education with Roy Leighton, co-chair of Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group and Rosina Dorelli co-founder of Da Vinci Life-Skills. This is a new look at what the future of education could look like. This session is perfect for you if you are concerned about the unethical nature of the current ‘one-size fits all’ education system, and exams that set up many students to fail. You will have the opportunity to find out more about ideas for an education system that values all the varied abilities and talents of young people.

We will also be looking at what Biophilic Education might look like. Biophilic Education nurtures a human ecosystem as an integral part of a local and global ecosystem. Sir Ken Robinson said that we are mining our children's minds for a single commodity, like we strip-mine the earth, and it's not sustainable. Humans have more value than the memory of facts to pass tests in a limited time frame.

Speak Your Truth with leading arts charity Eastside.

Join leading arts charity Eastside to learn how to embed spoken word poetry in your teaching and help raise your students’ voices. This workshop will explore spoken word poetry and how to incorporate it into your classroom. You will have the opportunity to try easy poetry exercises to unlock everyone’s inner Angelou or Shelley.

Through participating in this workshop you will develop techniques for incorporating spoken word activities into your teaching, and understand the power of poetry to empower young people to use their voice. You will also find out about the existing free creative opportunities with Eastside to get involved with inspirational spoken word projects with your students.

Speaker biographies

James Bridge

Chief Executive and Secretary-General UNESCO UK Commission, since 2011.

James runs the UK’s National Commission for UNESCO (UKNC) and represents it as Secretary-General at UNESCO headquarters and to its 193 member states. The UKNC received an A+ rating in 2020 for the sixth year in a row. He works with the UK’s UNESCO sites and designations and the global network of 199 National Commissions for UNESCO, and was an Alternate Member of the UNESCO Executive Board for the UK from 2013 – 2019.

James worked on EU Trade and Partnership Agreements with the Majority Leader on Trade at the European Parliament, including human rights clauses; in the policy co-coordination unit for the Secretariat-General of the European Commission; and the UK Financial Services Authority; ran local, national and regional policy, outreach and campaigns for Age Concern with its European Federation; and the 300,000 member plus Royal College of Nursing, where he wrote its first policy position paper on nursing and human rights. He ran the Brussels offices of the Law Societies, Save the Children International, MHA Associates and the start-up Internet company I-Wave Limited.

Julie Saito

UNESCO ASPnet International Co-ordinator.

Julie Saito is Chief of the International Coordination unit for UNESCO Associated Schools network (ASPnet) since February 2020. Prior to the current post, she worked as a programme specialist to mobilize and empower youth leaders for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Julie joined UNESCO/Public Information in 2007 where she was in charge of the Media Partnership and Kizuna Campaign collaborating with ASPnet to send 30,000 message cards of hope from 60 countries to Tsunami victims in Japan in 2011. Before joining the organization, she worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at NBC News and Asahi Shimbun. Julie grew up in a family where her grandfather was a grandmaster of Noh theatre, and her grandmother a professor of the traditional Shamisen music Naga-Uta. She studied Musicology/Cultural Anthropology before receiving a Master’s Degree from Columbia School of Journalism in New York, USA. Julie continues to play piano as her lifelong passion.

Keiko Ogura

Keiko Ogura was born in 1937 in Hiroshima. After the death of her husband, Mr. Kaoru Ogura, in 1979, she began working for Hiroshima herself and deepened international exchanges with writers and journalists and became an interpreting coordinator for peace-movement visitors from abroad. In 1984, she established Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace and published Hiroshima Handbook and Hiroshima Peace Park Guide.

Since 1990, when she started a planning company with global-minded proposals and designs for governments and corporations, she has supported numerous visitors from abroad and international peace conferences. Since April 2011, she became an official A-bomb survivor of Hiroshima Peace Cultural Foundation, delivering her experience in English for foreigners. She has given many Hiroshima lectures in universities in the US, and often appears in the worldwide media. (Photo Credit Ishiko Mari)

Jannette Cheong

Jannette Cheong is a poet, writer, designer and producer. Born in London, Jannette has worked nationally and internationally in higher education. In addition, for over 25 years, she has been involved in the organisation and facilitation of many international education and creative arts collaborations working with both national and international organisations. The UNESCO ASPnet Arts & Culture for Peace Initiative: Finding peace with ourselves and our planet is the latest of the educational activities supported by Jannette and her colleagues.

She was the first British person to write an English-language noh, Pagoda, which used traditional noh techniques, in collaboration with Richard Emmert, the Oshima Noh Theatre and Theatre Nohgaku. The world premiere of Pagoda was at the Southbank Centre, London, in 2009 and toured to Dublin, Oxford and Paris. In 2011 Pagoda opened at the National Noh Theatre in Tokyo and toured to Kyoto, Beijing and Hong Kong and as such is believed to be one of the most internationally performed English-language noh plays to date.

Website: https://www.betweenthestones.com/jannette-cheong

Trizzha Feliciano

Trizzha Feliciano is a Greenpeace Speaker and a medical student at University College London (UCL). She gives talks to schools, companies and educators about the personal and environmental importance of sustainability, in order to inspire people of all ages to create change in their lives and in others’.

Trizzha is also engaged in improving sustainability across UCL. She sits on the Student Sustainability Council and acts as a Sustainability Ambassador for the medical school, where she increases sustainability in the curriculum, and in the adjoining UCLH trust hospitals. Trizzha is also part of the leadership team for the Planetary Health Report Card, an international student-led initiative improving planetary health education and sustainability in medical schools across the world. She was also chosen to participate in an expedition to Antarctica led by Sir Robert Swan OBE.

Shonagh Reid

Delivering the workshop Teaching safely: How to Remove Bias and Stereotypes from the Classroom.

Shonagh is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consultant working primarily in the fields of education at the arts. She has an extensive background in leadership in education, specialising in Performing Arts and Pastoral Senior Leadership and has worked as a DEI Leader in the East Midlands, UK for five years.

She is currently working with The Old Vic Theatre, London and many education organisations across the UK in a range of ways, including strategic Inclusion planning, creation of and embedding of robust and effective DEI networks, mentoring, and training.

Marcelo Staricoff

Delivering the workshop Learning, Thinking and Teaching Philosophically.

Marcelo is the author of ‘The Joy of Not Knowing’ (Routledge, 2021) and a former scientist and Primary School Headteacher. Marcelo is currently lecturing at the University of Sussex, teaching on the BA Primary and Early Years Programme and is also working on behalf of UNICEF with policy makers, educators and textbook writers to help implement a reformed national curriculum in Uzbekistan. Marcelo also works for Coram, the children’s charity, runs courses and acts as an advisor to a number of schools and educational organisations and speaks regularly at national and international events.

Marcelo is also the author of Start Thinking (Imaginative Minds, 2005) and has published widely in the fields of creative, critical, multilingual and philosophical thinking in the classroom. Marcelo is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education (APPG) and a Trustee of the Laurel Trust and the Michael Aldrich Foundation. Marcelo’s work and contribution to education was recognised by being named as a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching in 2019.

Marcelo Staricoff, PhD NPQH FCCT, JONK™ Thinking and Learning

Website: www.jonklearning.co.uk

Twitter: @MStaricoff

LinkedIn: marcelo-staricoff

Fiona Clarke

Delivering the workshop Inner Peace: The Foundation for Healthy Connection.

Fiona Clarke is senior trainer and CEO of Mind With Heart. She has 15 years’ experience in sharing well-being skills with young people and educators. She is passionate about equipping students and teachers with research-based tools so they can feel well, function at their best, and care for others. Mind With Heart’s Connected programmes empower schools to create emotionally healthy communities where everybody can flourish.

website: https://www.mindwithheart.org/

Instagram: @mindwithheart

Twitter: @MindwithHeart

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mind-with-heart

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MindwithHeart/

Jasmine Osiris

Delivering the workshop Inner Peace: The Foundation for Healthy Connection.

Jasmine is a trustee at Mind with Heart. She began practicing mindfulness and compassion-based meditation 17 years ago, when she became a parent to twins on the autistic spectrum. Her practice provided her with tools to transform her approach to working with the challenges of caring, so that she could take care of herself effectively and, in turn, offer genuine support to others. She now shares these tools with parents and caregivers, through workshops, courses and mini-retreats. Jasmine is particularly enthusiastic about connecting people with themselves, others and the world through nature-based practices and the contemplative art of tea ceremony.

Harriet Marshall

Delivering the workshop Storytelling, Connecting & Inclusivity.

Dr Harriet Marshall is Head of Educational Research at Lyfta and has been a global education advocate for over 20 years, as a teacher, researcher, consultant and education project leader. Prior to being at Lyfta, Harriet was a National Leader on the Global Learning Programme (Pearson) and Lecturer in International Education (University of Bath). Harriet has published and presented on the subject of Global Citizenship Education, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Intergenerational Learning for many years, both nationally and internationally.

website: www.Lyfta.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrietmarshall/

Rosina Dorelli

Delivering the workshop Biophilic Education Movement for Peace and Sustainable Futures .

Rosina Dorelli is the co-Founder & Director of Da Vinci Life-Skills, she is a change-maker, designer, art, design and technology teacher. She believes we all have a duty to do what we can to make the world a better place and that everyone has the talent and potential to make a difference to their community/planet, and that needs to be nurtured by education.

Together with Zach Reznichek and Farhaan Mir she has created the Da Vinci Life-Skills curriculum and assessment model, which includes 5 transdisciplinary project pathways and 5 DVQs (Da Vinci Qualifications) to be run in schools worldwide. This is part of a wider Biophilic Education movement to inspire systemic change for all and to build an education system that is both ethical and sustainable. Biophilic Education nurtures a human ecosystem as an integral part of a local and global ecosystem. Sir Ken Robinson said that we are mining our children's minds for a single commodity, like we strip-mine the earth, and it's not sustainable. Humans have more value than the memory of facts to pass tests in a limited time frame.

Roy Leighton As a senior associate at Independent Thinking and the CEO of Undiscovered Country, he works with school, universities, businesses and communities in the UK and internationally to develop cultures of ‘positive peace’ and play to support engagement, transcend conflict and improve outcomes.

Roy is the Co-Chair of Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group (CPERG). He is a peace activist and in 1991 he was awarded the Min-on Peace Award for his contribution to peace, culture and education.

Roy Leighton

Delivering the workshop Biophilic Education Movement for Peace and Sustainable Futures .

Roy holds an MPhil from Cambridge University in Knowledge, Power and Politics, is a fellow of theRoyal Society of Arts and an advisory board member for the Da Vinci Life-Skills School Cambridge. Roy Leighton is the Co-Chair of Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group (CPERG). He is a peace activist and in 1991 he was awarded the Min-on Peace Award for his contribution to peace, culture and education. As a senior associate at Independent Thinking and the CEO of Undiscovered Country, he works with school, universities, businesses and communities in the UK and internationally to develop cultures of ‘positive peace’ and play to support engagement, transcend conflict and improve outcomes.

Eastside

Delivering the workshop Speak Your Truth

Eastside is a leading UK-based arts charity. We exist to help young people develop their creative thinking, so that they are able to become the problem-solvers of tomorrow, empowered to build a better society.

Website: www.eastside.org.uk

Spoken Word Power: www.eastside.org.uk/spoken-word-power

Twitter: @EastsideLondon

Peter Rachleff

The founding co-executive director of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, Minnesota, he has taught labour, immigration, and African American history at Macalester College, was faculty director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, a community faculty member at Metropolitan State University and taught in the University of Minnesota's Labor Education Service and in their African and African American Studies department.

The East Side Freedom Library was founded with the mission “to inspire solidarity, work for justice, and advocate for equity for all.” ESFL has collected resources to facilitate projects which share stories to build empathy and bridges among the East Side’s diverse and historically siloed communities.

Website: http://eastsidefreedomlibrary.org

Thank you to our sponsors

STEMunimty

STEMunimty combines data, a wealth of industry experience and a tailored local approach on a national and global level to achieve transformative sector change – linking the community at every level of education to universities and professionals. A collaborative, inquisitive and diverse education network in which students, teachers, working professionals and academics all prosper from real-life experiences and connections. We want to evaluate and enhance activities on offer with a particular focus on the curriculum and career needs of schools.

Arco Iris Learning

Maria Wojciechowska-Caneda: Maria is an experienced educator and believes that children’s mental health and wellbeing are nourished through supportive and enjoyable learning experiences. Maria created Arco Iris Learning to enable primary aged children to develop camera skills, grow in confidence and to nurture confidence in others.

She  designed an innovative Creative Photography learning programme for primary aged children. Through the programme, the children acquire camera skills, as well as developing their confidence in an enjoyable and supportive creative space. and she is the editor of the termly publication ‘CreativiTREE’, which features the creative images the children have produced. She has also published a resource book which supports Contemplative Photography and imaginative meditations. You will see some of Marias Contemplative Photography throughout the conference and you can contact her to find out more here:

Website: www.arcoirislearning.co.uk 

Contact: maria@arcoirislearning.co.uk

We look forward to welcoming you to the first, virtual and free UNESCO ASPnet Conference in the UK.