The annual conference is PRUsAP's flagship networking and CPD event, open to staff within the alternative provision community and beyond. For the past twenty years, the National Organisation for PRUs and Alternative Providers (to use PRUsAP's full name), has organised summer conferences up and down the country. On July 5th this year, PRUsAP held the 2019 conference entitled 'Flipping the Narrative'.
The concept of Flipping the Narrative is straightforward: to challenge the rhetoric associated with PRUs, AP Academies and Free Schools, and other registered alternative provision. Specifically, to bring an end to the negative stories commonly presented by the media, by celebrating not just the positive change that AP can have in a young person's life, but also how AP can be a high-quality education offer for our most vulnerable children.
Flipping the Narrative, along with the PRUsAP campaign #thisisAP, exists to highlight AP as an integral cog in the UK's education system, not a 'bolt-on' or last resort.
This year's conference brought together 250 delegates from across the AP spectrum and established a benchmark for future conferences.
Here are a few of the highlights:
Following an opening address from Sarah Dove, President of PRUsAP, renowned educator, author and journalist Phil Beadle took centre stage to explore 'What makes a transformation teacher'.
Phil's energy and passion for education were both clearly abundant, drawing on his wealth of educational experience within the context of challenging environments and alternative provision. It was obvious that to many in attendance, Phil's keynote was both inspiring and profound:
And Phil was full of praise for the work of the staff supporting vulnerable young people every day in alternative provision settings:
Following on from Phil, Dan Owen HMI gave a clearer insight into Ofsted's new Education Inspection Framework with practical examples on curriculum planning from September 2019.
Dan was keen to bust a few myths about curriculum:
Finally in the main hall, Elly Chapple spoke passionately about her own work - 'Flip The Narrative' and her experiences as a parent. Elly highlighted the need for us to move away from 'behaviour policies' to 'relationship policies', an ideology that struck a chord with those in the room.
Elly also spoke about communication and the need to be 'Agents of Change'.
We are currently in the process of growing our new website. Once our conference pages are up and running, we will upload the presentations from Phil, Dan and Elly, along with those from our workshops.
For more on Twitter - #thisisAP #FlippingTheNarrative