Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West & Abingdon
Layla Moran is a Physics teacher by profession, formerly working in a state secondary school, as a Head of Year in an international school and latterly with an Oxford-based Education organisation.
She read Physics at Imperial College and holds an MA in Comparative Education. She is a school governor at a primary school in her constituency. Layla was inspired to go into politics by her passion to see that every child, no matter their background, should have a fair chance of making the best of this world. She overturned a 9,500 vote Conservative majority to win Oxford West & Abingdon in June 2017. She is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Education, and sits also on the Public Accounts Select Committee.
Layla has an international background; she has lived in many countries including Belgium, Greece, Ethiopia, Jamaica and Jordan and speaks French fluently along with some Spanish, Arabic and Greek.
Baroness Floella Benjamin, OBE DL
Baroness Floella Benjamin, OBE DL was born in Trinidad in 1949 and came to England as a 10 year old child in 1960. She left school at 16 with the aim of becoming Britain’s first ever black woman bank manager but changed direction and became an actress, presenter, writer, independent producer, working peer and an active advocate for the welfare, care and education of children throughout the world. She has also headed a successful film and television production company.
She has been in show business for 48 years appearing on stage, film, radio and television. She became a household name through her appearances in the iconic children’s programmes Playschool and PlayAway. After 42 years she still appears on children’s television, her greatest love.
She has written over 30 books and in 2016 her book ‘Coming to England’ was chosen as a ‘Guardian Children’s Book of the Year’. Her broadcasting work has been recognised with numerous awards, including an OBE in 2001, a Special Lifetime Achievement BAFTA Award in 2004 and the J.M Barrie Lifetime Award in 2012 for her lasting cultural legacy. In 2013 she was made a Fellow of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and last year she was appointed as President of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists.
She was Chancellor of the University of Exeter for 10 years and became famous for hugging every graduate imploring them to ‘change the world’. When she stepped down as Chancellor the University put up a statue of her in recognition of her contribution to the City of Exeter.
She was the first woman Trinidadian to be elevated to the House of Lords in 2010 and speaks on children’s, diversity and media issues and recently was successful in getting the government to bring in legislation for commercial broadcasters to provide UK made television programmes. This year she was granted Honorary Freedom of the City of London and the Prime Minister appointed her Chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee to create a lasting memorial to celebrate the contribution to Britain made by the Windrush Generation.
Wednesday 27 February
Doors open at midday for any individual headteacher, or groups of heads who wish to meet and lunch at their own expense
15.00: Trade Fair
16.00: Welcome: Lynn Knapp, Chair of the Oxon Heads’ Conference Committee
16.10: David Clarke – Deputy Director Education Oxfordshire County Council
16.30: Andy Buck: Six Secrets to Success – powerful habits that school leaders at all levels can adopt for maximum impact on pupil outcomes
17.30: New Heads half hour, and Trade Fair
19.00: Oxon Young Musicians
19.30: Dinner
Thursday 28 February
09.00: Welcome
09.10: Floyd Woodrow: Compass For Life – Elite Leadership and Performance
10.05: Workshop org/Break/Trade Fair
10.55: Workshops: Luke Bramhall: Poverty Proofing the School Day, Brookes University (Rachel Payne and James Bird): Developing curriculum in partnership: embedding the visual arts, Brookes University (Adrienne Duggan): Using Drama to Explore Science, Floyd Woodrow: Compass for Life – Elite Leadership and Performance, Rikki Arundel: Supporting gender variant pupils in schools
11.55 to 12.05 change over
12.05: Rikki Arundel: Rethinking Sex and Gender
13.00: Lunch
14.00: Workshops
15.00: Break/Trade Fair
15.30: Professor Becky Parker: “You are never too young to be a scientist”
16.30: Trade Fair
19.30: Dinner: with prize giving
21.15: After dinner entertainment
22.00: Disco
Friday 1 March
09.15: Conference recommences
09.30: Layla Moran MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, and Lib/Dem spokeswoman for education; The Future of Education, followed by discussion on Oxfordshire and national educational matters
10.30: Break
11.00: David Clarke: chairs pupil projects in Oxon schools
11.45: Conference evaluation
12.00: Baroness Floella Benjamin: Childhood lasts a lifetime
13.00: Conference ends
National Association for Primary Education
Our aim is to achieve a higher priority for the education of children from birth to 13. High quality learning in the early years of life is vitally important to the creation of an educated society. Young children are not simply preparing for the future, they are living a never to be repeated time of life and the best way to learn is to live.
