Discovery Conference 2022

On Thursday 25^th August 2022 Discovery hosted their trust conference at the King Power Stadium in Leicester. Discovery celebrated 10 years of the trust, the theme throughout the day was ‘Trust in the Journey’. This was followed by our Trust leader Paul Stone giving us a brief outline of the journey that Discovery has embarked on throughout the 10 years. For the new teachers and support staff within the trust, this was a chance to learn about the history of Discovery and it’s journey up until the present day.   

The Discovery conference 2022 was an event in which all teaching and support colleagues from across our Primary schools gathered to partake in workshops and have the chance to listen to expert keynote speakers from across the education system. This was a day where colleagues could gather expert information and use this this knowledge when they returned to school. Throughout the day, Discovery celebrated their 10^th anniversary of being a trust.

The morning started with all attendees gathering for a welcome talk from the ‘Director of Primary Education’ David Briggs. After the welcome talk, ‘Discovery trust leader,’ Paul Stone presented the launch of the ‘Discovery Culture book volume 10’.  This is a book that Paul and the rest of the Leadership team feel very passionate about. The Discovery culture book has values that are important for all colleagues within the trust to read and take onboard.

The conference then split between workshops and keynotes. In total there were seven different workshops available for colleagues to attend. Prior to the conference, all attendees within the trust had the option to choose two or three of the workshops which they felt they wanted to attend in order to enhance their practice.

The workshops available throughout the day were-

–Abdul Chohan (Showbie)

-Sarah Sadler (Curriculum)

-Louise Barber and Beena Chohan (Looking after you)

-Halil Tamgumus (Diversity, who we are)

-Graeme Robins and Ben Jordan (Dealing with Change)

–Vicky Edwards (Behaviour)

-Sara Marsh (Writing)

Keynotes were a main figurehead of the day. After a buffet provided by Leicester City football club, the workshops and keynotes continued during the afternoon session. A closing talk for all attendees from Paul Stone and David Briggs concluded a great day at the King Power Stadium.

A day packed full of learning, expertise and celebrating a successful 10 years as a trust so far.

Here are a few statements from different staff from schools throughout the trust that attended the conference.  

Emma Turner- Leader of ‘The Extended mind’ Keynote- The Discovery Conference was an opportunity to share leading edge research through two Keynote speeches based on “The Extended Mind, In Action”. During the keynotes, all attendees were introduced to some of the latest findings within cognitive science and explored how these could be integrated into practice across trust. It was a delight to see hundreds of delegates interacting with the content and to hear such rich positive professional discussion following the sessions. This term will see opportunities for colleagues to be part of further training and development within these areas, with the Trust conference providing an excellent launch pad for a sustained focus on this exciting area of research and development.

Harry Durham, Class Teacher- Braunstone Community Primary school.

I enjoyed the day at the Discovery Conference 2022 as it was great to see friends and colleagues from my time at other schools in the Trust and some of the messages, we received from the different speakers were useful. My favourite workshop was developing Creative Writers with Sara as it reaffirmed some of the principles, I am already applying in my teaching of writing, but I also enjoyed the way Sara spoke about education and shared a lot of her values and views.

Maisie Barnwell- Teaching Assistant- Merrydale Junior School

The Discovery trust conference 2022 was a great day, learning all about the 10 years within the trust as well as spending the day with my colleagues and friends, whilst getting to know colleagues from the other schools too. My favourite workshop of the day was the Keynote from Emma Turner, learning all about ‘The Extended Mind’. The day really prepared me for the academic year ahead.

Jo Andrews- Headteacher- Parklands Primary School

I thought the 2022 Discovery Conference was a wonderful experience which was an opportunity for staff to really understand the aims and culture of the Trust. I loved that all teachers and support staff could spend the day listening to a wide variety of keynote speakers and attending workshops. It was great for staff to hear our CEO talk about his vision. There were a wide variety of workshops to choose from and I really valued learning strategies for wellbeing as well as how to develop a whole school behaviour strategy. I was impressed with the organisation of the day and look forward to attending again next year.