BESA’s Summer Insight Day 2018 was a great success as our member companies joined us in London’s stunning Stationer’s Hall for a day of discussion, debate, education and intervention.
We are all set up at @StationersHall ready to kick off the BESA Summer Insight Day 2018 #BESAInsight pic.twitter.com/l2YCk72Qf1
— BESA (@besatweet) July 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/besamarky/status/1016979817630138368
With such a glorious venue, the rich and insightful discussions were anticipated excitingly to bring the room to life.
Sitting down for #BESAINSIGHT day in beautiful Stationer’s Hall pic.twitter.com/CVtA4dORSg
— tom hall (@tomjhall) July 11, 2018
Fabulous venue for #BESAInsight day. Thanks to the @besatweet team for a great day. pic.twitter.com/BhQ4V2Y4hc
— Gill Budgell (@gillbudgell) July 11, 2018
Amazing venue of the Stationer’s Hall for the #BESAInsight DAY – well chosen @besatweet pic.twitter.com/5qxlJP6go2
— Steve Baines (@SteveBaines1) July 11, 2018
Great location for #besainsight today. @besatweet pic.twitter.com/oLvmO7KenK
— Becki Bradshaw (@BradshawBecki) July 11, 2018
The day was kicked into action by BESA’s very own Director General, Caroline Wright introducing proceedings and BESA’s Chair, Chris Ratcliffe, who was lovingly awarded the Chairman’s medallion as a sign of his worth to the day and discussion.
Besa’s chair @chrisrat wearing the official Chairman’s medallion at @StationersHall for #BESAINSIGHT @besatweet pic.twitter.com/YHl70mTlF2
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
We then had the opening keynote from MP Graham Stuart discussing the UK’s position to respond to the growing demand in international exports. A thought-provoking speech followed by questions from the audience.
Minister @grahamstuart opens #BESAINSIGHT “@tradegovuk knows the value of education – exports in education are worth £19bn a year.” @besatweet pic.twitter.com/g1rbzcYfHU
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/RS_RE_P4C_UK/status/1016983716906852352
Half of Europe’s #edtech companies are based in the UK says @grahamstuart #BESAInsight pic.twitter.com/GLMrSWVxSd
— Julia Garvey (@marketingjulia) July 11, 2018
The UK is home to world-leading education. Today @grahamstuart promoted 🇬🇧 exports @besatweet's educational suppliers event. 👇
🎓 UK education exports ⬆️ 18% since 2014
🎓 39 UK universities teach 700,000 students overseas
🎓 More than 1,000 edutech firms in UK #BESAInsight pic.twitter.com/DmUFAANmlT— Department for Business and Trade (@biztradegovuk) July 11, 2018
“Events like #BESAInsight allow us to come together to shape the education sector” @grahamstuart @tradegovuk_Edu pic.twitter.com/fGcqHmInM3
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
The first panel discussion of the day was led by none other than Patrick Hayes, BESA Director, focusing on school leaders and what exactly they are looking for. The speakers, Sue Collings, Richard Connor, Jon Hickey and Michelle Thomas spoke of their thoughts on how schools buy their products and what it takes to be a successful supplier within education.
https://twitter.com/besamarky/status/1016987051605012480
What do school leaders want? #BESAINSIGHT …Great panel line up inc. @tringschool @TringSchoolHead pic.twitter.com/Zc79NzMdMf
— Gill Budgell (@gillbudgell) July 11, 2018
@beaatweet, #besainsight what do school leaders want? Advocacy and word of mouth are hugely important; funding is present but needs to be spent wisely; don’t target heads – your email is likely to be deleted! And a bright future if you can help run a leisure centre.
— Jane Harley (@JaneHarley10) July 11, 2018
Academy trust leader Sue Collings asks education suppliers to help schools support disadvantaged pupils, diagnose pupils with SEND early #BESAInsight
— Martin George (@geomr) July 11, 2018
Important to let children fail so they learn resilience. It starts with parents @TringSchoolHead #BESAInsight
— Julia Garvey (@marketingjulia) July 11, 2018
Resilient children come from resilient parents, one in the audience says, and it’s important that children learn failure and learn from failure #MentalHealthMatters #resilience #BESAinsight
— Cleo Fatoorehchi (@CleoFatoo) July 11, 2018
Don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach with schools because not 2 schools are the same – great insights from Richard Connor from @NERPorg #BESAINSIGHT pic.twitter.com/3hN3HT2zNy
— BESA (@besatweet) July 11, 2018
5. No cold calling or cold emails. Always have a conversation first.
6. Be patient as schools go through procurement process #BESAInsight— Julia Garvey (@marketingjulia) July 11, 2018
Getting the right product can be a difficult decision to make for school business managers because every teacher has their opinion about which one is best – Job Hickey says #BESAINSIGHT
— BESA (@besatweet) July 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/besamarky/status/1016994437405265922
“Talent is evenly distributed but opportunities are not.” Michelle Thomas. So important that we provide opportunities for all children. @besatweet #BESAINSIGHT pic.twitter.com/b96011LLfp
— Becki Bradshaw (@BradshawBecki) July 11, 2018
Product simplicity to reduce workload for teachers should be the number one priority for educational suppliers – Michelle Thomas exec HT @besatweet #BESAINSIGHT
— Sam Derby (@SamDerby1) July 11, 2018
After an indulgent coffee break we were treated to a triple-whammy of a panel chaired by BESA’s very own Abi Ross-Jackson, Events Manager. The panel discussed the forever necessary topic of student wellbeing in schools, each with a very different angle from one another…
https://twitter.com/besamarky/status/1017008398800433153
https://twitter.com/EcclestoneK/status/1016770676752093190
Katy Potts begun the discussion with a talk on the importance of safe-guarding for children when it comes to online safety.
@katypotts reminding us at #BESAInsight @besatweet audience about our responsibilities as #educational #suppliers around #safeguarding #children #schools pic.twitter.com/Q0BF1W0AMh
— Gill Budgell (@gillbudgell) July 11, 2018
.@katypotts – helping parents to use EdTech effectively as important as teacher CPD @besatweet #BESAInsight
— Ji Li (@lijiukcn) July 11, 2018
We were then given an experts insight into the world of GDPR by lawyer Luke Gittos about the issue of dealing with client’s data and selling it on.
Required #GDPR moment now at #BESAINSIGHT 🤓 with @LukeSGittos1986 – obtain people’s consent to get their data and use it for a specific purpose pic.twitter.com/3l45O99L8F
— Cleo Fatoorehchi (@CleoFatoo) July 11, 2018
A refreshing approach to #gdpr concerns taken by lawyer @LukeSGittos1986 #BESAinsight pic.twitter.com/ZgLe2UrYIS
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
Professor Kathryn Ecclestone, author of The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education then gave a warning of the dangers of forcibly driving young people and children into mental health care and the vitality of allowing people to consent to their own wellbeing analysis or intervention.
Kathy Ecclestone @besatweet #BESAInsight : we need to sort the metalanguage of mental health and associated aspects so it is more specific and therefore accurate/helpful #mentalhealth #wellbeing
— Gill Budgell (@gillbudgell) July 11, 2018
@EcclestoneK brilliant presentation at BESA yesterday. Very thought provoking and resulted in discussion between me (40 years in HR) and my daughter @catnotsonunn who works in mental health. Thank you.
— Stephen P. Nunn 💙 (@Maeldune_991) July 12, 2018
Great #besainsight panel on challenges for education over the next year – @LukeSGittos1986 on legal issues, @katypotts on safeguarding and @EcclestoneK on wellbeing. pic.twitter.com/AVucwDBUH0
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
Lastly on the discussions, BESA’s EdTech expert Nina Iles was joined by Lucy Crehan, author of Cleverlands: The Secrets Behind the Success of the World’s Education Superpowers.
To finish #BESAInsight day and before #BBQ we are listening to @lucy_crehan about her book Clevelands and what she’s discovered on her travels – been waiting for this for months! Really excited for this talk 🤓🤩 pic.twitter.com/6zbNbp44dE
— Cleo Fatoorehchi (@CleoFatoo) July 11, 2018
Author of Cleverlands @lucy_crehan talks about the problem of quality control when teachers access resources via search engines and Pinterest #BESAinsight pic.twitter.com/4vmRfqHWJa
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
Finland education system was one of the biggest surprises to @lucy_crehan as it’s highly interactive whole class teaching #BESAInsight
— Cleo Fatoorehchi (@CleoFatoo) July 11, 2018
Lucy talked us through her new book and her journeys to the classrooms across Europe and what she had learnt by comparing our lessons to those abroad.
How can UK education organisations break down the barrier between canonical and the personal pedagogical subject knowledge of teachers? And how can educational publishers help? Great keynote from @lucy_crehan #BESAINSIGHT @besatweet. pic.twitter.com/p4D0xt3Aul
— Sam Derby (@SamDerby1) July 11, 2018
Textbook use UK vs Singapore vs Finland via @lucy_crehan #BESAInsight pic.twitter.com/yeGF1BFr1M
— Julia Garvey (@marketingjulia) July 11, 2018
“Knowledge is fundamentally important – you can’t have skills if you don’t have knowledge” @lucy_crehan #besainsight pic.twitter.com/20znYEA1uX
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
Professionalism means a senior colleague has responsibility for a junior colleague, but not in education! @lucy_crehan points out at #BESAInsight that teachers perhaps shouldn’t be planning their lessons on their own #lessonplanning …
— Cleo Fatoorehchi (@CleoFatoo) July 11, 2018
So much @lucy_crehan learnt from her Cleverlands tour of leading education countries was “just common sense”, but so important this common sense is implemented #besainsight pic.twitter.com/i0P9lkfw2V
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
Insightful presentation of teaching practices around the world 😊@lucy_crehan #BESAInsight
— Joanne Finnan (@JoanneFinnan) July 11, 2018
And finally, the heavily anticipated, delicious BBQ lunch was served! In the beautiful gardens of Stationer’s Hall an afternoon of eating, drinking and networking carried on into the early evening, made extra special by the company of a complimentary Pimm’s wagon and gorgeous sunshine.
Important #besainsight announcement: the Pimms truck has arrived, will be ready for you all in half an hour! 😃🏴! @besatweet pic.twitter.com/s4d47yFwxZ
— Patrick Hayes (@P_Hayes) July 11, 2018
The team at BESA would like to thank everyone for making the day a major success and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
Really great @besatweet #summerinsight day. Many many interesting talks and discussions about the Global and UK education systems. Great opportunities, and most importantly fascinating insights into improving our children’s education experiences. #besainsight #besa pic.twitter.com/okJztDqtc6
— 5-a-day Fitness (@5adayfitness) July 11, 2018
A huge thank you to all of our #BESAmembers who came along to the BESA Summer Insight Day 2018 yesterday. We had an amazing time and we hope you did too! #BESAInsight pic.twitter.com/OOEa6S49hr
— BESA (@besatweet) July 12, 2018