Future Teaching Scholars, developed and delivered by Education Development Trust and funded by the Department for Education, aims to develop the classroom skills and confidence of aspiring teachers, as they study undergraduate courses in maths and physics at some of England’s top universities.

The conference is the highlight of the year for Scholars, where they can meet peers in their cohort from all over England and aims to introduce Scholars to a range of topics that are vital for new teachers, helping to prepare them for their Initial Teacher Training (ITT).

This year’s conference was held at East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham and highly anticipated by both organisers and attendees as last year’s conference was held virtually over Zoom due to COVID-19. Sessions included challenges of COVID-19 in 2021, current classroom landscape, getting workplace ready and advice for ITT application process.

For the first time, Scholars from Cohort 1 – Tom Habing and Jess Robinson – who have been qualified teachers for two years returned to the conference to deliver sessions on their experiences of behaviour management and using modelling in their classroom as a tool to explain scientific concepts.

“It is always a huge privilege and pleasure to attend the September Future Teaching Scholars Annual National Conference,” said Professor Paul Glaister, Professor of Mathematics and Mathematics Education at University of Reading, representing the National Advisory Board.

“I am blown away by the enthusiasm, commitment, energy, maturity and professionalism of our Scholars. They will undoubtedly be the future leaders of mathematics or physics education in our schools and beyond, and we are very fortunate to know that our young people will be in their very capable hands for many years to come.”

Our Scholars in Cohort 4 at this conference are the last cohort who are yet to enter their ITT year therefore making this the last September National Conference before they join Scholars who have graduated from university at the ITT & NQT National Conference from 2022 academic year.

The Future Teaching Scholars team would like to give a big thank you again to Colin Wright, Rob Eastway, Katie Steckles, Tom Habing, Jess Robinson, Emily Giubertoni, John Coats for sharing their knowledge and expertise with our Scholars and making this conference a success.

The team will hold their next conference in December for Scholars in ITT and NQT years.

To catch up on our conference day on Twitter, follow #FTSConf2021.