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22 February 2018
BrainCanDo, an educational neuroscience programme introduced into Queen Anne’s School by its headmistress, Julia Harrington, marks its fifth year with a conference at the School on 15 March 2018.
Since its establishment in 2013, BrainCanDo has been working with universities to bring together the latest findings from within the fields of neuroscience and psychology to build an evidence-informed educational practice – taking what is known about the teenage brain, how it is structured, and how it learns new information – and making use of this information to create the best educational experience possible for both teachers and pupils.
Julia Harrington said: ‘While advances in neuroscience have discovered more and more about how the brain develops and what stimulates or depresses young minds, until the establishment of BrainCanDo this knowledge had not been filtering through to the classroom – or, indeed, the playground (what happens outside the classroom being as critical to all-round success as what happens in it).’
The last five years’ work has included research projects with Oxford and Reading Universities and Goldsmith’s, University of London to throw light on the value of specific interventions such as how music can make you smarter; the effect of emotional regulation on performance in adolescence; and the effects of self-affirmation for improving performance of a cognitive task.
Queen Anne’s School has also developed a programme to teach and demonstrate how memory works; how stress can be used to help performance in the classroom – and stopped from getting out of hand; and how important it is in teaching and pastoral care to take into account the plasticity of a child’s brain, including understanding biological rhythms and the science of sleep.
Keynote speakers at the conference include
Professor Michael Thomas, Director of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience at Birkbeck University, London (How is neuroscience relevant to the classroom?)
Dr Dean Burnett, neuroscientist at Cardiff University (and stand-up comedian) (How emotional contagion impacts teenage peer groups)
Dr Joni Holmes, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University (Working memory and classroom learning)
There will also be panel sessions, led by Jonnie Noakes, Director of the Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning at Eton College, and updates from the three current university research collaborators.
This one-day, CPD-accredited conference, will provide an opportunity to network with like-minded professionals, share good practice and discover the latest findings in the fields of neuroscience and psychology and how they can transform teaching and learning.
Thursday 15 March 2018, 09:15 – 16:00
Queen Anne’s School, Henley Road, Caversham, Berkshire RG4 6DX (easy access from Reading station, with frequent trains to and from Paddington Station, London)
You can book directly (tickets are £60) through the BrainCanDo website (www.braincando.com) or by calling +44 (0)118 918 7343 or emailing [email protected]
Join the conversation: #braincando
Media enquiries to Sheila Thompson on 07958 307 637 or at [email protected]
