Family & Education
European teachers take a learning trip to London
The annual London School of Jewish Studies conference for primary school Jewish studies teachers welcomed guests from abroad this year
January 29, 2023 13:13
The annual London School of Jewish Studies conference for primary school Jewish studies teachers welcomed guests from abroad this year
January 29, 2023 13:13There was a more international flavour to this year’s annual primary conference of Jewish primary school teachers, back in person for the first time in three years after pandemic disruption.
As well as 160 Jewish studies teachers from the UK, 30 educators from a dozen European countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Finland and Hungary, joined the one-day event at the London School of Jewish Studies.
In addition to the conference, the visitors enjoyed a two-day programme which introduced them to the Jewish educational infrastructure in Britain.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Nora Aladjem, a teacher at the Lauder Jewish school in Sofia, , who was paying her visit to the capital.
Her school, which opened four years ago, has 130 students from seven to 14 plus a pre-school of 30 and will be adding older pupils next year.
Its pupil base is more liberal than most of the Jewish schools here. But a tour around the Orthodox Etz Chaim Primary in Mill Hill gave her some practical ideas about how to enhance the Jewish content of her school. “It shows how other schools teach religion,” she said. “Etz Chaim was full of display boards on the walls. On one children could write their favourite word of Hebrew. Every child could go and write something and all the school could see.”
She was also inspired by a session given by Nic Abery on how to use objects of art or culture to celebrate Israel’s forthcoming 75th anniversary.
“It is important to raise creativity in the classroom. Nowadays, children on their phones the whole time and they don’t know how to do things themselves,” Ms Aladjem.
The event was jointly sponsored by UnitED, an initiative backed by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.
At one session, education consultant Sharon Mullish, offered advice on how to adapt teaching to help children with special needs. Too often there was a focus on “what they can’t do”, she said, “rather than what they can do”.