The Prince's Teaching Institute is pleased to announce its Spring Term Programme of CPD for Secondary Teachers.  It is:

Expression and style:  Creative ways of incorporating grammar into the English classroom

Friday 20 March 2009, Kensington Palace

The course is designed to stimulate new and exciting approaches to embedding grammar into the teaching of English from KS3 to A2.  It will aim to raise awareness of what an exciting resource grammar can be in the English classroom and examine ways in which teachers can encourage students’ awareness of the part grammar plays in the English language and the literary works they are studying.  The day will be led by Ruth Ling and speakers will include:

• Adrian Beard, author of The Language of Politics
• Professor Jon Stallworthy, poet, professor of English at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, author of biographies of Louis MacNeice and Wilfred Owen
• Alan Jenkins, Deputy Editor of the Times Literary Supplement

Othello and Shylock, Outsiders? Villains? - Prof Helen Cooper with the Royal Shakespeare Company

Wednesday 25th March, The Warehouse, Waterloo, London

A day combining lectures, seminars and a RSC drama workshop on Othello and The Merchant of Venice. The day will be led by Eve Meyers-Belkin, who will be joined by Prof Helen Cooper, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at the University of Cambridge, and the RSC Education team.

The aims of the day are for teachers attending to:

• Understand the historical context of Othello and Shylock, in the context of great villains from the Greeks to modern-day drama
• Have a better understanding of the ambiguities of Othello and Shylock
• Leave the day equipped with practical approaches to illustrating them.

Africa 

Friday 6 March 2009, Royal Geographical Society, London

A day devoted to Africa and the challenges it faces.  The day will be of particular interest to delegates teaching all aspects of Geography at KS3, KS4 and KS5 and also those wishing to develop case studies in the physical, human and economic geographies of Africa.  Delegates attending the day will be provided with materials and ideas for the classroom and have a better understanding of the challenges Africa faces. The day is being led by Graham Goldup and is being organised jointly by the PTI and the Royal Geographical Society.

Speakers include Professor Sir Gordon Conway KCMG, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for International Development and Ian Maxwell, creator and presenter of  ‘Big Cat Track’ on Animal Planet which attracted great media attention and showcased his skills as the world’s foremost authority on animal tracking.

Charles Darwin at Home

Friday 13 March 2009, Down House, near Bromley, Kent 

To celebrate 150 years since the publication of The Origin of Species, The PTI is running a CPD day on Charles Darwin, led by Andrew Rees.  The aims of the day are to set Darwin in his historical context, bring the man and his work to life, and allow delegates to discover how Darwin's work informs today's research.  Delegates will tour the Down House and its gardens which inspired The Origin of Species.  Speakers include Professor John Hedley Brooke, Emeritus Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford and Honorary Professor of the History of Science at Lancaster University and Dr David Bainbridge from the University of Cambridge.