Hywel Roberts has taught in secondary, primary and special settings for around 30 years and so is a fountain of knowledge in his own right! He contributes to university education programmes and writes regularly for TES as the ‘travelling teacher’.
Wirral NEU were proud to be able to secure some of Hywel’s time to deliver training for our members in his area of speciality of “botheredness, storytelling and learning: the research into how narratives can support progress and attainment across the curriculum” all the way from EYFS to FE.
It was organised at the beautiful Floral Pavilion with stunning views and welcome refreshments. It was wonderful to have so many members attend.
Hywel passionately advocated for creative pedagogies and storytelling taking us on this journey live. Amongst many golden nuggets he spoke of how teaching is teaching, having cold knowledge in a warm context, having professional creativity as well as a personal and professional joy in what we do.
We understood why Hywel is so in-demand ad an educational speaker. As he spoke despite it being beyond 5pm after a day long teaching there there were smiles and lots of nodding in agreement throughout his time with us.
He was witty and entertaining and we enjoyed getting stuck in and soaking up his experience and wisdom. He made us both laugh and well up sharing his experiences in the classrooms. We got tips beyond the academic kind with renewed motivation and a great opportunity to network with one another.
Hywel brought his most recent book named after the trait he believes all teachers should display in spades – Botheredness. Members queued to purchase them at the end of training where Hywel kindly gave up his time to autograph the books and take lots of pictures!
He was very impressed with our youngest member of three months who attended training and listened intently! He was excellent with her even holding her!
Thank you to Hywel for a great session but also to our members for attending and taking advantage of the training paid for by and offered free to members by Wirral NEU.