SLANSW Professional Learning Summit

Venue: The King's School & SLANSW Zoom Room

The School Library Association of NSW has changed the format of our Semester 1 professional learning event, which in the past has been a face-to-face conference at the State Library of NSW. Due to the new world of Covid-19, the Professional Learning Summit will be offered instead, in face-to-face mode at The King’s School and also in online mode, through the SLANSW Zoom Room.

The theme of our Professional Learning Summit remains the same as our Conference, continuing to focus on literature and literacy. Two keynotes will be the foundation of the Summit’s program and we are privileged to have a Laureate and a Literacy Leader deliver these keynotes. Both Keynotes will be followed by concurrent workshops, one with a Primary focus and one with a Secondary focus. 

Details of the full conference program are available here.

Featured speakers include

Karen Yager - The Literacy Leader

Karen Yager is the Deputy Head, Student and Teaching Excellence K-12, at Knox Grammar School, Sydney, President and Life Member of English Teachers Association NSW and Vice President of the Professional Teachers’ Council NSW (PTC). Karen was awarded the first International Teaching Fellowship by the Singapore Ministry of Education in 2011 and has been invited to present papers at numerous national and international conferences. She was awarded the NSW Professional Teachers’ Council Award in 2009 and the Australian Professional Teachers Association Award in 2014 for her contribution to the teaching profession. In 2003, she was awarded the NSW Premier's Literary Scholarship to research how to connect students with Shakespeare. In 2016, she was awarded the NSW State Library Fellowship.

Karen is the 2020 recipient of the Reading Australia Fellowship for Teachers of English and Literacy. The fellowship supports a leading English and/or literacy teacher to undertake a career-enhancing research project that will benefit the successful Fellow as well as the education sector. Karen is currently undertaking her PhD with a focus on how an effective professional learning model can enable teachers to foster global competency and academic excellence in their students.

Ursula Dubosarsky - The Laureate

Ursula Dubosarsky is the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2020–2021. Ursula was born in Sydney and has wanted to be a writer from the age of six. She is now the author of over 60 books for children and young adults. She has won many national prizes, including the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award, and has been nominated for the international Hans Christian Anderson and Astrid Lindgren awards for children’s literature. Her books have been published widely across the world and translated into fourteen different languages.

After leaving school Ursula studied classical languages and English literature at Sydney University and then travelled overseas. She married in London, returned to Sydney and had three children. She pursued her writing career while working in various jobs, including some years at the NSW Department of Education’s School Magazine. She completed a PhD from Macquarie University in children’s literature at this time.

Her award-winning work includes picture books, such as The Terrible Plop; novels for older children, including The Blue Cat; and the non-fiction ‘Word Spy’ books about the English language. Three of her works have been adapted for theatre, and her book Too Many Elephants in This House was chosen for National Simultaneous Story-time. Ursula is a frequent visitor in libraries, schools and festivals around the world, talking about books and reading, and teaching children and adults the art of creative writing. She is currently a member of the Library Council of the State Library of NSW.

Please note SLANSW's Cancellation and Refund Policy for Professional Learning Events when registering for this conference.

Elective Professional Development

As NESA changes continue to unfold, this Professional Learning Summit is an Elective Professional Development opportunity. The following standards apply to the content being presented in the keynotes and workshops:

2.5.2 - Apply knowledge and understanding of effective teaching strategies to support students’ literacy and numeracy achievement.

Participants will understand how teacher librarians and teachers can lead and implement reading programs in their schools to facilitate and support their students' literacy achievement.

3.4.2 - Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning.

Participants will learn how to select and use a range of quality texts to immerses students in reading so that they can experience how language is used effectively to engage readers and capture life and people evocatively.

6.2.2  - Participate in learning to update knowledge and practice, targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities.

6.3.2  - Contribute to collegial discussions and apply constructive feedback from colleagues to improve professional knowledge and practice.

Content will be based upon current research on the link between reading and writing improvement, which will provide an opportunity for participants to update their knowledge and practice.

7.4.2 -  Participate in professional and community networks and forums to broaden knowledge and improve practice.

Teachers and teacher librarians will collaborate with colleagues to develop ideas, strategies and networks to broaden their knowledge and improve practice