At the end of last year, I was successful in applying to be a guest speaker at the 2019 Future School Conference and Expo, which was held last week at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. This was an opportunity to engage in some high quality professional learning, but also to share the story of our STEM program at Joondalup ESC on a national platform. As part of the Inclusive Education Conference stream, I presented on the topic of ‘Supporting Students with Disability and Additional Learning Needs in STEM’. I was also asked to chair the second day of the conference, presenting other speakers from across the country up on to the stage.

Over the course of three days, I attended a Maker Space MasterClass, in preparation of opening our own maker space here at JESC. I also worked with teachers from across the country in the areas of coding, robotics and other future focused learning activities.

As the majority of costs involved for my attendance were funded by the conference organisers, we were able to free up Miss Hatton and Ms Martin to attend with me. They were both able to gain professional learning relevant to their roles in the school, as there were six different conference streams running at once.

This was a great opportunity that has allowed us to create links with a range of educators and service providers that we will be able to access to enhance the STEM program at JESC.

Mr Rory Critchley

STEM & Science Teacher