Annual Teachers and Advisers Conference

Here is the programme for our 2026 Annual Teachers and Advisers Conference to give you an idea of what to expect.

Event Timetable

Session details

Session One (choose from one of the following options):

Essex Pathways: Generative AI: Planning Smarter and Supporting Student Learning

This session provides the blueprint for using Generative AI as a collaborative partner to streamline your planning and generate inclusive, high-impact teaching materials that elevate the student experience.

Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies: Understanding and Working with Self-harming Adolescents

This talk provides an introduction to self-harm that shine a new light upon the symbolic and communicative function of self-harm and shows how therapeutic practitioners and educationalists can work with this counter-intuitive behaviour more effectively.    

Based in his direct experience of therapeutic work with male and female adolescents in therapeutic communities, Chris will begin by defining trauma and how this can be understood psychodynamically.  He will describe the prevalence and characteristics of self-harm, before pointing to the significance of a surprising connection between self-harm and adolescent initiation rites.  Finally, Chris will present two examples that demonstrate the symbolic and communicative function of self-harm, and indicate how practitioners can work more effective with these young people who self-harm.

Sociology and Criminology: Wortley Hall (the Workers’ Stately Home): Rethinking Heritage Studies

This talk explores how Wortley Hall can be used as a practical and engaging case study within the PSHE theme ‘Living in the Wider World.’ Designed for teachers of Key Stage 3 and 4, it focuses on how the Hall’s history can introduce pupils to ideas about workers’ rights, trade unions, representation and collective voice.

Wortley Hall was originally built as a country house for the Earls of Wharncliffe. After the Second World War, however, it was bought and restored by trade unionists and turned into a centre for workers’ education and leisure. Today it continues to operate as a not-for-profit cooperative while also hosting events and visitors.

This change in ownership and purpose provides a clear and accessible way to explore key PSHE questions, such as:

• What are workers’ rights?
• Why do trade unions exist?
• What does it mean to have representation at work?
• How can people work together to bring about social change?
  

Additionally, the Hall’s dual heritage — as both an aristocratic country house and a centre for the labour movement — encourages pupils to consider how the same place can reflect very different histories and values over time.

Session Two (choose from one of the following options):

Language and Linguistics: AI performance diagnosis as a tool for cultivating better understanding

This talk will present several examples (some drawn from our own classes) of how the performance and output of AI models can be used to generate diagnoses of how the model works, where it is successful or unsuccessful, as well as potential structural biases in its behaviour. These diagnoses from students are then used to help them understand the models and use cases much better and work toward becoming more critical, non-passive users of the technology.

UCAS Higher Education Updates: Unlocking UCAS: Essential Insights

Join UCAS for a must-attend session packed with the latest updates on the application cycle. Gain valuable insights into emerging trends, key changes, and what’s on the horizon. Walk away knowing what it means for you and some practical strategies to guide your students confidently.

Session Three (choose from one of the following options):

Essex Pathways: From Classroom to Campus: Mastering the University Transition for Students with Additional Needs

This session provides teachers with the insight and confidence to guide students with additional needs through the often complex transition from secondary school to university.
We will examine the key differences between school based support structures and university level disability services and how support models shift from staff to student led. The session also addresses common transition challenges, such as navigating new learning environments, managing increased independence, and advocating for personal needs to build readiness before students arrive on campus.

Student Finance England Update: Student Finance England Updates and The Lifelong Learning Entitlement

Session Four (choose from one of the following options):

Psychology: The Attachment-Informed Classroom: Building a Secure Space for Learning and Creativity

In this CPD session, we will first make participants aware of the most prevalent myths surrounding attachment. Subsequently, we will introduce them to the latest insights into attachment theory and the social neuroscience of human attachment (SoNeAt). Based on these insights, we will then demonstrate how an attachment-informed classroom can be created as a safe and secure space that enables and fosters exploration, learning and creativity for everybody.

Philosophy, History and Interdisciplinary Studies: Challenging historical myths and stereotypes-

This session covers the ways first year students are encouraged to challenge historical myths and stereotypes in the classroom. We will look at sessions that introduce them to the ways myths and stereotypes take hold in the public imagination and what historians can do to push back. In particular, we will discuss the ways students can think of themselves as historians from the very beginning of their university journeys by undertaking historical research to challenge these myths, and how this helps them to develop transferrable skills.

Literature, Film and Theatre Studies: Thinking Through Images: Making Video Essays

Video essays combine critical analysis with creative practice, allowing you to explore ideas through images, sounds and editing. In this session, you'll discover how students use video essays to analyse film, television, games and digital culture, creating arguments through clips, music and montage. We'll look at examples of videographic criticism, discuss the practical skills involved in editing and storytelling, and explore how video essays can be used as an innovative and engaging form of assessment.

Please do get in touch with us if you have any questions about the event, we'd love to hear from you. 

Resources for Schools and Colleges

We are pleased to offer a range of online resources including self-directed and live study skills workshops, a suite of resources for those studying the EPQ and recorded school and college talks, including student finance, personal statements and more.  

• School and College Talks
• Resources to support university applications 
• Self-directed and live study skills workshops
• Understanding University, the Ultimate Uni Podcast:

Find out more about the University of Essex 

Virtual campus tour: 

• Colchester
• Loughton
• Essex Open Days
• Chat to our staff and students
• Essex Course Finder