On 16th October, over 80 teachers and local authority advisors attended the Japan Conference for Schools. Co-organised by the British Council, the Embassy of Japan, the Japan Foundation and the Japan Society, the event offered ideas for activities and projects that teachers can use to introduce Japan and Japanese into their schools.

The day began with an excellent talk by James Laming of Frederick Gough School, Scunthorpe, about his Joint Curriculum Project: Recycling in Nagoya. James and a number of his students had a very successful trip to Japan in which they spent time at a partner school and with members of the local community.

Following this, participants separated into small groups for workshop sessions on the themes of A Geographers Japan, Japanese Language, Japan in the Primary Classroom and Japan and Art. Speakers came from all over the UK and gave very enthusiastic presentations about how they have used Japan and Japanese in their schools.

Participants were also able to take advantage of one-to-one advisory sessions with members of the four organising institutions. There is an enormous amount of free support available, and this was an opportunity for the teachers to find out how best to make use of it.

The event will be held again in 2010 so look out for information about it on this website. You can also gain advance notice of Japan Foundation events by signing up for our monthly e-bulletin.