Join expert practitioners for a day of CPD dedicated to diversity in English, with a focus on the English Literature A Level

Join expert practitioners for a day of CPD dedicated to diversity in English. We will explore how to overcome barriers to building diverse cohorts in English Literature A Level, taking a look at diversity and inclusion in English from Key Stage 3 through to degree-level study. The day will include practical strategies, case studies of good practice, and overviews of resources to help you diversify English in your setting. Your ticket includes refreshments on arrival and all elements of the programme including a practical workshop with experts from the Shakespeare’s Globe Education Team.

We will explore questions such as:

Our classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse, with 38.7% of pupils from a minority ethnic background,* but anecdotal evidence shows that our A Level cohorts are strikingly homogenous. How can we ensure the broadest possible range of students take up English at A Level?

With new Programmes of Study for English due to come into effect in 2 - 3 years, how will we implement the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s recommendation that ‘students are able to see themselves in the curriculum’?**

How can we take on new more diverse texts, at a time when teachers are so time poor? And how can we ensure that those new texts go beyond narratives of conflict and deprivation to include joy and happiness?

This CPD day is aimed at English teachers and subject leads in schools, colleges, and multi-academy trusts.

Programme

10:00 Registration and refreshments

10:30 Quick-fire keynotes and Q&A

Professor Katherine Baxter will outline the current context for diversifying English in Higher Education and how that reflects and responds to what we are seeing across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. Katherine is Professor of English Literature at Northumbria University and chair of the English Association’s Higher Education Committee. She co-leads Decolonising the Discipline, a joint initiative between the English Association, University English, the Institute of English Studies and the Postcolonial Studies Association, which aims to foster and support collaborative action for decolonial approaches across English Literature, Language and Creative Writing.

Beth Plant will introduce us to the Black Humanities Project, a student-led grassroots initiative that aims to inspire young people from minority ethnic backgrounds to consider a future in arts and humanities. Along with this, it sets out to expose, explore and empower black humanities and champion more ethnic diversity within arts and humanities curriculums. Over the past 5 years, the project has worked in collaboration with UEA Outreach to design and deliver activities for local year 8 and 9 students and create a bank of resources for teachers to use within their own classrooms. The project is now being supported by the UEA Students’ Union and the Ethnicity and Equity Ambassadors who continue to champion more ethnic diversity and to work towards closing the degree awarding gap between for black-heritage students. Beth works as a Student Voice Coordinator for the University of East Anglia's Students' Union. She focusses on access to education, empowering student voice and has a backgroud in theatre and performance. She additionally runs a small theatre in education business in Norwich that works to provide accessible drama workshops to children and young people. As the new facilitator for the Black Humanities Project, she will support the project to focus on impacting higher education experience and work towards closing the degree awarding gap.

Professor Lydia Valentine, Shakespeare’s Globe [more information to follow]

11:15 Session 1: parallel sessions

Participants will be split into two groups; both sessions will run twice, so all participants will attend both sessions.

Practical workshop with Chris Nayak: Teaching Anti-Racist Shakespeare

A full description of this session will follow shortly.

Spotlight on Penguin Lit in Colour with Dr Lesley Nelson-Addy

Dr Lesley Nelson-Addy is an Education Consultant and former Education Manager at the Runnymede Trust. She co-authored the 2021 Lit in Colour report and continues to shape the strategic and creative direction of the programme. Lesley has over a decade of experience across English teaching, curriculum development and educational research. Her doctorate in Education, awarded by the University of Oxford, was funded by the ESRC and Oxford-Marriott-Wolfson scholarships. She is co-chair of the National Association for the Teaching of English’s Reviewing Literature working group and was elected Vice Chair and Trustee of NATE in January 2026. One of the core aims of the Lit in Colour programme is to support schools across England to make the teaching and learning of English Literature more inclusive through the study of texts by authors of colour. The Lit in Colour report, published in 2021, highlighted th

Description supplied by the event organiser.