Eaquals 25th Anniversary Conference 2016

Marija Pejatović, representative of YALS, associate member of EAQUALS, and Vesna Stakić, representative of Tom & Emma School, the only accredited member of EAQUALS from Serbia

–reported by Marija Pejatović

Lisbon, Portugal

It was my great pleasure to represent YALS at Eaquals 25th anniversary conference held in magnificent Lisbon from Thursday 21 April until Saturday 23 April.

The Conference was attended by more than 270 delegates from over 40 countries – a record for Eaquals.

The conference was opened by the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Dr Augusto Santos Silva, who paid tribute to Eaquals’ work in raising standards in language education and highlighted the important role of language teaching in promoting better global understanding.

Thursday is usually an inspectors only day, but this time, we had an interesting oportunity to attend a whole-day training on management held by inspiring and vigorous George Pickering. He taught us not only how to manage ‘the monkey on our shoulder’ but also how to be efficent managers with some free time on our hands.

On Friday and Saturday the conference was organized around 5 general themes: Teaching and learning, Course design, CEFR and assessment, Staff development, Managing for quality and Business and marketing management.

I attended workshops mostly on Business and Marketing management since it is important for our schools to learn how to effectively and efficiently advertise on a low budget.

Evenings were reserved for social events and sightseeing tours and they were a great opportunity for networking with other members and learning about Lisbon and its wonderful people.