Out in Front - A Voice for Teachers

Teaching is one of the most vocally demanding of all professions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that more than 50% of patients presenting to speech therapy clinics are teachers. Yet there is very little training and support available to help them care for and enhance the effectiveness of their most powerful instructional and motivational tool - the speaking voice. Whether you are a lecturer or classroom teacher, voice coach, therapist or clinician, this BVA event offers you new research and practical exercises for vocal wellbeing, effective voice use, and communication to engage and inspire.

PROGRAMME

10.00-10.30 REGISTRATION and Coffee

10.30-10.35 Introduction and Housekeeping - Jane Oakshott (Chair)

10.35-11.30 Understanding How Our Voice Affects Others: Examples from teaching and beyond - Professor Silke Paulmann

11.30-11.40 SHORT BREAK

11.40-12.15 The Five Voices for Effective Teaching: Exercises and strategies - Lesley Hendy & Suzanne Parke

12.45-13.30 BUFFET LUNCH (by Longthorpe Fine Catering)

13.30-14.30 Notes from the Front Line: Vocal care for teachers - Abi Simpson

SHORT BREAK

14.45-16.15 Workshop: The Moving Voice: Movement, breath and storytelling - Morwenna Rowe

16.15-16.30 BREAK

16.30-17.00 Open discussion, Q&A and conclusions - Neil Renton

Lunch, coffees and teas INCLUDED in the price of the event

Vegetarian and Vegan Lunch Options (Provided by Longthorpe Fine Catering)

For more information and BOOKING, email [email protected]

Visit our website: www.britishvoiceassociation.org.uk to find out about other upcoming events

The Presenters

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTIONS & BIOS

Silke Paulmann, Professor of Psychology, University of Essex

Understanding How Our Voice Effects Others Around Us: Examples from teaching and beyond

Whenever we hear someone speak, we take in more than mere content. We form impressions about the speakers: their status, mood, and intention. Many of these processes are subconscious and virtually instantaneous. In her talk Professor Paulmann shares what speakers reveal through voice cues, and how voices can be used intentionally to communicate emotions, attitudes, and motivations. She focuses on the emotional effects that voices have on listeners’ behaviour and wellbeing, particularly in contexts such as teaching or therapy.

Professor Paulmann studied Linguistics, Literature and Media at the Universities of Paderborn and Groningen. Her subsequent PhD work at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, then at the Neuropgragmatics and Emotion Lab at McGill University, explores how emotions are processed from speech and how specific brain injuries can affect the processing of emotions through tone of voice. Her work explores both the underlying neural mechanisms and the acoustic attributes of emotional and motivational speech. Her current research is on voice use in social interactions and its practical applications - such as how motivational voices affect learning; and how voice cues can be used as biomarkers to help detect illness.

Lesley Hendy

Suzanne Parke

The Five Voices for Effective Teaching: Exercises and strategies

The 5voices is a model for teaching vocal skills to classroom teachers, focusing on the main voices used in everyday teaching circumstances. It gives exercises and strategies on how to learn to vary one’s tone of voice to fit the desired message: whether instruction, encouragement, or reprimand. In the session we take you through our recent research on the efficacy of voice training for teachers, present the rationale behind the 5voices, and lead a participatory workshop in how we apply the model. We have delivered this training for over 15 years in schools and initial teacher training centres, and for Speech Language Therapists specialising in Voice.

Dr Lesley Hendy, EdD, MA, ADSD, LGSM, has worked in education for 40 years, in primary and secondary schools and teacher training. She is a former senior lecturer in drama and education in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Since leaving teacher education she has specialised in voice training and runs courses for teachers. Her private practice includes teachers, managers, sales representatives and newsreaders for local radio. Her numerous publications include Voice Workshop for teachers (NATE pub); ‘A Voice for Life’ Primary English Magazine (NATE); voice articles for teachers in Teaching Expertise and Speak2Learn, a handbook for Primary School Teachers (2006).

Suzanne Parke, MA, BA, is a teacher, performer, and coach with over twenty-five years’ experience in the voice industry. She is currently Leader of Learning for Peer Productions, an award-winning youth arts charity specialising in combining high quality arts practice with peer education. Suzanne was Course Leader for Performance Preparation Academy’s BA Hons Acting for Stage and Screen. She was also their Head of Voice for eight years. She is a Visiting Lecturer in Voice at the Essex and Thames Primary Consortium. Her private work, Parke Communication offers several different voice courses, including presentation skills and one to one coaching. Suzanne holds an MA in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and is a voice-over artist represented by Rhubarb Voices.

Abi Simpson

Notes from the Front Line: Vocal care for teachers

Abi Simpson, MRCSLT, has twenty years of experience as a speech and language therapist. She is Clinical Lead Specialist SLT in ENT Laryngology, Airway Reconstruction and Voice. Alongside Professor Guri Sandhu, she runs the tertiary voice clinic at Charing Cross Hospital (Imperial College NHS Trust). In her early career Abi worked in mainstream schools advising teachers on facilitating children with speech and language difficulties and adapting their planning and classrooms accordingly. She is a qualified teacher of children and adults with specific learning difficulties and taught daily literacy to key stages two and three. Her experience in education alongside her experience in voice disorders enables her to bring an understanding of the challenges of working in education alongside the importance of vocal care and efficient voice use.

Morwenna Rowe

Workshop: The Moving Voice: Movement, breath and storytelling

This workshop brings together our physical senses, impulses and imagination. We will explore our internal and external space, develop the embodiment of our imagination - how this affects the timbres and tones of our voice; and look at the skills of storytelling connecting our physical and gestural life to the words and rhythms of communication. A fun, physical and expressive exploration of the interaction of voice, imagination, body, breath and story. Please wear clothes you can move in.

Morwenna Rowe is Course Leader for the MA Acting program (both Classical and Contemporary courses) at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, on which she also leads in Voice, Text and Accent/Dialect. She has voice coached in the West End, for the BBC, in regional and touring theatre, and for film and theatre at home and abroad, in addition to working as a Storyteller, Actor and Director. Morwenna's practice is informed by extensive research into the physical and vocal skills of acting, and their effectiveness in the workplace. She founded and led one of London’s leading Voice and Accent companies, 'Speak Easily', and her presentation and communication skills clients include the UN, the Dean and Fellows of the World Economic Forum, and leading FTSE 100 companies.

Neil Renton

Forum and Open Discussion: A voice for teachers

Neil Renton will invite questions and discussion on how the ideas and discoveries from this study day can improve voice training for the benefit of teachers and others in performing or leadership roles; and how the BVA can help to increase awareness of speaking voice therapy and training in your region/local area.

Neil Renton is currently the Head Teacher of Harrogate Grammar School, a large comprehensive secondary school of over 2100 students in North Yorkshire and part of the Red Kite Learning Trust. Neil is particularly interested in the importance of voice in teaching and leadership, believing that that voice development and voice care are crucial to effective practice, confidence and teacher wellbeing. Part of his self-development to Headship was working with a voice coach. Neil is often asked to comment on national issues in education and has appeared on BBC Breakfast, BBC News, ITV News, BBC Radio 5 Live and local radio. He has written blogs for Positive News, SecEd, Schools Week, Higher Education Policy Institute and AQi. In August 2023, he published New School Leader: What Now? with Critical Publishing. This book tells of navigating the challenges of school leadership with inspiring humility and thoughtfulness.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

PE1 1XS, Minster Precinct, Peterborough, United Kingdom