Crawford Preparatory Sandton, Benmore Rd

Creative Engagement

Saturday 29 July 2017

8:00 – 13:00

Crawford Preparatory Sandton, Benmore Rd

8:00-8:30 Registration

8:30-10:00 Mindfulness and practical initiatives to practice mindfulness in the classroom

Mark Hayter

This seminar will look at the concept of mindfulness and some practical initiatives to practice mindfulness in the classroom.

10:00-10:30Tea

10:30-12:00 Exploring Ways to Embed Critical and Creative Thinking in the Classroom –

A workshop

Kemble Elliott

This workshop will cover creative ways to encourage critical thinking by engaging participants with philosophical questions that lead to metaphysical explorations of object and concepts. We will also touch on position and point of view, questioning the message and the messenger.

12:00-12:15 Break

12:15-13:15 An Invitation to Be Outside

Estelle Martinson

This talk will look at social innovation and biomimicry in the school setting, for example understanding disruptive innovation through a study of invasive species, and organizational principles in the behaviour of social insects such as ants and bees.

“Mindfulness and practical initiatives to practice mindfulness in the classroom”

Mark is Headmaster at Grayston Preparatory School and is ateacher in English, Maths, Geography, History and LO.

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. While mindfulness is something we all naturally possess, it’s more readily available to us when we practice on a daily basis.

Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful. And there’s growing research showing that when you train your brain to be mindful, you’re actually remodelling the physical structure of your brain.

Mindfulness is paying attention to what is happening in the present moment. Mindfulness can help us learn to pay close attention to many things. It can help us calm down when we are angry, sad, frustrated or have any difficult emotion. It can also help us do well at school, on the sports field or at performance. We all already have the capacity to be present, and it doesn’t require us to change who we are. But we can cultivate these innate qualities with simple practices that are scientifically demonstrated to benefit us in many ways.

This seminar will look at the concept of mindfulness and some practical initiatives to practice mindfulness in the classroom.

Exploring Ways to Embed Critical and Creative Thinking in the Classroom – A workshop

Kemble taught Drama and English for 20 years (Grade 1 – 12). She was Deputy Principal at Crawford Fourways for 11 years, where she implemented ‘DIY: Dream, Innovate Yourself!’, a full subject, encouraging students to engage with real life projects to foster creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and innovation. Kemble has three daughters: Megan, 27 an entrepreneur and designer; Amy, 25, a doctor and Rebecca, 20, an animation student. She is married to Mervyn, another Deputy Principal.

Kemble is also a poet (having published ‘Twixt Cup and Lip: Biography of a Relationship, which has been serialized for Radio Veritas) and playwright (numerous children’s plays, and the play of the book, Between Cup and Lip, performed in Grahamstown - 2006 and at the Musho Festival in Natal, 2007, where it won the Suliman Trophy) and actor.

The Ministry of Creativity, with its annual competition, DreamFlight, supporting creative teaching within the Advtech schools was initiated by Kemble and now has an annual prize of up to R80 000.

Kemble has achieved her Master’s degree in Education through Wits University, with a focus on innovative teaching practice. This journey has made her aware again, of the need to active creative solutions in the classroom and in education as a whole. She is currently the Director of Creative and Critical Thinking at Redhill School in Johannesburg, where she is tasked with developing and embedding critical thinking into the curriculum. Although she is part of the Problem Based Learning Project, called Future Focus, the majority of her portfolio is to work with and supportteachers to implement creative teaching practice, through “in-school” sessions (called Thinking About Thinking) and afternoon sessions of Professional Development.

An Invitation to Be Outside

Estelle Martinson is a biomimicry professional, having earned her Masters of Science in Biomimicry degree in 2016 from Arizona State University. She is also a certified Forest Therapy Guide, trained in the practice of Shinrin-yoku. She has presented a number of workshops on social innovation and biomimicry in the corporate world, for example understanding disruptive innovation through a study of invasive species, and organizational principles in the behaviour of social insects such as ants and bees.Estelle currently works for the Standard Bank Africa regions team in digital channels and have done ground breaking work for the Banking Association of South Africa on the barriers to banking experienced by customers with a disability.

REGISTRATION FORM - SAALED GAUTENG

Creative Engagement

Saturday, 29July 2017 – 08h30 – 13h15

At Sandton Crawford Preparatory School

Registration fee: R150.00pp

• Preferably a personal telephone number and not the school telephone number

Registration fees:R150.00pp

Banking Details:

• Please e-mail proof of payment and booking form to
• Please bring your own writing materials for personal note taking as well as your own bottled water.
• Queries – please contact Jean James-Smith – 082 870 2989 –
• Due to catering arrangements – please RSVP by 7th March 2017