The Cornerstone English Hub Conference 2025

The Balancing Act

Join us on March 18th for a day filled with insightful talks from our talented panel of speakers, with special guest keynote speaker Sir Michael Morpurgo.

See information about our speakers below…

keynote speaker

Michael Morpurgo is the former Children’s Laureate and best-selling author of over 150 books, including Private Peaceful, Kensuke’s Kingdom, The Butterfly Lion, and War Horse which was published over 40 years ago and adapted into the hugely successful stage play by the National Theatre.

In 1976, Michael and his wife, Clare, started the charity Farms for City Children which has offered over 100,000 children and teachers from urban primary schools the chance to live and work in the countryside for a week, and gain hands-on experience.

Michael received a Knighthood in 2018 for services to literature and charity.

keynote speaker

The Double Helix of Reading and Writing: From a new theory to new teaching practices and new policies.

How reading and writing in the English language can best be taught and learned in the context of multilingual classrooms worldwide is a topic of enduring interest. In recent years there has been a global trend to narrow approaches to teaching and learning, nowhere more so than in England. Counter to narrow approaches, this keynote talk presents..

the speakers

Find out more about each of the speakers below.

Ed Finch is a storyteller, blogger and speaker. Ed worked as a teacher and headteacher for more than twenty years and is known as co-founder of #BrewEd, convener of Oxford Reading Spree and too many more projects to mention – all with the aim of bringing connection and creativity to the education sector.

Ed was named one of the most influential educators of the year by TES in 2019.

Ed lives in Crediton, Devon where he enjoys walking, swimming and making music with friends.

“One of the finest story tellers I’ve ever heard… and I have heard lots.” – L.Macfarlane (Educator and Bookseller)

Professor Jessie Ricketts is based in the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London and directs the Language and Reading Acquisition (LARA) research group. Jessie researches language and literacy in children, young people and adults.

She is particularly interested in how reading benefits children’s learning and language. For example, how does learning to read change the way that we process language? Should we emphasise written forms when teaching children new words?

How can we support adolescents to read more so that they can expand their vocabulary knowledge?

Jessie works closely with teachers, educational charities and policy makers to conduct research and consider its implications for education.

Tom is the Director of the Somerset Research School and Assistant Headteacher and School Improvement Lead at The Blue School, Wells.

Tom has been teaching for 24 years and has held various leadership roles in two large secondary schools in the South West. He facilitates a number of Research Schools Network training programmes alongside managing the work of their growing group of ELE and EA’s.

Tom also delivers keynote presentations at conferences and events across the region.

Tom is passionate about engaging with research evidence to improve teaching and learning and enjoys supporting other professionals to do the same.

Dominic Wyse FAcSS FRSA is Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education at the Institute of Education (IOE), University College London (UCL).

He is Founding Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11 years) (HHCP), a research centre devoted to improving young children’s education. Dominic was President of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) from 2019 to 2022.

Dominic has made a leading contribution to research on curriculum and pedagogy, including national curricula, for more than 25 years. He has led multiple research projects and has published many books and research papers. Dominic’s main research is on effective teaching of reading and writing. His book ‘The Balancing Act: An Evidence-Based Approach to Teaching Phonics, Reading and Writing’ (co authored with Charlotte Hacking. Routledge Publishing), and a research paper, advanced ‘The Double Helix of Reading and Writing’, a new theory and model for teaching.