Eight takeways from our 2025 ELT Conference  

A standout event that sparks collaboration This year's ELT Conference once again proved to be a highlight of the events calendar, offering fresh insights, hands-on workshops, and invaluable networking opportunities to foster collaboration and spark new ideas. Whether seeking strategies to support students' mental health or creative approaches to engaging teen learners, there were valuable takeaways for all.

What did we learn? Here are some of our key takeways

1. Build knowledge collectively

Consider joining or creating a community of practice to support teacher development. "I've noticed these a lot more recently. I really think it helps you focus on issues for which you want to find a solution and build knowledge collectively. Having a community of practice forces critical thinking." Beatrice Segura Harvey, independent.

2. Challenge native speaker bias

"Native speakers have a role to play against systemic bias. It's not your fault but you can play an active part in defeating it instead of exploiting it. When I hear people say, 'you are perpetuating this by talking about it' or 'I speak from experience,' I say 'why is your experience more relevant than my experience?'" Meri Meroutian, language teacher and consultant, Italy

3. Manage more effectively through active listening

"It's about fostering the right environment and actively seeking things to praise, not just coming in when something needs to change. It's about actively being thankful and appreciative if perhaps someone took something off your hands or wrote a good email in response to a complaint. Know your team and check in with them, what's going on in their lives. And don't think about all this too much or you won't be truly listening." Andy Jeffery, EC English

4. Adapt teaching techniques to managing

"The biggest part of the education we offer in this industry is learning to live with people with whom you don't agree, and if we could bottle that in the world in which we live in 2025 that would be a good thing to do. As a teacher my rules were: if there is someone in the room you don't like nobody needs to know, and if someone annoys you, they don't need to know. What I started doing about 10 years ago was having the same conversations with staff. That's a key point in managing. I used to deal a lot with 'this person says this' and I don't deal with any of that now." Thom Jones, Brock Solutions Agency

5. Be an inclusive recruiter

"When you do exit interviews pay isn't the biggest driver, it is culture and how they feel, enjoy their work and feel included. Inclusive workplaces aren't just nice to have but essential to attract and retain top talent. Companies with inclusive culture are six times more innovative and 5.4 times more likely to retain their staff. Best practice job ads focus on skills and competencies, not personality traits. If you want the best people you have to be flexible. Focus on teaching ability and student engagement. Don't ask for someone to be confident and outgoing as that may put some off. Remove biased language, for instance asking for a native speaker.." Ella Tyler, Lead 5050

6. Try something different in the classroom and evaluate how it works

"I was having a problem where students, especially advanced learners, were looking for more innovative ways to do tasks. I looked at learning stations which are more usually used in primary school and did station rotation with a twist -different tasks but the same target language. It was new for them, and I noticed I really stopped talking - sometimes we talk too much. Sometimes high-level learners feel the language itself is not so challenging but that the task is, and they were proud when they shared it and there was a nice vibe." Guizzela Matienzo, Kaplan

7. Bridging cultures in the classroom can be fun

"Get your students to think about what stereotypes are and what generalisations are and help them try not to lump people into a group and be rigid in our thoughts. This is a good exercise and you can follow with one turning stereotypes into generalisations." Helen Lunney and Joanna Steiner, Celtic English Academy

8. And sometimes you know more language than you think

 "Around two years ago I thought I should learn Yiddish. How many words and expressions do you think I knew, though I thought I was a monolingual child? It was 300, just sitting quietly on my own writing out all the Yiddish I had learned." Michael Rosen, author and keynote speaker about his own language journey

Now to carry the momentum forward 

Closing the conference, English UK trustee Neil Harris encouraged participants to carry the momentum forward: "Think about how uplifting the days have been, how inspiring, and how we can all make use of it. Take away the learning - think about the little things you can do in your classroom on Monday, but also the bigger things. We need a community of practice for AI and inclusivity, and we have seen a real sense of how ELT is growing up. I would like to thank all of you for that."

A huge thank you to everyone who attended and supported our 2025 ELT Conference. This year's conference was sponsored by Trinity College London, Pearson and Macmillan Education.