This is the first letter to get informatiion on the 2011 LAHC Members' Con

1. L A H C
Sharing expertise for school improvement
www.lahc.net
3rd December 2010
Dear LAHC Members,
It is with great pleasure that I write to you regarding next year‟s Annual Conference, which will
take place in Lima, Peru, from Thursday 5th to Saturday 7th May 2011. The conference is hosted
by Cambridge College under the expert guidance of the Headmaster, Mr. Don Jones. You will
be pleased to know that based on the success of last year, we will once again have the honour of
the LAHC orchestra accompanying our opening dinner. More information on the LAHC
orchestra and logistics will be sent out soon.
The theme for this year‟s conference is “Educating for the 21st Century”. A draft programme
for the conference is attached for your information. Please note that the conference will finish
on Saturday afternoon this year, after the closing lunch. This allows attendees the possibility to
take flights back to their home country on Saturday evening and spend Mother‟s Day with their
families. Having said this, we would appreciate as a matter of respect and courtesy to the
organising school and to our association, that participants attend the in-house workshops,
closing forum and closing lunch on Saturday afternoon.
We are extremely pleased to announce that we have two world class keynote speakers joining us
for the conference in May. Our first keynote address will be delivered by the acclaimed Dr.
David Perkins, founding member of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
David Perkins was Co-director of Project Zero for more than 25 years and is now Senior Co-
director and a member of the steering committee. He is a senior professor of education at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Our second keynote speaker is Dr. Todd Rose, lecturer of Educational Neuroscience at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education and co-chair of the summer institute for Mind, Brain,
and Education sponsored by Harvard. Dr. Rose lectures nationally and internationally on
learning disabilities, the importance of working memory in K-12 classrooms, and the role of
neuroscience in education.
Drs. Perkins and Rose bring a background in a range of educational research that will provoke
considerable reflection and discussion with regard to our theme of “Educating for the 21 st
Century”. To find out more about their work, please click on the links above.
To whet your appetites, here is a brief synopsis of what Dr. Perkins will be covering during his
three sessions, his theme being titled “Educating for the Unknown”:
“As educators, we all want learning that matters, learning that makes a deep difference in
students’ lives. And of course much of what students study from kindergarten to graduate
school does matter. However, a lot of it doesn’t. It’s too peripheral, too piecemeal, or simply
too forgotten. The complex and rapidly changing world we live in amplifies the dilemma with
its shifts toward information and service economies, globalization, lengthening of the human
life span, and more. Whereas traditionally we educate for the known, today’s world also asks
us to educate for the unknown, preparing learners with the knowledge and perspectives, the
communication, learning, and thinking skills and attitudes for thriving in the 21st century.
Here we envision the opportunities and challenges of educating not just for the known but the
unknown.”
First Conference Letter (3 December 2010) Page 1

2. L A H C
Sharing expertise for school improvement
www.lahc.net
Due to the fact that we will have two exceptionally talented international speakers, it goes
without saying that we have adapted the format of the conference in order to allow all
participants to attend the first keynote address from each presenter. There will also be a separate
workshop for non-Head delegates to attend during the AGM. This presentation will provide
more ideas for your colleagues to take back to your schools.
In order to get full value out of your trip, we encourage members to arrive on Tuesday 3rd May
during the day and attend a pre-conference institute from 5.00 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. to be presented
by Dr. David Perkins. This will be organised by LAHC Region A and hosted by Newton
College and will be available to LAHC member schools as well as to invited schools in Peru.
You will receive more information regarding the institute and the costs in February 2011. It
promises to be an inspiring lecture. Below, please find an outline of what Dr. Perkins will cover:
Making Learning Whole
Some of the best models of learning show up least in the core subjects. For instance, most
students rarely get a chance to "play the whole game" of investigating a phenomenon or
explaining a mystery in math, science, reading, or history. Often education is too tame -- a
matter of learning facts and routines without much attention to how they come together in
larger scale pursuits. But not always! In the arts, in sports, and in certain kinds of activities
for other subjects, children undertake the kinds of holistic endeavors that make learning
meaningful, foster thinking, and help them learn how to manage their own learning. Here we
reach for a different vision of education: making learning whole. We explore how broad
principles like "play the whole game," "work on the hard parts," and "play the hidden
game" find support in the learning sciences, appear already in many classrooms and
programs, and have transformative power for the heart of the educational undertaking.
The presentation:
* is practically oriented
* is well illustrated by videos
* reflects Dr. Perkins’ latest thinking/book on pedagogy “Making Learning Whole”.
On Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th May there will also be opportunities to visit schools in Lima
in the days preceding the conference for those people who are interested. It is up to each
member to make reference to the “Specialist School Directory” sent as an annex to this letter
and to be found in the new LAHC website (www.lahc.net) in the link, “Information for
Members” (Note: to enter this link the USERNAME is “members” and the PASSWORD is
“LAHC2010”) . If there is a particular „whole school aspect‟ that you would like to improve at
your school, consult the PDF file attached and look for schools in Lima that have a strength in a
particular area, e.g. Vision, Mission and Ethos; Organisation; Planning and Finance; Classroom
Practice; or Curriculum. One of the best ways to improve your schools is to observe good
practice going on in other schools. All you need to do is send an email to the person in charge of
the respective area and arrange the visit!
The in-house presentations will take place on Friday and Saturday, allowing Heads and non-
Head delegates to benefit from no less than three separate one-hour workshops. We have had an
increasing number of outstanding contributions over the last few years and I hope that many of
First Conference Letter (3 December 2010) Page 2

3. L A H C
Sharing expertise for school improvement
www.lahc.net
you will offer something this year. These sessions have no particular theme and the idea is to
share with colleagues anything of interest that has happened in your school.
Accommodation and airport transfers: The hotel selected for the conference will be the
Sonesta Hotel. Please find attached to this letter a booking form which is to be sent directly to
the Sales Executive, Natalia Bulos, before 20th February, 2011. The rates shown on the form are
much better than those on the hotel web page, so please be advised not to book on line. Please
be aware that the airport transfer request of US$28.00 is also quoted per person. A
recommended alternative is for people to hire a taxi at the airport with the service, Taxi Green,
which you will find just after customs and before leaving the airport building and which costs
around US$20.00 per journey.
As a summary, this year‟s annual conference can offer you and members of your school staff
the following:
 Pre-Conference on Tuesday 3rd May delivered by Dr. David Perkins
 Opportunity to visit schools in Lima on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th May
 Main conference with two first class speakers, Dr. David Perkins (Educating for the
Unknown) and Dr. Todd Rose (Neuroscience and Learning)
 Three different in-house workshops (six workshops if you bring a colleague, and nine if you
bring two members of your staff)
 A variety of exhibitors offering quality services
 Networking like no other conference in Latin America!
We hope that this gives you all a taste of what is to come and we look forward to seeing you all,
and members of your staff, in Lima for what promises to be a memorable conference. We highly
encourage you to bring other members of your teams if possible, as the amount of knowledge
that can be taken back to your schools will be invaluable to teaching and learning.
Yours sincerely,
Nick Reeves
LAHC Education Officer
First Conference Letter (3 December 2010) Page 3