Information for Members
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Annual Conference 29th June 2024

Presentations from speakers:
- Sascha Stollhans – Linguistics in language teaching and learning: towards a more inclusive and motivating approach?
- Anna Grainger – Coventry City of Languages: A Pathway to Improving Linguistic and Cultural Understanding in our City and Beyond
- Zara Fahim – Exploring the (in)accessibility of language qualifications (MFL and community) for students of underrepresented and minority groups
- Warda Farah – Biopolitics, colonialism and racism in Speech & Language Therapy
Martin Ash martin@mashes.net
Silvia Bastow silvia.bastow@gmail.com
Jenni Bindon jbindon@westst.org.uk
Jenny Carpenter jenny.carpenter@hartesthill.com
Stewart Dearsley stewart.dearsley@latrust.org.uk
Alan Dobson alandobson02@btopenworld.com
Marian Garcia mantonia.garcia@educacion.gob.es
Anna Grainger annagrainger@uwclub.net
Lesley Hagger-Vaughan lesley.hagger-vaughan@nottingham.ac.uk
Alice Harrison aliceharrison678@gmail.com
Jane Harvey jane2harvey@icloud.com
Lorna Harvey lorna.harvey47@gmail.com
Rachel Hawkes rhawkes@combertonvc.org
Rona Heald rona.heald@hotmail.co.uk
Yvonne Kennedy yvonnekennedymfl@gmail.com President
Barrie King barriecking@gmail.com
Lid King lidking@languagescompany.com
Jeff Lee ljeff471@gmail.com
Jim McElwee james.mcelwee@orange.fr
David Moss dmoss.bestmid@btinternet.com Conference Team
Diana Muallem Diana.muallem@btopenworld.com
Judith O’Hare judith@johare.me
Mark Oliver markboliver58@gmail.com Communications Officer
Marie O’Sullivan moslhs@hotmail.co.uk
Linda Owen linda_owen@btinternet.com
Ute Paetzig ute.paetzig@ukgermanconnection.org
Lisa Panford lisa.panford@stmarys.ac.uk
Nikki Perry nikkiwhitby@yahoo.co.uk
Mike Rauh michaelottorauh@gmail.com Secretary and Conference Team
Rachel Redfearn rredfearn@wakefield.gov.uk
David Rowles rowlesdm@aol.com
Bridget Smith smithwake@aol.com
Alison Taylor alison.l.taylor@blueyonder.co.uk Treasurer and Conference Team
Chris Taylor
Kit Thorne christhorne378@btinternet.com
Lynn Thorne lthorne01@theharmonytrust.org
Bev Whiteside bevwhiteside@outlook.com Chair
Ofqual register of Subject Matter Specialists
Ofqual is supported in its work by a range of teaching, assessment and practitioner specialists, who can advise on specific matters relating to regulated qualifications. To enable them to access the appropriate expertise at the right time, they have a register of Subject Matter Specialists (SMS), who have applied and been accepted onto the register after providing evidence of their experience and expertise.
Then where any piece of work requires specialist input, Ofqual refers to the register to ask relevant SMS whether they would be interested and available. Work requirements, likely number of days’ work and the daily pay rate are discussed, and a detailed specification which the SMS accepts as the contract for that piece of work is sent.
Ofqual would welcome applications with teaching and/or assessment experience to apply to join their register of SMS.
Specialists that support Ofqual’s work have expertise in relation to one or more of the following types of specialisms:
- Teaching GCSE, AS or A level: in schools, colleges, Saturday schools, or any other setting including 1 to 1 tutoring.
- Assessment of GCSE, AS or A level (outside of classroom-based assessment in a teaching capacity): designing assessments for an exam board, marking assessments for an exam board, standard setting and awarding for an exam board or evaluating assessment approaches for exam boards or for Ofqual.
- Industry: for example, professional expertise in relation to the language/s that you know that isn’t covered in the previous categories, such as translation and interpretation work.
Applications from specialists in the following languages would be particularly welcome:
- Arabic
- Gujarati
- Bengali
- Italian
- Japanese
- Modern Hebrew
- Panjabi
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Turkish
- Urdu
Ofqual engages with SMS who have expertise in MFL GCSE and AS/A level in a variety of ways. For example, evaluating new or amended assessment approaches, whether minor amendments to a live qualification or wholesale revised approaches (such as accreditation reviews); investigating specific aspects of the assessments, or taking part in research and evaluation projects.
For further information about the application process and the main areas of work Ofqual uses SMS for, please refer to the Ofqual webpage.
If you have any questions and would like to speak to someone in Ofqual, please contact Rhian Dent via email.





