Arrival in HK on 19th September

I arrived at Hong Kong International airport to be greeted by the beautiful sight of young people in traditional dress carrying lanterns and large moon cakes. I was told that this was in aid of the forthcoming mid-Autumn festival (also known as the Moon festival) on 22nd and 23rd September. I walked out of the terminal into a hot humid Hong Kong day to find the bus to Sha Tin in the New Territories.

In between days

I left the conference on 14th September highly inspired and with a good feeling that comes from being with people committed to a shared vision for education. I also came away with many cards exchanged during networking sessions and several research and summit papers

15th September was a reading and planning day.

I flew from Washington on 16th September on a lovely sunny day looking forward to catching my flight to LHR. BA0114 was in fact delayed by nearly 3 hours as a tornedo had hit Queens in New York and some flights were diverted. I learnt later that my flight was delayed because the crew were stuck in traffic for over 5 hours! I must confess that the time I spent waiting at the airport went very quickly as I sat a read Professor Epstein's book on School, Family and Community Partnerships. It really is an interesting read!

I arrived in the UK on 17th September exhausted but happy to be home for one day to pack a new suitcase for the second stage of my Travelling Fellowship to Hong Kong.

More from the conference on 13th & 14th September

Apologies for not posting a blog for a while. I had a problem with my laptop, which I am happy to say is now fixed!

NATIONAL SUMMIT ON FAMILY/ SCHOOL/ COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CONFERENCE ON 13^TH & 14^TH SEPTEMBER

This two day National Summit was hosted by the National Education Association in collaboration with a coalition of 20 organisations with representatives from all 50 State drawn together by an interest in strong school-family-community partnerships. The participants included teachers, educational administrators and consultants, academic researchers, principals (head-teachers), lawyers, NGOs, representatives from the US Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services, political researchers, journalists, representative from parents’ groups, PTA representatives and a Winston Churchill Research Fellow.

I was impressed by so much at the conference, including:

• The passion the participants had for strong partnerships between school, family and community
• The strong research-based information and data that informed the discussions
• The opportunity to question civil rights lawyers and political advisors
• The mix of listening to keynote presentations as well as participation in breakout workshops

 The leaders of the summit will use the output from the summit to lobby politicians and influence national policy and programs on increasing meaningful family and community engagement to support student learning and success.

I was delighted by the warm welcome I received, and the opportunity to learn about the latest work from leaders in the field.