Given world events, it is even more important that young people know about the European Union and how the European Parliament works.  Understanding how to access curriculum resources and use them effectively in the classroom is key to supporting teachers in raising debates that will influence young people in the future.

So we were delighted to be commissioned to work together with the European Parliament and launch a series of free events for secondary school teachers.

The events are completely free to attend and will be held around the UK over the next 12 months.

The conferences provide teachers who support citizenship, European politics and modern history, the opportunity to learn about the European Union and the role of the European Parliament itself. They also provide a good opportunity to network and share best practice. We hope teachers will keep in touch after the day, and share what they have picked up and how this works in the classroom.

The first conference took place at Europe House, London on 5 October and we were delighted to be joined by three MEPs - Dr Charles Tannock (Conservative), Jean Lambert (Green Party) and Catherine Bearder (Liberal Democrat).

The MEPs all led small group sessions, where they explained their roles and took questions. One of the delegates raised a few eyebrows by asking how much MEPs are paid, as their students had often asked them this question!

As one teacher remarked: “Being able to speak to our MEP really brought the EU to life for me.”

Camilla Antrobus, from Learning Plus UK led a workshop on “The European Parliament: What’s That?” which gave delegates the opportunity to explore the teaching resource including an interactive CD, which can be used by their students.

Camilla also ran a workshop on “Crisis Point” – the European Citizenship Game Pack, which provided attendees with the opportunity to find out more about the contents of this game and how it could be used as an all-day activity for their students. This appealed to many of the delegates as something that would keep the students interested, as well as making it an alternative to conventional lesson plans.

As well as the event, Twitter users picked up the theme with many updates highlighting the value of the day.