OPS is now on Twitter – just in time for this year’s annual meeting!

You can follow us @OliverPriorSoc

OPS 2016 kicks off tomorrow, and we very much look forward to welcoming 120 delegates from schools, colleges and universities up and down the country to Downing.

Do get in touch with us either through the website or via our email address oliverpriorsociety@gmail.com if you have any last-minute questions.

Otherwise, see you tomorrow for what’s sure to be another great conference!

Our friends at Alliance Française Cambridge are hosting an evening at the Cambridge Arts Picture House on Monday 21st March. A screening of Xavier Giannoli’s Marguerite (2015)  at 6.30 pm will be followed by a Q&A discussion.

Do get in touch with us if you’d like to attend the event – it might just be the perfect way to round off OPS 2016!

Happy New Year to all our friends!

The full programme for OPS 2016 is now available to view here. There’s still a chance to register for the event: just be sure to return your booking forms by Friday 26 February.

Photo: Perry Hastings

OPS 2015 delegates in the Howard Theatre, Downing College

If you need to request a form or would like any further information about OPS 2016, please don’t hesitate to contact us via our website or by email at oliverpriorsociety@gmail.com

The Oxford and Cambridge branch of the National Network for Collaborative Outreach recognised the valuable work of OPS and its sister organisation the Sir Robert Taylor Society earlier this month with an award of £5000. It has been matched most generously by the Willetts family, who are firm friends of both societies. This is all-round fantastic news!

The award means that we’ll be able to keep supporting teachers who want to join us for our annual meeting, and to support them in new ways. OPS will make their share of the funding available to teachers working in the state sector who’d like to attend OPS 2016, but whose schools find the cost of travel to Cambridge prohibitive. 35 travel bursaries of £100 each will be offered in addition to the subsidies already in place to reduce conference fees for state school delegates.

If you’d like to apply for a travel bursary to attend OPS 2016 or would just like some more information about the scheme, please don’t hesitate to contact OPS Vice President Ellie Lybeck at oliverpriorsociety@gmail.com

We’re very pleased that the Head of Slavonic Studies at Cambridge, Dr Rory Finnin, has joined the line up for OPS 2016. As University Senior Lecturer in Ukrainian Studies, Rory’s talk promises to give delegates an expert perspective on some of the most pressing of current affairs.

Booking opens for OPS 2016 later this month, so we’re pleased to be able to announce the event lineup to our old friends and future delegates right here, right now.

So far, Cambridge MML Faculty members Silke Mentchen (German), Martin Crowley (French), Stuart Davis (Spanish) and Ianthi Tsimpli (Linguistics) are confirmed speakers. And we very much hope that, in the near future, we’ll be able to add a representative of the Department of Slavonic Studies to this list.

All updates to the programme will be published here first, so watch this space!

We’re delighted to have confirmed Nigel Vincent, Professor Emeritus at the University of Manchester, as OPS 2016 after dinner speaker. His address will consider the influence of Latin on the languages of Europe.

Professor Nigel Vincent

As a Fellow of the British Academy and member of the Academia Europaea, Nigel is sure to give us an expert perspective on languages and linguistics scholarship at an international level.

The programme for the event is really beginning to take shape, so keep an eye on our website for further details in the coming weeks.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter our policy making competition earlier this year.

Congratulations to Sara Davidson (Oundle School, Oundle) who was awarded first prize by our judges, and to our runners up:

Alison Jacques (Xaverian College, Manchester)
Alison Rudd-Clarke (Concord College, Shrewsbury)
Alison Warburton (Ermysted’s Grammar School, Skipton)
Mandy Ray (Burgoyne Middle School, Sandy)
Marta Tomaszewski (The Red Maids’ School, Bristol)

You can read more about the winning entries here.

It was a really tough decision for our panel, as so many excellent recommendations were made by teachers from all sectors and from across the country. Here’s hoping we have the same response next year!