1. Philosophy for Children Alumni Conference John Smith, MMU Faculty of Education October 2013.

2. developing confidence in expressing points of view making sense of the world and their place in it following their inquisitiveness and curiosity engaging in purposeful dialogue sharing reponsibility for their teaching and learning There are many things that children can gain from P4C including: thinking in caring, creative and metacognitive ways

3. Philosophy for Children (often known as P4C) was first developed in the USA by Matthew Lipman but is now a world-wide practice. It involves setting up “communities of enquiry” in classrooms or other settings and these are led by a trained facilitator. P4C aims to help children to be both “reasonable” and “able to reason” and to use dialogue and the tools of philosophy to consider issues related to their own lives.

4. If you would like to take a training course in P4C, accredited by Sapere (the national organising body for P4C in this country) and led by John Smith, then you can do this as part of a Masters course of study (please contact Rowena Smith for more details about this option at r.m.smith@mmu.ac.uk ) or you can attend a course at MMU or arrange one in your school or other educational setting (for this option please contact Karla Heywood at k.heywood@mmu.ac.uk ).r.m.smith@mmu.ac.uk k.heywood@mmu.ac.uk