Tomorrow, on the opening day, TEDx Orenda, a kind of counter-conference, will examine education in the widest possible terms. It is a spin-off from TED, the invitation-only conference series which features an elite roster of inspirational speakers such as Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Bono.

“Orenda is a Huron Indian word,” says Drew Buddie, a teacher at Rickmansworth secondary school, in Hertfordshire, and the event’s organiser. “It means the opposite of fate. Things don’t have to turn out the way they have to, we can help influence them. I thought that was a perfect description of what our ethos is all about.”

The programme is as unorthodox as the name suggests. On the bill: Pat Kane, a musician and writer; two London cabbies who twitter; a pair of economists who study “collapsonomics”; and a social media expert from Sky News.

On Thursday evening, visitors to Bett are being invited to the Amplified conference, which again tries to engage teachers with ideas from other areas.

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