The first HUPE Osijek branch meeting in school year 2023-2024 was held on 25 November 2023 at the Faculty of Education in Osijek. 24 English enthusiasts and HUPE members decided to spend their Saturday morning attending a 3-hour mini conference rerun with their hardworking colleagues repeating their successful workshops from the 31st HUPE conference.

The agenda included:
1) 31st HUPE Conference report
2) Mirta Kos Kolobarić: Are you a copycat or a busy bee?
3) Ana Katruša: Supporting Gifted Learners: Strategies, Tips & Ideas
4) Ksenija Benčina: It makes you look old!
5) HUPE news

At the beginning of the meeting the HUPE Osijek branch president informed the participants about the 31st Annual International HUPE Conference, which took place in Valamar, Poreč from 20 to 22 October 2023. She reported on the conference venue, partners and sponsors, programme, plenary speakers, workshops, social events, raffle, as well as on the overall positive feedback the HUPE Organizing Committee has received.

The first workshop, titled Are you a copycat or a busy bee?, was held by Mirta Kos Kolobarić from the Secondary School of Economics from Slavonski Brod. In an hour-long workshop, Mirta presented an engaging way of introducing ‘animal’ idioms to describe people's personalities through learning stations and various tasks and activities. She also shared ready-to-use materials for the learning stations on the topic of body idioms.

After the coffee break and catching up with colleagues, the second workshop, titled Supporting Gifted Learners: Strategies, Tips & Ideas, was held by Ana Katruša from Primary School kralja Tomislav in Našice. Ana talked about different types of gifted students and how to meet their unique needs, especially in the early years. She also presented, and the participants took part in, differentiated activities and games, as well as critical thinking strategies teaches can use with their gifted students.

The third talk titled It makes you look old! was held by Ksenija Benčina from the Faculty of Education in Osijek. Ksenija gave insight into the grammatical an lexical changes in the English language occurring in the last few decades highlighting the need to keep pace with these changes in order to effectively teach English.

After the workshops, participants were informed about the news in HUPE including the highlights from the AGM, as well as the upcoming events such as the 4th national short story writing competition HUPE in Storyland taking place from 1 December 2023 to 15 January 2024, HUPE Day planned for 20 April 2024 with international speakers, and workshops and talks for all levels, as well as the 32nd Annual International HUPE Conference that is taking place in Valamar Poreč from 15 to 17 November 2024. After HUPE’s very successful teacher training courses in London and Edinburgh, the participant were informed about the plans to organize the courses in Dublin or Malta in August 2024. All members were also invited to send their ELT articles and examples of good practices to our HUPE editor Ivana Kasunić via this email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be published in one of our future editions of HUPEzine or HUPE Newsletter.

At the end of the meeting, the branch president organized a short Kahoot quiz to test the members’ knowledge about the 31st HUPE Conference in order to give away four conference goody bags filled with useful teaching resources and materials.

HUPE Osijek is thankful to the speakers and all the members who were able to attend and make the meeting a productive and enjoyable experience. Hopefully, we will see you at our future meetings in 2024.

If you are a teacher of English and would like to join HUPE Osijek, feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you!

Adrijana Roždijevac
HUPE Osijek Branch President