The second HUPE Osijek branch meeting in school year 2021-2022 was held at the Faculty of Education in Osijek on 12 March, 2022. 18 members attended the meeting.

The agenda included:

1. HUPE professional development course in London
2. Ivana Kirin, teacher advisor: What lies beyond Buckingham Palace  
3. Ksenija Rumora, teacher advisor: Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles/Health and Emotional Education: Creating a positive and effective climate among learners
4. HUPE news

At the beginning of the meeting the members were informed about the teacher training course in London organized by HUPE and supported by Education and Teacher Training Agency (AZOO) planned for April and August of this year. Apart from the course programme, which is all about exploring English language and culture, the participants were also informed about the technical side of the course, such as travel insurance, COVID-19 restrictions, flights, accommodation and the price of the course.

The first workshop, titled What lies beyond Buckingham Palace, was held by Ivana Kirin from Primary school Grigor Vitez in Osijek. In her workshop Ivana demonstrated with various interesting and thought-provoking activities for upper-primary and secondary students the importance of teachers going beyond just British and American cultures in their teaching of English, and exploring the rich cultural heritage of other English-speaking countries with their students.

After the coffee break, the second presentation, titled Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles/Health and Emotional Education: Creating a positive and effective climate among learners, was held by Ksenija Rumora from Primary school Franje Krežme in Osijek. Ksenija shared some useful techniques she has become familiar with while attending the Erasmus+ teacher training course in Cyprus, where the mail objective of the course was how to be active, eat healthy, be and stay emotionally balanced and how to transfer that knowledge into our classrooms to make our students more relaxed and ready to learn.

At the end of the meeting, participants were informed about the news in HUPE including the results of the national writing competition HUPE in the Story Land and the 30^th Annual International HUPE Conference, which is taking place in Valamar, Poreč from 11 to 13 November, 2022.

HUPE Osijek is grateful to the speakers and all the members who attended the meeting and decided to spend their Saturday morning with us, making it a productive and enjoyable experience. Hopefully, we will see you at our next meeting in June 2022.

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

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the first HUPE Zagorje meeting in this school year was held online via Zoom on 12^th February 2022.

Although it was Saturday, 18 English enthusiasts gathered to hear three interesting workshops. The first workshop was held by Ante Žderić from Primary School Cvjetno Naselje Zagreb. Ante’s workshop titled A Box Of Chocolates provided us with many useful ideas on how to use films in our classrooms. Although it takes time to prepare such a lesson and find the right film, Ante encouraged us not to be afraid to use films in our lessons more often. 

The second workshop was held by Patricia Alberini from Italian Secondary School Rijeka. After a very successful workshop at the HUPE conference last November, Patricia successfully adapted her interactive workshop You Can Kill The King Without A Sword for the online meeting and showed us how to use elements of theatre and acting in our teaching. 

The last workshop was held by Marta Šarčanin from IV. gimnazija Zagreb. In her workshop Language Mediation In 280 Characters Or Less, Marta showed us how she incorporates literature in her lessons to develop students’ speaking skills and promote close reading. In the end, she also provided us with different examples of activities we can use for language mediation.

At the end of the meeting, participants were informed about the news in HUPE, including the HUPE trip to London and the 30^th HUPE Conference.

HUPE Zagorje is thankful to the speakers and all the members who were able to attend the meeting. Hopefully, our next meeting will be held live. We sure hope so.

If you wish to join us, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Petra Gorički
HUPE Zagorje Branch President

The first  HUPE Split Branch meeting in the school year 2021/22 was held on Wednesday, 9th February 2022, at 5:00 p.m. at Osnovna škola Sućidar, Perivoj Ane Roje 1, Split. 

27 members attended the meeting that lasted three hours.

The agenda included:

1. HUPE news - 29th Conference report
2. Ivana Bokavšek: Targeted vocabulary and grammar units in use
3. Adriana Petra Blažević, Mara Ruža Blažević & Tania Žuvela Blažević: The representations of culture, race and gender in English language textbooks
4. Miranda Barac: Linguistic mediation - activities and assessments

The meeting started with a short report on the 29th Annual International HUPE Conference, which took place in Valamar, Poreč from 12 to 14 November 2021. The participants were also informed about the HUPE news including the professional development in London in April and August.

The workshop, titled Targeted vocabulary and grammar units in use, was held by Ivana Bokavšek who took us through interesting activities that expose our students to the regular and correct use of key vocabulary and grammar parts in the context. After this workshop, the participants were able to apply different techniques and digital tools to encourage students to foster the correct and precise use of vocabulary and grammar in the aimed context.

The second presentation, titled The representations of culture,  race and gender in English language textbookswas held by Adriana Petra Blažević, Mara Ruža Blažević & Tania Žuvela Blažević who discussed the findings of a quantitative analysis of the representations of culture, race and gender in English language textbooks. In the first section of the presentation, Tania discussed the theoretical background of the phenomenon in the light of the importance of English in modern education, frequently associated with various systems of social inequality. Thereafter, the listed and interpreted results of the content analysis of nine English language textbooks for first-year high school students in Croatia were presented and elaborated by Adriana. The quantitative analysis was conducted with the aim of determining the prominence of various social groups in English language textbooks, as well as observing how they interact with one another. Finally, the main conclusions derived from the study were briefly discussed by Mara in order to restate the focal ideas and open the discussion.

After the coffee break, Miranda Barac held the last workshop Linguistic mediation - activities and assessments in which she gave an insight into linguistic mediation and how to teach and assess this new fifth skill in our classes. She showed us how to create effective, engaging tasks and activities for our students to practise this skill, acquire strategies and become more competent mediators. The participants were provided with sample activities, rubrics and checklists for teaching both intra and interlinguistic mediation. In the end, they were asked to create a mediation activity, based on a given input, followed by an assessment tool of their choice.

Thank you all for coming and taking the time for our meeting.  Your support is much appreciated.

I'm looking forward to our future HUPE gatherings.

If you are an English teacher and want to join HUPE Split, feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Miranda Barac
HUPE Split Branch President

10 enthusiastic English teachers and educators gathered last Saturday for the first HUPE meeting of this school year.

1. Sanja Turčić Padavić - Number one fear in the world is…
   Prof. Turčić Padavić from First Sušak Croatian Gymnasium took us through an extremely interesting and useful workshop in which she showed us all the ways in which we can incorporate students' oral presentations. Considering that public appearance is one of the biggest fears of students, prof. Turčić Padavić explained the methodological approach in creating tasks, the choice of topics, the method of evaluation and her previous experiences. The workshop was accompanied by numerous questions and exchange of good practice.
2. Patricia Alberini - You can kill the king without a sword
   After a very successful workshop at the HUPE conference in Poreč, prof. Alberini from Italian Secondary School once again showed us how to incorporate elements of theater and acting into teaching. One of the main reasons for the implementation of acting in teaching is its impact on many different factors: self-confidence, concentration, creativity, communication skills, etc. Together with the audience she went through warm-up techniques and showed various examples that she has used in teaching.
3. Gracijela Orobabic - Brain gym
   Prof. Orobabić from Gornja Vežica Elementary School showed the benefits of Brain gym - a series of methods and exercises that activate and improve brain function, reduce accumulated stress and tension and thus help students reach the optimal level for language learning. Through videos, she showed us how she incorporates Brain Gym techniques in her lessons, and she also went through different language activities and worksheets that she uses in her classroom and which are based on the principles of Brain Gym.