Happy New Year from The Centre for Education and Youth!
9th January 2023
The CfEY team are now back and busy at our desks following the end-of-year festivities. We hope everyone enjoyed the holiday period!
2023 is gearing up to be an exciting year already, with lots to look forward to. Here are some updates from the team on things to watch out for in the coming months….
Training young people to become researchers – Abi Angus, Senior Associate
“This year I’m really looking forward to recruiting, meeting and training 20 young experts! These young people will each carry out research on an issue that they have lived experience of, and then work alongside local policymakers to design solutions that will benefit other young people in their area. It’ll be really interesting to see the topics that they choose to research, and then how they use that research alongside their own experiences to really become experts on specific points in young people’s journeys through systems and services.
“Get in touch with us if you’re a policymaker or systems leader in Sussex or Buckinghamshire who would be interested in finding out more about how you can work alongside the Young Experts.”
Supporting learners with GCSE resits – Bart Crisp, Head of Research
“CfEY is are currently working hard on an exciting project for the Education Endowment Foundation, supporting post-16 providers to understand their work on supporting learners with GCSE resits. This work aims to help EEF fund innovation and development projects which can make a powerful difference to learners and practitioners who are dealing with one of the most challenging tasks in education, overcoming the feeling of having failed in a crucial standardised assessment.
“We have conducted a series of fascinating interviews with people from across the post-16 sector, which have already generated a number of powerful insights. Our next task is to talk to practitioners working ‘at the sharp end’, as well as speaking directly to learners at various points on their resit journey. If you, or someone you know, specialises in GCSE resits and would like to share their experiences to produce better support in the future, please get in touch! We would love to hear from you.”
Innovation in primary assessment – Alix Robertson, Head of Engagement
“Last year we started some really exciting work with multi-academy trust Big Education and awarding organisation NCFE, to develop a a new rigorous, flexible, and scalable assessment instrument for ten and eleven-year-olds in primary school across the UK and beyond. Assessment at primary level is often dominated by summative testing and a strong focus on literacy and numeracy skills, which can lead to teaching to the test at the expense of other learning opportunities.
“In response to this challenge, the Primary Extended Project Award (PEPA) aims to support the development and recognition of a wide set of learning dispositions that extend beyond what the national curriculum and SATs currently value. It provides an opportunity for Year 5-6 children to take part in an extended project that addresses real-world issues. Pupils shape the project themselves with guidance from teachers, present their work through a variety of media, and receive meaningful, formative feedback from people both in and outside of their school and community. We are now in the final stages of design, and later this year will look to prototype and pilot the PEPA across a range of schools. If you’d like to support or take part in this innovative work, get in touch on [email protected] – thank you!”
A new National Commission on the Future of Citizenship Learning and Development – Terry Boyce, Director of Partnerships
“It has been 25 years since the Crick Report recommended that citizenship education be a statutory element of the national curriculum; and 11 years since the National Citizen Service was piloted to promote a more cohesive, responsible and active society. Yet in 2018 a House of Lords select committee noted that citizenship education in England has been allowed to degrade to a parlous state. This has led to average youth turnout at general elections since 2000 being just over 40%, (compared to 75% for those aged over 65), an issue compounded for young people from marginalised communities. The time is right to take stock of the progress and challenges seen through a quarter century of citizenship education.
“To this end, CfEY is seeking to establish a new National Commission on the Future of Citizenship Learning and Development. Through this initiative we want to discover how our education and youth support systems create an environment where all young people, irrespective of background or circumstances, can become active civic and political agents. Please get involved in this important work as a funder, contributor or participant – email me on [email protected] for more information.”
World Education Summit 2023 – Vanessa Joshua, Associate
- One Step Beyond (your national curriculum) for primary schools by Joe Hallgarten
- Lessons for supporting learners struggling with GCSEs by Bart Crisp
- Diversity meets complexity: Supporting Armed Forces young people to thrive in post-16 education by Ellie Mulcahy and Anamaría Granada
- Catalysing Social and Emotional Learning in schools in England by Ellie Mulcahy and Anamaría Granada
- Young people on the Margins: how the education and youth sector can support the most vulnerable young people by Ellie Mulcahy
- An Introduction to the Life Pedagogic Podcast by Baz Ramaiah
As we look ahead to 2023, it’s also important to take stock of all the great things that happened at CfEY last year.
In 2022, we welcomed some brilliant new additions to our team, hosted a strand of talks at the Festival of Education, held our first ever national summit on the future of tutoring, and kicked off our new podcast series.
If you’re interested in checking out our work from last year, we published reports on:
- Supporting young people in Buckinghamshire to make positive transitions to adulthood with Rothschild Foundation
- What works to tackle mental health inequalities in higher education and what works to reduce equality gaps in employment and employability with The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes (TASO) and the Education Policy Institute
- How tutoring can best contribute to closing England’s attainment gap in schools by 2030 with Action Tutoring, Third Space Learning and White Rose Maths
- Supporting Armed Forces young people to thrive in post-16 education with The SCiP Alliance
- Progress made in West Somerset in the first four years of Opportunity Area funding with West Somerset Opportunity Area and the Department for Education
- Catalysing Social Emotional Learning in Schools in England with Impetus