Explore key education insights in R.I.S.E. Magazine!
It’s time for a round-up of some recent key educational reports and event summaries from R.I.S.E. Magazine sponsored by NetSupport.
Take a look at some of the trending topics below!
School and College Voice (SCV) omnibus survey
The latest data from a series of short surveys of teachers and leaders, in schools and colleges, sharing their thoughts on a range of education topics has been published. In this specific survey, DfE (through Verian) focused on understanding experiences of flexible working, partnerships between early years (EY) providers and schools, supporting pupils with financial barriers, supporting pupils with SEND and more. With the respondents being primary school, secondary school and special school teachers and leaders.
Here are a few key findings from their report:
- Flexible working: 33% of teachers said their school has a flexible working policy. The most common types of flexible working teachers said they use included working part-time, having PPA (Planning, Preparation and Assessment) time offsite, and occasional ad-hoc requests for time off or change of hours at their manager’s discretion. 4
- Partnership with EY providers: To better support transition and school readiness activities 72% of primary schools said they needed staffing support and 60% wanted input from outside agencies around SEND, vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Staff identified many benefits of transition activities such as familiarising children with their school environment and staff to reduce anxiety, however 1% of staff said they ‘didn’t think there were any benefits’ to carrying out transition activities.
- Supporting pupils with financial barriers: Special school teachers and leaders are most confident (compared to primary and secondary) in their ability to support pupils with barriers to learning due to their financial situation. To be more confident in supporting pupils, teachers most commonly cited needing specialist support (both internal and external).
- Supporting pupils with SEND: Across secondary, primary and secondary schools, the most common barriers to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were lack of funding, staff supporting a large number of pupils with differing needs, and a lack of access to external specialist services and professionals. 84% of primary teachers and 82% of secondary teachers feel they have sufficient knowledge and skills to support pupils with SEND.
Young People and Work Report
With almost 1 million 16-24-year-olds not in education employment or training (NEET) a Government-commissioned report produced by social mobility adviser, Alan Milburn, gives a crucial in-depth insight into why rising numbers of young people are NEET.
In our R.I.S.E. summary, we chose to focus on stories from young people themselves sharing their post-education experiences. It is clear that young people have interests, skills and ambitions but are facing significant barriers because of a ‘deficits’ focus adopted by too many institutions. For example, a young person who was now in care had previously been persistently late to school, and the reason had not been recorded. Not to mention, young people face uncertainty, poor mental health and a labour market with digital recruitment systems that can feel impersonal and inaccessible.
Understand why urgent systemic change is needed
Educating for a shared future
The world’s largest annual gathering of education and skills ministers, brought together with multilateral organisations and industry partners to ‘reimagine education’ to tackle some of our most pressing global challenges. This year’s Education World Forum focused on key issues such as ‘escalating geopolitical tensions, widening inequalities, intensifying climate crises and rapid technological change.’
During the forum some key conversations and announcements included:
- UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, Qun Chen, called for global action on peace, explaining that, “There is no more urgent question for us to address than how education can help build a more peaceful world.”
- U.N. Messenger of Peace and education activist, Malala Yousufzai, took to the stage to urge ministers to take urgent action to close the girls’ education gap. With a staggering number of girls out of school, 122 million to be exact she implored for ministers to imagine the world as it could be and ‘hold a picture of it so clearly that you cannot look away’.
- UK Education Secretary, Bridget Philipson, called on global leaders to join an international alliance to support children with SEND. She invited nations to share experiences of effective strategies and systems, and to work on a shared mission to support and provide opportunities for children with SEND.
- Cambridge University Press & Assessment and NGO Alsama Project signed an agreement to work together on a new qualification for refugees and displaced young people. The new G12++ qualification is designed to help give displaced youth a pathway to further education and skilled employment to help tackle the exclusion many face from university, training and employment.
Learn more about the Education World Forum
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