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This paper examines ideas about mental health, wellbeing and school education to illustrate important issues in the relationship between mental health and education. The Covid crisis has amplified the pre‐existing mental health problems of children and young people in England and recognition of the opportunities in schools to address these. The paper gives an overview of child and adolescent mental health services and how they position the role of schools. It examines prominent concepts of mental health and their relationship to wellbeing, setting this in a discussion of 'mentally healthy' schools, mental health in special educational needs and whole‐school approaches. This analysis shows how the relationship between mental health and wellbeing has not been adequately worked out, using this as the basis for arguing for the dual‐factor mental health model which separates mental illness/disorder from wellbeing as two related dimensions. The paper then translates the dual‐factor model into a two‐dimensional framework that represents the distinctive but related aims of school education (wellbeing promotion) and mental health services (preventing, coping, helping mental health difficulties). This framework involves a complex conception of wellbeing, with schools playing an important role in promoting wellbeing (beyond emotional wellbeing), tiered models and establishing school‐wide social emotional learning. It is about a whole‐school curriculum approach that involves considering what is to be learned and how it is taught. It contributes to a more nuanced concept of wellbeing that has a place for meaningful learning and challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing consensus that existing arrangements for policy making in education are far from optimal. This paper is about policy making and the roles of—and relationships between—elected officials, civil servants and academics in the making of policy. It aims to open up a conversation about new ways of making education policy that make better use of academic expertise by shedding light on policy making from the perspective of a former policy broker. With specific reference to England, experiences of the world of policy are drawn on to provide an account of the following: the disconnect between academic research and policy; what good policy advice looks like; and, most significantly, what an expert policy advice mechanism in education could look like. The mechanism put forward is one possibility for further discussion within the academic community in the first instance: an independent group of diverse academic experts to provide trustworthy and transparent policy advice to the education ministry. It is envisaged that by bringing a set of insights together here, understandings of the world of policy making will be enhanced and further thinking and conversations about mechanisms for expert policy advice in education will be induced, starting with this flagship journal's readership. The subsequent accumulation of these discussions may then, in time, lead us towards better policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research on attainment grouping, the impact of attainment grouping on pupil attainment remains poorly understood and contested. This paper presents evidence from a study conducted with 2944 12–13 year olds, from 76 schools in England, who were allocated to between‐class attainment groups ('setting') in English and mathematics over the first 2 years of secondary schooling. After controlling for prior attainment, pupils in the top set performed significantly better than pupils in the middle and bottom sets in both English and mathematics. The findings indicate a widening gap in attainment, especially in the case of English. Findings, especially in the case of mathematics, provide more evidence of a relative benefit for pupils placed in top sets than a relative detriment for those in bottom sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern knowledge‐based societies human capital is the single most important determinant of regional inequalities in productivity and standards of living. Using a newly constructed data set that allows the analysis of educational attainments at different levels of geography, this paper evaluates spatial inequalities and the degree of convergence in the distribution of human capital across areas in England and Wales during the second decade of the 21st century. Our results show this was a period characterised by a large increase in educational attainment and skill intensity. However, the growth in skill intensity was far from uniform across space. In particular, we find strong evidence of both absolute σ‐divergence and β‐convergence in the distribution of skills. Thus, even if low‐skill areas grew on average more than other areas with higher skill intensity at the start of the period, the stochastic dominance analyses provide strong evidence of an unambiguous increase in absolute inequalities so that by end of the decade the skill gap between low‐ and high‐skill areas had significantly widened. We present new spatial and aspatial evidence that sheds light on those inequalities and the changes in the spatial configuration of human capital over the last decade. Despite the implementation of policies aimed at reducing regional inequalities, many low skill areas struggled to attract talent so that the gap with most skilled areas widened over that period likely contributing to the persistence of the well‐documented large spatial economic inequalities in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article examines the spaces, materiality, and practices of (in)formal education and citizenship bound up in the educational cultures of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) in 1930s England. Founded in 1926, the CPRE aimed to preserve rural amenities through concerted action, by working through their constituent societies as a centre for furnishing or obtaining advice and information, and importantly, by educating public opinion. While much work has examined inter‐war preservationism and the CPRE's focus on planning legislation and design, less attention has been paid to the CPRE's cultures of education for children and young people. Drawing on archival research, this paper considers two educational topics, namely, nature study and school design, and makes three key contributions to the geographies of education. First, that the CPRE mobilised the notion of amenity to provide an experiential and intuitive education in preservationism: amenity was both education and educator. Second, that this education was linked to notions of (future) citizenship, hope, and (future) preservationism, becoming an education that would remain with the child throughout their life. Third, this article explores the CPRE's authority, revealing the ways in which it was often complex and precarious, as well as the ways in which the Council drew on other forms of authoritative identities, spaces, and structures. In so doing, this paper contributes to ongoing academic debates on the complex and fluid boundaries of (in)formal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the participation of children and young people within government consultation processes. It considers the recent Department for Education consultation on its statutory guidance for schools for Relationships and Sex Education in England. The paper is based on a Freedom of Information request for the consultation responses categorised as from 'young people'. We identify two issues in our interrogation of the data. First, there is evidence that a substantial proportion of responses were not submitted by young people. Second, the consultation approach did not include all the features necessary for meaningful consultation. We consider the implications for the youth consultation on policy matters that affect them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of family trajectories during childhood in explaining inequalities by maternal education in children's math and reading skills using harmonized, longitudinal, and nationally representative surveys, which follow children over the course of primary and lower secondary school in four high‐income countries (England, France, Germany, and the United States). As single parenthood and family transitions are more likely among less educated parents and are associated with fewer resources for children, we explore whether growing up outside a stable two‐parent family mediates educational inequalities in math and reading scores. Results show a strong educational gradient in family trajectories in the four countries, but this varies by child age and by country. Children who experience a family transition record lower test scores, although the magnitude differs by the type of postseparation arrangements. Overall, family trajectories are strongly associated with children's math and reading scores but, because of the importance of selectivity in family trajectories, they play only a modest role in explaining the skills gaps by maternal education, considerably less than determinants such as income. The penalties associated with not living within a stable two‐parent family are always larger in the United States and England than in France and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a longitudinal study in the North of England with 13 educators in schools, colleges and universities during two lockdowns. The project was designed to 'unlock' education by providing spaces to co‐create new ways of thinking about education in light of the Covid‐19 pandemic. Focus groups were conducted with school and college teachers as well as university staff at the end of the first and second English lockdowns, in summer 2020 and spring 2021. An initial analysis identified issues with expectations and communication between educators and executive management as well as a lack of agency of educators, and how participants framed them as impacting on their identity as educators. Therefore, the framework of tactics of intersubjectivity was adopted to explore how educators discursively positioned themselves and others through constructions of similarity and difference, realness and power, and how their professional identities were affected by the experience of working through the pandemic and by those around them. Whilst educators took opportunities to authenticate their identity and reimagine education, their agency was undermined by top‐down governing involving little successful communication, leading to denaturalising and illegitimising experiences for educators. Executive management were perceived as lacking engagement with staff and understanding of the implications of their decisions on them. The findings call for relationship building and recognition of educators' voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coalition Government's ' Green Paper' (DfE 2011) proposes a systemic overhaul of services for pupils with special educational needs in England, with increased parental choice of provision and 'sharper accountability' (p. 67) in schools. Deadlines for various stages of this reform have not been met, and its final nature remains uncertain. This paper reveals SENCOs' insights into their changing role in this turbulent policy context. This is achieved through the thematic analysis of 227 responses to an 'open-ended' question in the national Special Educational Needs Coordinator ( SENCO) Survey 2012. Findings from this sample indicate that SENCOs predict that schools in England will become more inclusive, with greater shared responsibility for achievement for all, and SENCOs' increased involvement in staff training and other whole school capacity-building activities. Respondents predict a greater partnership with parents, for whom they will provide advice and links to other services. They foresee their reduced involvement in direct teaching and an intensification of their work in other ways, especially in terms of paperwork associated with pupil tracking and other accountability measures. These changes are anticipated against a backdrop of resource cuts, requiring SENCOs to show increasing self-reliance and imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the link between young people's well‐being and the creative arts is strengthening, there is a lack of research which focuses on the roles that artists play to help teachers and parents engage young people in the creative arts. This paper explores the benefits of and barriers to artists working in education in six European countries (England, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Austria). Using the '5A's model of creativity' and a view of professional development taking place within 'landscapes of practice', the data were analysed in order to explain how creativity is operationalised in the different contexts. Our study highlights the need for policy at a national and transnational level to value the creative arts in order to help teachers cross boundaries and utilise the full potential of the creative arts in schools. Our study also highlights that further research is needed into how artists shape teaching and curriculum and how schools engage parents in the creative arts in order to build an evidence‐base relating to young people's positive mental health that can affect policy at these levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops understandings of how being publicly identified and consequently labelled as 'looked after' can have damaging consequences for young people, particularly in how they are perceived by their peers in the context of schooling. Based on qualitative research in northern England utilising participatory approaches with young people and interviews with support staff, we explore barriers that inhibit young people's sense of belonging. We highlight how the very processes and practices set up to support the young people can often have unintended consequences by routinely positioning them as Other, before considering the implications for education and schooling in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The place of evidence to inform educational effectiveness has received increasing attention internationally in the last two decades. An important contribution to evidence-informed policy has been greater attention to experimental trials including randomised controlled trials ( RCTs). The aim of this paper is to examine the use of evidence, particularly the use of evidence from experimental trials, to inform national curriculum policy. To do this the teaching of grammar to help pupils' writing was selected as a case. Two well-regarded and influential experimental trials that had a significant effect on policy, and that focused on the effectiveness of grammar teaching to support pupils' writing, are examined in detail. In addition to the analysis of their methodology, the nature of the two trials is also considered in relation to other key studies in the field of grammar teaching for writing and a recently published robust RCT. The paper shows a significant and persistent mismatch between national curriculum policy in England and the robust evidence that is available with regard to the teaching of writing. It is concluded that there is a need for better evidence-informed decisions by policy makers to ensure a national curriculum specification for writing that is more likely to have positive impact on pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The aim of this paper is to explore what might be gained from collecting and analysing visual data, such as photographs, scans, drawings, video and screen recordings, in clinical educational research. Its focus is on visual research that looks at teaching and learning 'as it naturally occurs' in the work place, in simulation centres and other sites, and also involves the collection and analysis of visual learning materials circulating in these sites. Background With the ubiquity of digital recording devices, video data and visual learning materials are now relatively cheap to collect. Compared to other domains of education research visual materials are not widely used in clinical education research. The paper sets out to identify and reflect on the possibilities for visual research using examples from an ethnographic study on surgical and inter-professional learning in the operating theatres of a London hospital. Main contribution The paper shows how visual research enables recognition, analysis and critical evaluation of (1) the hidden curriculum, such as the meanings implied by embodied, visible actions of clinicians; (2) the ways in which clinical teachers design multimodal learning environments using a range of modes of communication available to them, combining, for instance, gesture and speech; (3) the informal assessment of clinical skills, and the intricate relation between trainee performance and supervisor feedback; (4) the potentialities and limitations of different visual learning materials, such as textbooks and videos, for representing medical knowledge. Discussion and conclusion The paper concludes with theoretical and methodological reflections on what can be made visible, and therefore available for analysis, explanation and evaluation if visual materials are used for clinical education research, and what remains unaccounted for if written language remains the dominant mode in the research cycle. Opportunities for quantitative analysis and ethical implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the processes of creating a 'Storymaker Wheel', a creativity evaluation tool conceptualised with input from a children's book author, a children's book illustrator, academics and teachers, for teachers and pupils to use to support and develop their creative writing. It documents the ways in which teachers and pupils engaged with the Wheel in three schools in England: a primary pupil referral unit, a primary school and a secondary school. Interviews with teachers and pupils about the Storymaker Wheel, and classroom observations of the Wheel in use, expose some challenges of teaching creative writing within the current English educational context, which we discuss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The English education system has undergone large‐scale restructuring through the introduction of academy schools. The most salient feature of these schools is that, despite remaining part of the state sector, they operate with more autonomy than the predecessors they replaced. Two distinct periods of academy school introduction have taken place, under the auspices of different governments. The first batch was initiated in the 2002–03 school year by the Labour government of the time, and was a school improvement programme directly aimed at turning around badly performing schools. The second batch involved a mass academisation process following the change of government in May 2010 and the Academies Act of that year, which resulted in increased heterogeneity of new academies. This paper compares the two batches of introduction with the aim of getting a better understanding of their similarities and differences, and their importance for education policy. To do so, we study what types of schools were more likely to change to academy status in the two programmes, and the impact of this change on the quality of new pupil enrolments into the new types of school. Whilst we do point out some similarities, these are the exception rather than the norm. For the most part, our analysis reveals a number of marked dissimilarities between the two programmes, in terms of both the characteristics of schools that became academies and the changes in pupil intakes that occurred post‐conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question: How do teachers and school leaders respond to high stakes testing of pupils transitioning from primary to secondary school? It explores how a new test, the Level 6 test, operated with regard to primary/secondary school relationships in England. It draws on an analysis of qualitative interviews with teachers and school leaders in 20 primary schools that took part in the test, 40 school leaders that chose not to and 20 secondary-school leaders. Theoretical work on social boundaries is utilised to develop an argument that this test and its results acted as a boundary signifier, crystallising many of the tensions between primary and secondary schools. These tensions included the role of accountability regimes in requiring schools to demonstrate progress; narrowing of the curriculum and teaching to the test; and the extent to which test results can provide a true representation of pupil attainment. We conclude by suggesting the potential of the boundary signifier concept in relation to other tests at the primary/secondary boundary and other key transition points in education, and consider whether such tests can act as an ideal boundary object, serving to help overcome, rather than cement, barriers between schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper combines novel data on the time use, home‐learning practices and economic circumstances of families with children during the COVID‐19 lockdown with pre‐lockdown data from the UK Time Use Survey to characterise the time use of children and how it changed during lockdown, and to gauge the extent to which changes in time use and learning practices during this period are likely to reinforce the already large gaps in educational attainment between children from poorer and better‐off families. We find considerable heterogeneity in children's learning experiences – amount of time spent learning, activities undertaken during this time and availability of resources to support learning. Concerningly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, this heterogeneity is strongly associated with family income and in some instances more so than before lockdown. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that any impacts of inequalities in time spent learning between poorer and richer children are likely to be compounded by inequalities not only in learning resources available at home, but also in those provided by schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widening participation has opened higher education ( HE) to diverse learners, but in doing so has created challenges negotiating situations of disadvantaged positioning compared with peers conforming more closely to the ideal 'bachelor boy' student. As one of the most financially vulnerable groups of students, lone parents occupy a doubly precarious position negotiating the challenges, including financial constraints, of both university participation and raising children alone. Their experiences of HE participation are particularly important to understand as increasing financial precariousness of both studentship and lone parenthood squeezes them further through concurrent rising university fees and welfare cuts. This paper draws on insights from longitudinal qualitative research with 77 lone mothers in England to explore the negotiation of social and economic risks and rewards involved in their undertaking of a debt-financed higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I use the case of the marketisation of higher education in England to contribute to the growing interest in placing markets, and processes of market making, more centrally within economic geographical research agendas. In particular, my argument focuses on the spatiality of marketisation through the specific case of the introduction of undergraduate student fees in England from 1998 onwards. I argue that the marketisation of English higher education has operated, implicitly at least, with a territorial logic in which students fees are justified through an assumption that the value of a degree from an English university will arise from graduate salary premiums in domestic graduate labour markets. However, I demonstrate how English higher education overflows this territorial framing through the internationalisation of student choice and graduate labour markets in ways that challenge the marketisation process itself. This analysis reveals the hitherto comparatively neglected role of extra-territorial relations in marketisation and the importance of these geographies for the future marketisation of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we attempt to critically 'make visible the flow and circulation of data' through analysing the datafication of the early years education sector in England (children aged 2-5). The concept of datafication is used to understand the processes and impacts of burgeoning data-based governance and accountability regimes. This analysis builds upon early childhood researchers who were influenced by Foucault and others, who have noted the ways in which the surveillance and performative culture of accountability both affirms, legitimates and seduces through discourses of quality while increasingly regulating and governing the early years. Using data from three research sites (a children's centre, a primary school and a combined nursery school and children's centre) as well as an interview with a local authority early years advisor, we examine how comparative data-based accountability increasingly governed early years teachers' professionalism and pedagogies. We argue that the planned tracking of children's performance from baseline assessment at four years old to eleven years old may further govern and constrain early years professionalism as young children are reconfigured as 'miniature centres of calculation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present findings on lay constructions of racism from a focus group study (11 groups, n = 72) with a mixed sample of secondary-school students in England. We show that racism was, on the whole, 'othered': It was located in other times, places, and people or was denied altogether. We show that this way of talking about racism had different uses depending on the identity stakes involved in different interactional contexts. Even in the cases where racism was constructed as common, participants worked hard to make an 'irrefutable' argument, which suggests that they were anticipating reputational damage by making a claim for the persistence of racism. We discuss these findings with regard to the different levels of analysis involved in constructions of racism (micro-interactional, local and broader normative context) and with regard to an 'end of racism' discourse that appeared to provide the normative framework for participants' accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale, aims and objectives Educational workshops are a commonly used quality improvement intervention. Often delivered by credible local health professionals who do not necessarily have skills in pedagogy, it can be challenging to achieve high intervention fidelity. This paper summarizes the fidelity assessment of a workshop designed to increase the uptake of a primary care alcohol screening recommendation. Method Delivered in a single health region, the workshop comprised separate sessions delivered by three local health professionals, plus two role plays delivered by a commercial company. Sessions were tailored to local barriers. Meetings were held with presenters and an outline of the barriers was provided. Two researchers attended the workshop, rating the number of specified barriers targeted by presenters and their quality of delivery. Participant responsiveness was measured through attendees' feedback and intervention dose was calculated as the proportion of health professionals who attended and proportion of general practices represented. Results Exposure was low, with 62 of 545 health professionals from 30 of a possible 80 practices attending. Sixty-five per cent of the specified barriers were targeted. There was variability in quality of delivery and participant responsiveness; challenges included potential mixed messages, overreliance on didactic methods and certain barriers appearing easier to target than others. Conclusions The framework provided a rounded assessment of intervention fidelity: intervention coverage was low, adherence was moderate and there was variability in the quality of delivery across presenters. Future studies testing the effectiveness of interventions delivered by local experts with and without brief training in pedagogy/behaviour change would be beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Amid concern about the reach and inclusivity of parenting interventions, attempts have been made to culturally adapt programmes for specific ethnic or linguistic groups. This paper describes a novel approach of the religious adaptation of a parenting programme, namely the Family Links Islamic Values course. Methods A small-scale qualitative process evaluation was conducted on one Family Links Islamic Values course for Muslim fathers in the South of England in order to describe the intervention as implemented and its theory of change, as well as the acceptability of the programme to the participants. The data consisted of 13 semi-structured interviews (10 with parents and three with staff), 25 h of observation and reading of programme manuals. Results A logic model is presented to describe the theoretical basis of the intervention. The programme was highly acceptable to fathers who valued the integration of religious teachings and were generally very positive about their experience of attending the course. Post-course interviews with both fathers and mothers mentioned some positive changes in fathers as a result of their attendance. Conclusions It is important to be responsive to the needs of some British Muslims for religiously credible interventions. This small-scale process evaluation needs to be followed by a robust evaluation of programme outcomes for parents and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine different aspects of the inclusion debate, including how it has been shaped by the political context in England over the past 30 years. We then give consideration to the key argument that has dominated the inclusion agenda over the last decade: should effective inclusion be considered only as placement in mainstream school settings, or can one consider inclusion in a specialist placement as successful? Research studies examining the views of children, parents and teaching staff are also discussed. Consideration is given as to whether a 'universalist' view of inclusion (in which special schools should not be offered) is one that is feasible and desirable. The key arguments highlighted include those relating to 'quality' in education, academic and social inclusion, human rights, parental choice and teachers' attitudes and skills. The role of some professional groups in supporting inclusion, such as educational psychologists ( EPs) and Special Educational Needs Coordinators ( SENCos), is also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rapid population ageing is driving demand for qualified gerontological nurses. Yet, early career nurse attrition and limited focus on retention in the speciality limits supply. Objectives: To test the feasibility and acceptability of an Education‐Career pathway in Healthcare for Older People (ECHO) intervention for early career nurses to improve retention and capability in gerontological nursing. ECHO is a multicomponent intervention with integrated education, career planning and coaching components, tested over two 6‐month cycles. Methods: A feasibility study with a pre‐post design using a multi‐methods evaluation. Twenty‐nine early career nurse participants were recruited from eight NHS acute and community care Trusts in England. ECHO participants completed online questionnaires at baseline (Time 1), 6‐month (T2, end of intervention) and follow‐up at 18 months from baseline (T3). Outcome measures were career intention, self‐reported knowledge, career planning confidence, and burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Qualitative interviews were undertaken with participants (n = 23) and organizational stakeholders (n = 16) who facilitated ECHO. Data analysis used descriptive statistics and non‐parametric tests for paired data and thematic analysis for qualitative data. Results: Overall, 19 of 29 participants (65%) completed all aspects of the intervention. The evaluation was completed by 23 participants. ECHO was well received by participants and stakeholders. At T3, the 23 participants were working in the speciality, though two had changed organizations. There was a significant improvement in self‐reported gerontological knowledge, pre 87 (IQR 81–102), post 107 (IQR 98–112) p = 0.006, but no significant changes in other outcomes. In qualitative data, participants and organizational stakeholders held similar views, presented under four main themes: intended outcomes (personal and professional development, raise gerontological profile, expand horizons); nurse retention‐a double‐edged sword, ECHO logistics, and sustainability. Conclusion: Education‐Career pathway in Healthcare for Older People was feasible and may positively impact early career nurse retention, capability and socialization into gerontological nursing. ECHO requires further refinement and piloting, but learning can contribute to retention strategies. Implications for practice: Attracting and retaining early‐career nurses to the gerontological speciality requires greater innovation, organizational and senior nurse leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each new generation of grassland managers could benefit from an improved understanding of how modification of nitrogen application and harvest dates in response to different weather and soil conditions will affect grass yields and quality. The purpose of this study was to develop a freely available grass yield simulation model, validated for England and Wales, and to examine its strengths and weaknesses as a teaching tool for improving grass management. The model, called LINGRA‐N‐Plus, was implemented in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and iteratively evaluated by students and practitioners (farmers, consultants, and researchers) in a series of workshops across the UK over 2 years. The iterative feedback led to the addition of new algorithms, an improved user interface, and the development of a teaching guide. The students and practitioners identified the ease of use and the capacity to understand, visualize and evaluate how decisions, such as variation of cutting intervals, affect grass yields as strengths of the model. We propose that an effective teaching tool must achieve an appropriate balance between being sufficiently detailed to demonstrate the major relationships (e.g., the effect of nitrogen on grass yields) whilst not becoming so complex that the relationships become incomprehensible. We observed that improving the user‐interface allowed us to extend the scope of the model without reducing the level of comprehension. The students appeared to be interested in the explanatory nature of the model whilst the practitioners were more interested in the application of a validated model to enhance their decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Annually in England, over 1.5 million children and young people (CYP) are admitted to hospital. However, a proportion of these CYP will experience failure to rescue (FtR), a failure to recognize, respond and escalate clinical deterioration, which can result in significant harm or death. Aim: To identify and quantify FtR episodes from emergency events at a 110‐bedded tertiary children's hospital located within a University Teaching Hospital and evaluate the impact of targeted interventions on reducing FtR. Methods: A quality improvement approach was adopted. From 170 446 patients admitted between 2011 and 2019, all emergency event calls were systematically reviewed to identify FtR episodes. Root–cause analysis was performed to identify practice deficiencies. The Plan‐Do‐Study‐Act fundamentals were used. Results: A total of 520 emergency events were reviewed over the 9‐year period. One hundred and thirty‐two (n = 132; 25%) were cardiac arrest events, with the majority occurring within the PCCU setting. Three hundred and twelve (60%) of the events were in children who had been inpatient for more than 48 hours. FtR trend declined over the study period from 23.6% in 2011 when the project commenced to 2.5% or less over the following 8 years. Conclusions: Identifying rates of FtR events from routinely collected emergency events data can be used as a patient safety measure to identify emergency concerns. This enables dynamic problem solving through delivery of strategic and targeted interventions. The proposed interventions outlined in this quality improvement study have application to critical care nursing as mechanisms for reducing unplanned admissions to paediatric critical care unit (PCCU), patient mortality, and PCCU and non‐PCCU cardiac arrests. Relevance to Clinical Practice: This study emphasises the importance in understanding the antecedence of emergency events for paediatric inpatient populations. This intelligence can be used to direct targeted interventions to significantly reduce failure to rescue rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive evidence indicates that education is an integral part of the settling in process for refugee and asylum‐seeking children. Furthermore, it has been suggested that positive teaching practice with refugee pupils should be asset‐based and holistic in nature. The present study examines educators' positive practices with refugee pupils and explores factors that shape these practices. Data were collected through participant observation and semi‐structured interviews with 17 class teachers, specialist teachers and teaching assistants at two schools in England. Numerous examples of positive practices were identified, from creating welcoming environments to promoting social–emotional well‐being to supporting English language learning. Factors that shaped these practices were identified using an ecological model of educator development. Such factors included educators' individual pedagogical knowledge about teaching refugee pupils and collective school‐level knowledge and practices. Some aspects of the national education system, such as rigid exam‐based curricula, were also cited as influential. Overall, this study offers examples of how individual educators and schools managed to enact positive practices with refugee pupils despite an unsupportive national context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: School students who are eligible for reduced or free school meals (FSM) – an indicator of economic disadvantage – have lower academic attainment than their peers. Aims: We investigated whether identity compatibility – the perceived compatibility between one's social identities and the stereotype of a high‐achieving student – contributes to this socioeconomic attainment gap, and whether the association between socioeconomic status and identity compatibility is moderated by school context. Sample: Our sample was 4,629 students aged 15–16 years old across 29 schools in England. Method: We assessed students' perceptions of identity compatibility via self‐report questionnaires 8 months prior to them taking national, standardized exams. Results: Multilevel regression analyses revealed a negative indirect effect from eligibility for FSM to exam results via identity compatibility. These effects existed even while accounting for students' gender and language status, other psychological variables known to predict academic attainment, and their previous exam results. Furthermore, school context moderated the relationship between FSM eligibility and identity compatibility. In line with the identities in context model of educational inequalities, there was a significant negative association between FSM and identity compatibility only for students attending schools in which there was previously a relatively large socioeconomic attainment gap. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the importance of social psychological variables in explaining educational inequalities, and of the local educational context in determining the educational experience of students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Free Schools policy in England has led to the opening of a number of new autonomous state-funded schools. This article uses data from the Annual Schools Census to present the proportions of socioeconomically disadvantaged children attending the first three waves of these schools. It updates and builds on previous work that focused on the student composition of the first wave of Free Schools that opened in 2011. The analysis compares the Free School intakes with other local schools and Local Authority ( LA) data and seeks to establish whether the schools are taking an equal share of disadvantaged children in relation to their nearby competitors. Differences emerge between the different waves of schools with those that opened in 2011 generally underrepresenting disadvantaged children. In the second and third waves the picture is more mixed. It is also the case that Free Schools with a faith designation or an alternative or specialist curriculum appear particularly likely to have proportionally fewer disadvantaged children than might be expected based on their location. The potential impacts of having an increasing number of new schools with unbalanced intakes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effects of the specialist schools policy, introduced in 1994 in England, on test scores and truancy for pupils during compulsory schooling. We also assess the effects on labour market status and post-secondary test score performance. We use matching models and data from the Youth Cohort Surveys for pupils who left school in either 2002 or 2004. We find that the policy did raise test scores, as well as increase the probability of employment. The evidence on post-secondary test scores is mixed insofar as the policy increased the number of A levels studied but reduced average points scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wellbeing of young people has become an important education policy issue, with suggestions that mental health problems amongst young people have increased in recent years. Experiences at school are thought to be a key factor contributing to mental ill‐health amongst adolescents. Yet surprisingly, little is known about how mental health outcomes vary across school year groups, independent of the effects of age. This article contributes new evidence on this issue, drawing upon large‐scale health data from England. We find substantial growth in mental health problems as young people progress through secondary school. Yet this seems to be driven by the effects of age, rather than due to movement into more senior school year groups. We consequently conclude that evidence of a direct link between school year group and young people's mental health remains relatively weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports an unprecedented exploratory small‐scale investigation of the views of senior school leaders in southwest England relating to 'off‐rolling' (illegal exclusionary practices). 'Off‐rolling' is conceptualised as a policy technology, however, the conceptual framework used in data analysis derives from Foucault's treatment of power and pleasure, and the constitution in discourse of novel 'permanent realities'. Relations of force that senior school leaders routinely navigate in neoliberal education cultures characterised by 'performativity' are highlighted. The latter describes pressures to evidence efficiency and continual improvement, including high‐stakes performance monitoring and, in England, a national school inspection regime. The response rate to this online and predominantly qualitative survey was poor, which was attributed to the illegality of 'off‐rolling' and the risk that academic research in this area could be perceived to reproduce the power–knowledge relations associated with a national school inspection regime and familiar neoliberal political or professional discourses around training of education professionals (where both are framed as addressing deficits to achieve improvements). Nevertheless, findings from a key question inviting comment on scenarios drawn from the authors' teaching experience are presented here, as they highlight the issues arising in research of sensitive topics. Reliance on brief vignettes to explore levels of understanding was, arguably, a limitation of the study, risking participants interpreting this device as unwelcome external scrutiny. It is argued that Ofsted's definition of 'off‐rolling' as gaming (manipulation of academic performance data) effectively discourages recognition of exclusionary practices that are not irrefutably related to academic performance as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, children are forced to leave their homes for far‐flung destinations. This global phenomenon has particular impact in Europe, where there are now more child refugees than since World War II. Education plays an important role for children with extraordinary experiences seeking to build meaningful lives in their new context. This article offers a new theoretical approach to underpin reforms to educational policy and practice for refugees in schools in resettlement contexts in Europe. The new conceptual framing is grounded in empirical work in England and Sweden, and brings two theories together: 'participatory parity' (Fraser) and 'resumption of an ordinary life' (Kohli). Kohli's concepts of 'safety', 'belonging' and 'success' have resonance with practitioners from Sweden and England as they work to meet the needs of their new arrivals. Fraser's conceptual lenses of redistribution, recognition and representation highlight the barriers to achieving the right to inclusive education for refugee children in each context. The interdependence of both theories shapes a new framework. The theoretical understandings offered in this article have been developed with practitioners and add to the field by offering a robust moral and operational approach to shaping pedagogical principles for policymakers and educators working in resettlement communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators usually recognise the value of drama‐in‐education, but hesitate to use it with unpredictable diverse groups that have limited communication and social understanding. This article evaluates a professional development initiative in an all‐age special school (3–19 years) in eastern England as a whole‐school improvement strategy to promote drama for enhancing children's communication through dialogic teaching. The project was the culmination of an action research cycle to refine an original constructivist five‐staged professional developmental model for teaching inclusive groups with children with special educational needs and disabilities. Following a staff training session, the researcher supported each teacher in class once a week for 6 weeks, using collegial mentoring strategies. The model enabled their starting point and priority next step to be accurately identified towards them gradually taking over leading drama sessions. A pedagogical framework for early drama – Prescribed Drama Structures – proved pivotal, enhanced by a flexible model for exploring story and understanding social narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to bring together two current strands of research into inequalities in individuals' educational attainment that are associated with their social origins: that concerned with the "primary" and "secondary" effects of social origins in creating inequalities, and that concerned with the relation between these inequalities and different components of social origins, taken to represent different forms of parental resources. Our main findings are the following. The secondary effects of social origins—their effects via the educational choices that young people make given their prior academic performance—are clearly operative across five key educational transitions within the English educational system. More specifically, we estimate that 35% of the total effect of social origins is secondary in the earliest transition that we consider, and from 15% to 20% in the subsequent four. Furthermore, mediation analyses reveal that secondary effects are most strongly associated with parental education and then, to a lesser degree with parental status, while little association exists with parental class and none at all with parental income. Primary effects are also at all transitions most strongly associated with parental education and status but in this case both parental class and parental income do retain some importance. We suggest an explanation for our empirical findings as resulting largely from the concern of highly educated, professional parents, and their children to avoid the occurrence of downward intergenerational mobility, especially in terms of education and status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether unobserved factors substantially bias education evaluations that rely on the Conditional Independence Assumption. We add 14 new within‐study comparisons to the literature, all from primary schools in England. Across these 14 studies, we generate 42 estimates of selection bias using a simple approach to observational analysis. A meta‐analysis of these estimates suggests that the distribution of underlying bias is centered around zero. The mean absolute value of estimated bias is 0.03σ, and none of the 42 estimates are larger than 0.11σ. Results are similar for math, reading, and writing outcomes. Overall, we find no evidence of substantial selection bias due to unobserved characteristics. These findings may not generalize easily to other settings or to more radical educational interventions, but they do suggest that non‐experimental approaches could play a greater role than they currently do in generating reliable causal evidence for school education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex education presents a major dilemma for state‐minority relations, reflecting a conflict between basic rights to education and religious freedom. In this comparative ethnography of informal sex education among ultra‐Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in Israel and England, we frame the critical difference between "age‐appropriate" and "life‐stage" (marriage and childbirth) models of sex education. Conceptualizing these competing approaches as disputes over "knowledge responsibility," we call for more context‐specific understandings of how educational responsibilities are envisioned in increasingly diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of various language policy mechanisms currently circulating in secondary schools in England, with a particular focus on those that intermingle 'language', 'standard English' and 'discipline'. Although the connections between language, ideology and behaviour are well established within critical educational linguistics, this has not been explored in relation to current education policy in England, which is characterised by an overt focus on standardised English and behaviour 'management'. In a grounded approach, I explore how the disciplining of language correlates with the disciplining of the body, based on ethnographic‐orientated fieldwork undertaken in a London secondary school and drawing on a broad range of policy mechanisms such as curricula, textbooks, classroom artefacts and Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion industry. I show how the current linguistic conservatism found within government policy gets reproduced in school‐level policies, pedagogies and classroom interactions, and highlight these relations within a network of policy actors and key terms associated with so‐called 'zero‐tolerance' and 'no‐excuses' schools. I show how teachers are positioned as language policy managers who work within a system of surveillance, compliance, coercion and control. As such, this article contributes to current thinking within critical language policy and the sociology of education by offering an expanded view of language ideologies in schools, whereby connections between language and discipline are explicitly illustrated and critiqued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, the school exclusion rates have been a cause for concern within the English education system. We have witnessed a steady increase in the numbers of pupils being excluded since 2012. Evidence suggests that some children are more likely to be excluded from school, a significant number will have had the social, emotional and behavioural difficulties label attached to them. This article will draw on the work of Parsons and Howlett (Permanent exclusions from school: A case where society is failing its children. Support for Learning, 11, 3, 109–112, 1996) to see how much, if any, progress has been made since the publication of their work which raised concerns regarding the exclusion processes employed in England. Drawing on the perspectives of pupils, parents and teachers, 13 in‐depth case studies were developed, with emphasis placed on employing innovative and creative methods to hear the voices of young people. The findings revealed that young people, their parents and teachers feel the current education system continues to fail this group of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the work of Henry Morris (1889–1961), in particular his ideas on the Cambridgeshire village colleges. It is now 90 years since the first of these was founded in Sawston in 1930, and the article aims to address the issue of whether Morris's views on education and democracy encapsulated in the village colleges still have relevancy in the early twenty‐first century. An overview of Morris's career and the creation of the village colleges is investigated, using the work of Paul Hirst and associative democracy as a theoretical lens. It is argued that the Cambridgeshire village colleges do have some attributes of associative democracy, particularly their original emphasis as sites of local democracy and participation from voluntary bodies and private individuals. However, Morris's role as Cambridgeshire's Chief Education Officer (1922–1954) meant that the local state (in the guise of the County Council) played a more significant role in the village colleges than Hirst advocates for his version of associative democracy. As English primary and secondary schools turn from local authority control to academy status, Morris's vision for local schools of and for local people is becoming increasingly compromised. The article ends with the work of Allen and Gann, both influenced by Morris, who argue for a revitalised form of comprehensive schooling and lifelong learning that again sees educational institutions as sites of grassroots democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the issue of 'quality' in early years education, with the aim of highlighting the voices of nursery school head teachers. Government early years achievement statistics display a reductive and de‐contextualised focus on young children's developmental outcomes, with measures of the percentage of 5‐year‐olds achieving a 'good level of development' at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Early years practitioner understandings of 'quality' are more sophisticated and multi‐dimensional, and yet are marginalised in debates around what constitutes 'quality' early years provision and around what are desired outcomes for young children and how these can be achieved. Using qualitative data from interviews with nursery school head teachers and classroom teachers from across England, the article analyses these participants' understandings of 'quality' early years provision. The study finds a consensus amongst these teachers that quality provision emanates from the professional skills of staff providing education for the whole child and their wellbeing: they conceive of 'quality' as relating to a depth of understanding of each child as an individual, enabling the child to progress in their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The UNCRC (1989) established the importance of listening to children's views globally. In England, seeking the views of pupils with special educational needs and disability about their education, and involving them in decision‐making, has been mandatory since 2015. Autistic children's views and experiences are particularly underrepresented in this context. Aims: To provide a detailed exploratory analysis of practices that enable autistic pupils to participate in educational decision‐making, and to generate new knowledge about pupil participation in a school context, using the Framework for Participation (Black‐Hawkins, 2010) as an analytical frame. Sample: Four male pupils aged 11–15, with autism spectrum diagnoses, and 11 staff members from a specialist, independent school took part in this case study. Methods: Observations were made of pupils in lessons, and pupils completed a photo‐voice activity focusing on where they felt 'most listened to' in the school. Staff members participated in semi‐structured interviews. Results: A range of practices supported pupils' participation in everyday decision‐making, underpinned by a respectful and positive culture led by the senior management team. The focus was on what learners can do and how they make decisions to facilitate achievement. Pupils and staff developed mutually respectful relationships, within which boundaries were negotiated and compromises offered. Flexibility through decision‐making was provided within the timetabling and content of the curriculum. Pupils' special interests and expertise were valued as 'keys' to supporting their engagement. Conclusions: These insights provide a tool for reflection by educators and educational psychologists for considering how they might promote the participation of autistic pupils in different educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing marketisation of higher education in England can be understood both conceptually – in terms of its ideological commitment to competition and accountability; and practically – in terms of the way that it has altered higher education structurally in a variety of ways. Methods of standardisation and quantification offer validation and reward to institutions through criteria aligned with marketised principles, leading to institutions shaping their operations to suit these forms of justification. Historically, many arts subjects have operated conceptually and organisationally outside the traditional higher education paradigm, and pedagogic approaches and values that are attributable to this subject area could clash with marketised understandings of education, which are becoming more prevalent and influential. This article presents analysis of reflections from creative arts educational practitioners working within higher education institutions in England on explorations of an ontology of the creative arts, as well as experiences of the marketisation process. A series of values relating to the concept of 'the personal', inherent to the creative arts are discussed and an exploration of how these principles clash with the priorities of the marketised educational economy are articulated. The values and principles that are inherent to educators and practitioners working in the creative arts are competing with 'marketised' motives imposed on them by the institutions in which they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We seek to explain the development of the educational gap between children in "out‐of‐home care" (CLA), children deemed in social need (CIN), and other pupils. A cohort of 642,805 pupils aged 16 in 2013 was used to chart the educational progress of the full cohort, the CLA (n = 6,236), the CIN in 2012 or 2013 but not CLA (n = 20,384), and a sample individually matched with the CLA (n = 11,084). At age 7, attainment of the CLA and CIN was approximately 1 standard deviation lower than the cohort average and predicted attainment at 16. At this point, the persistent "CIN" (those with earlier and persistent needs) had the lowest attainment relative to others, and this declined further during secondary school. Those entering care before or during primary school had very low attainment at age 7, but their relative attainment did not decline. Attainment of CLA and CIN at age 16 likely reflects early environment, special educational needs, and poor relationships with secondary school. Policy, research, and intervention should focus on CIN as well as CLA, do so before entry to care, and take account of the onset of, and probable reasons for, educational difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a 3‐year case study of a primary school in England, in which a recently appointed principal attempted to build 'collegial professional autonomy' (Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 2, 2015, 20) within a push to improve students' progress and attainment. The research examined the tensions between staff who embraced the principal's agenda for collegially agreed change, and whose students' academic progress and performance improved over a 3‐year consecutive period when measured in terms of students' entry‐level attainment and socio‐economic factors, and staff who asserted their right to 'individual professional autonomy' and whose students' academic progress and attainment declined. The research: (i) challenges claims that reform necessarily results in school cultures of compliancy, de‐professionalisation and the technicisation of teaching; (ii) raises issues concerning the pedagogical leadership of principals in a devolved, 'self‐governing' school system; and (iii) questions teachers' entitlements to individual professional autonomy where this is associated with students' continuing academic underperformance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the development of a questionnaire to discover primary school students' perceptions of science, religion and the relationships between them on a range of topics that are known as Big Questions. The questionnaire was administered in 16 primary schools in England with over 750 students aged 10–11. The findings indicate that students in this age group have begun to consider how science and religion relate and that while there is a diversity of positions, a significant proportion perceived science and religion to conflict. Analysis of responses also indicated that primary school students' epistemic insight was limited in relation to their understanding of the nature of science and, in particular, the idea that science has limitations. The basis and potential consequences of such views are considered and recommendations for teaching practice are presented, together with ideas for future research. It is anticipated that the study will inform teachers and curriculum planners developing approaches and guidance materials in science and religious education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All schools in England are required to have a SENCo. Although the DfE collects data relating to the demographics of this large population of teachers, this has not until now been analysed or published, meaning that much research relating to SENCos has had to proceed on the basis of estimates. A Freedom of Information request was made to the DfE, from which actual numbers could be established, with breakdowns by age, gender, ethnicity, position of responsibility and level of qualification. The data describe a professional who is most likely to be female, white and in the middle or towards to the end of their career, and often part‐time. Most are on the class teacher pay scale rather than being on the leadership scale, with a minority holding a Master's level qualification. This article also evaluates several research studies in the field in the context of this analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi‐academy trusts (MATs) are now a common feature of the English educational landscape. Yet numerous high‐profile failures indicate that they present substantial challenges in terms of leadership and governance. One of the areas that most exercises school leaders and boards is the setting of strategic direction for the MAT. This includes elements such as its expansion. This article draws on 30 interviews with school leaders and trustees from 6 MATs and 10 interviews with national leaders of governance in looking to respond to the research question: What are the principal drivers for strategic expansion in MATs? The article begins by contextualising the research in light of recent policy, then moves to consider why theory on strategy as narrative was chosen in preference to other strategic approaches, and how it was employed to analyse data. The article concludes that within this sample there are a number of drivers for MAT expansion and that these fall under six principal categories: opportunities, values, pressures, feelings, risks and resources. It also concludes that resources and business viability play a substantial part in decisions to expand, and that strategy appears to be an iterative learning process. As such, it contributes to theory on the governance of multi‐level organisations and to practice in terms of the Department for Education's focus on MAT growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]