National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)

Calling all secondary school teachers! 📢 Do you or someone you know work in a senior leadership position in a state-maintained secondary school in England? Our NFER Classroom team, along with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), are looking into how schools support homework, including any use of homework clubs, and as part of this, we are looking for schools to share their experiences and strategies.   All responding schools will be entered into a prize draw and the first 200 respondents will receive a £20 book voucher!   To take part in the survey, complete this short sign-up form 👉 http://bit.ly/3W6WpCS - Your school will then receive a unique survey invite.   The deadline for completed submissions is next Friday (24 October).

In a new blog post, our Co-Head of Policy and Practice Jude Hillary discusses how we can best prepare children and young people for their future careers, based on findings from our ongoing five-year research programme, 'The Skills Imperative 2035'. Read the post 👉 https://bit.ly/4nZwHww

For the next three years, the scope of our Teacher Labour Market in England annual report series will be extended into the early years, further education (FE) teacher and school support staff workforces, thanks to new funding from the Nuffield Foundation. Find out more at http://bit.ly/3J050Eo

Comment on latest teacher training bursaries and scholarships announcement The Department for Education announced its intention yesterday to offer a range of initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries and scholarships, worth up to £31,000. However, the publication of new guidance this morning showed that bursaries for a range of subjects have been cut back. Geography and Biology are down by £21,000 while Design & Technology and Modern Foreign Languages are down by £6,000. Art, Music and Religious Education are down by £10,000 to zero and English is down by £5,000 to zero.   Jack Worth, our Education Workforce Lead, gives his reaction at http://bit.ly/4o73sHu

Our Senior Statistician Chris Morton presented at the annual Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Evaluators Panel Conference in London earlier this week. 🗣️   Chris led a discussion on the ‘Approaches to CACE analysis’. In education trials, participants often don’t receive the intervention as intended. For example, pupils are absent from school so can’t attend tutoring sessions. We're often interested in estimating how well the intervention worked for those that received it as intended, which is known as compliance analysis. CACE (‘complier average causal effect’) modelling is generally regarded as the best method for performing compliance analysis, but comes with its own modelling challenges and limitations. This was discussed by Chris at the EEF Conference, which is always a great event for Evaluators to get together to share ideas and best practice.

* Exploring the uneven distribution of pupils with SEND across mainstream schools in England * We’ve been awarded funding by the Nuffield Foundation to lead on a new project which will look into why some mainstream schools support more pupils with SEND than others, how things have changed over time and what this means for children, families and schools. Next month, we will be publishing an interim report which will provide a national overview of SEND distribution. This will then be followed by a final report, currently scheduled for publication in May 2026. Learn more here 👉 https://bit.ly/3VJBiWZ

We welcome the Government’s ambition, outlined at the Labour Party Conference, which aims for 66% of young people to take a degree or high-quality apprenticeship. But to achieve this, it must address barriers to intermediate and advanced apprenticeships, such as availability, employer entry requirements, low wages and travel costs. Learn more here 👉 http://bit.ly/45JxA5r

Analysis of the state of additional support needs and services in English schools ✍ Our latest blog explores the challenges currently facing schools in the new academic year, focusing on changes in pupil need and teacher support. In the post, authors Gustavo Henndel Lopes and Jenna Julius highlight how schools continue to face high levels of additional needs among pupils, albeit with slight improvements since 2022/23, as well as significant challenges accessing different types of support. Read the full post 👉 https://lnkd.in/eH6YNhby

Final ITT forecast for 2025/26, ahead of seeing the published data in December. Remarkable turnaround that maths, English, science, history and geography are all expected to be at/above target, although overall secondary still only 84%. For more on the narrative, see my post last month (https://lnkd.in/eJ3AYurT)

The state of additional support needs and services in English schools ✍️ The second of our blogs exploring the challenges impacting schools at the start of the new academic year looks at how pupils and teachers are being supported in the post Covid-19 era, and how senior leaders are responding. The blog, written by Researcher Gustavo Henndel Lopes and Research Director Jenna Julius, draws on over 1,150 responses from school senior leaders to our recent Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey. Read the blog in full 👉 https://bit.ly/4gOPaJm