This study employed a small-scale qualitative approach to examine how the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme operates in secondary schools, focusing on facilitating factors and challenges in its implementation. Research on ELSA interventions in secondary schools is limited; this study seeks to address this gap and provide…

The post-16 sector in England refers to the diverse education and training options available to young people from the age of 16, typically after completing their GCSEs. This is a key stage in the English education system, which spans various settings such as further education (FE) colleges, sixth-form colleges (SFCs), school sixth forms, and…

In early 2021-22, the Flexible Phonics reading intervention, a large-scale randomised controlled trial, took place in 118 schools in England and involved nearly 3,000 children. This study aimed to provide valuable insights into the success of largely school-based education trials. The Flexible Phonics trial proved to be not only an important…

Early Words with Childminders is a programme aiming to support the practice of childminders by providing them evidence-based activities and strategies that foster children's early language development, and confidence and skills to engage with parents. Piloted between September and December 2023, the programme provides practitioners with training…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

This report presents the interim findings from an evaluation of a number of the Department for Education's (DfE) Language Programmes which support Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) provision in schools in England: the Language Hub programme; the Language Assistants programme run by the British Council; the UK German Connection (UKGC); and the German…

Purpose: Considering the relevance of education for sustainable development (SD) to enhancing engineers' abilities to contribute towards sustainability-related issues, this study aims to help understand the global context of the insertion of SD into engineering education and to provide guidelines to further evolve research and efforts towards…

Anita Harley, Phonics Lead at Princecroft Primary School in the rural town of Warminster in the UK, describes how a focus on teacher development and using Sounds-Write with fidelity has resulted in increased attainment in phonics and spelling for children, the vast majority of whom now meet or exceed expected standards. [For the complete volume,…

Prior to implementing Sounds-Write in 2016, phonics attainment in Year 1 at Selby Primary School in North Yorkshire (UK) was at or above the national average, but little progress was made by the weaker readers by the end of Key Stage 2. Emma Darwin, Phonics Lead at the school, presents data for a Year 4 cohort who have been taught using…

Pupil premium is a direct grant paid to state-funded schools in England which aims to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils aged 5-16. As disruption to learning during the COVID-19 pandemic had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils, the recovery premium grant was introduced in 2021 to help address this. Recovery premium funding finished…

In this case study, Sarah Horner and Jane Orr from the Bloomfield Learning Centre, a specialist literacy clinic run as a charity and serving the poorest parts of London, report on how Sounds-Write helped a student regain his self-confidence and motivation for learning, after difficulties in reading had led to behaviour problems and a dislike of…

This article reports on data and analysis from a case study investigating policy enactments in a multi-academy trust (MAT) in England. The focus is the influence of a policy intermediary organisation (PIO), The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), on policy making by school leaders. The case is located in the literacy policy of a MAT of 15…

In 2019, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a consortium of evaluation and early years assessment specialists to evaluate the first phase of Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP1). The evaluation was led by Ecorys, with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), Professor Kathy Sylva (the University of…

In this paper, we present insights from the qualitative data collected during a process evaluation of a reading intervention project carried out in primary and secondary schools in West Yorkshire, England. Commercially available reading interventions, financed by the Strategic School Improvement Fund, were delivered by school staff to…

To develop positive learning environments, it is important that supporting mental health and wellbeing is a priority. Whole-school programmes are considered an effective way of developing provision in schools; however, poor implementation can limit the impact of such programmes, and there is a lack of clarity about the key factors affecting the…