The Department for Education (DfE) provided funding for secondary schools to establish short face-to-face summer schools over the 2021 summer holiday, to help them make up for learning lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lasting for one or two weeks, summer schools involved a blend of academic learning and enrichment activities and were intended to…

Attracting international students has become a strategic priority for UK immigration policy as well as for British universities. However, research shows that there are emergent intercultural barriers that challenge international students' carrier aspirations and inhibit their ability to find employment. Also, small business employers (SMEs) are…

Drawing on the Health Adversity Risk Model, this study examines the relationship between mental health and sexual risk behaviors in British and European Union (EU) university students in the United Kingdom. Four hundred and thirty-one undergraduate students completed a cross-sectional survey. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-tests,…

Previous studies have reported that generalist primary teachers lack the confidence and competence to teach Physical Education (PE). In response, schools have outsourced PE to external providers. This paper examines data from an online survey of 175 pre-service teachers (PSTs) in England and their perceived confidence to teach primary PE. Findings…

The relationship between school buildings and their pedagogies is complex. There is a consensus that the built environment through its structure and organisation can impact education, but it is often unclear or unknown how this happens in individual cases. Here we examine one design process, which led to the construction of a secondary school in…

The research focuses on the complexities associated with contemporary rural primary school leadership. The paper draws on in-depth ethnographic research undertaken in two contrasting English rural primary schools and their surrounding community over a period of three years and in particular the experiences and perspectives of the two head teachers…

More children than ever before are conceived with the use of assisted reproductive technologies and many are raised in families that are structurally different from most. Research on the experiences of children growing up in diverse families has shown that children may face disapproval, a lack of understanding, and in some cases, bullying by those…

This article presents an analysis of the standard language ideology within a corpus of school-designed language policy documents from 264 primary schools in England. It examines the processes by which standard language ideological concepts (e.g. 'Standard English', 'correctness', 'hegemony') get textually manifested in school policies, and how…

The paper suggests ways to benefit student learning online by improving staff training. The paper challenges the assumption that classroom based pedagogy applies to online teaching, with alternative ways that resolve the stress and confusion during the pandemic in the move to permanent blended teaching in the coming year. The paper is the 'front…

Educational psychologists (EPs) in England are identified as key to specialist mental health provision in schools yet are underrepresented in policy development. This study examined EPs' mental health casework in schools as one aspect of the professional contribution in this area. Data gathered from interviews with EPs were analysed though…

Objective: This article describes a university course that aimed to create public health champions and its evaluation. The course attracted 92 participants, over three cohorts. Participants included healthcare professionals, fitness instructors, a belly dancer, housing officers, community workers and those who worked in public health policy.…

Government legislation and research literature highlight the importance of the participation of pupils with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) in planning for their transition to adulthood. However, effective processes which enable their participation are under-researched. In this study, nine teaching staff from two specialist schools in the…

Becoming a university graduate has long been considered the route to individual occupational and social mobility, while educating more citizens has been assumed to add to a nation's human capital and competitiveness. University education has come to be associated with individual and societal aspiration. However, changes in the labour market…

This commentary outlines developments regarding Sex and Relationships Education (SRE, akin to Comprehensive Sex Education) in England and Wales over the past 15 years or so. BZgA has been a WHO/Europe collaborating centre for sexual and reproductive health since 2003. In this capacity, BZgA contributes to the development and dissemination of WHO…

In February 2020, the Ministry of Education asked the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) to examine the curriculum-levelling construct that sits at the heart of "The New Zealand Curriculum" (Ministry of Education, 2007) (NZC). A key goal of the research was to investigate, whether-- and if so, how--the construct helps…