Fair Education Alliance

🎉 We are thrilled to announce the 6 winners of the Fair Education Innovation Award 2024! Last night at our event hosted by Bloomberg, we celebrated these incredible innovators who are tackling educational inequality with fresh, impactful solutions. This marks a decade of the Innovation and Scaling Awards, a long-lasting partnership with Bloomberg, and we're excited to see how these new initiatives will drive change in education across the country. Molly Forbes, The Body Happy Programme: Promoting body respect and positivity, addressing body image issues among young people. Jenna Maudlin, The Firefly Project: Providing grief education and holistic support to help school communities navigate grief together. Charly Young MBE, The Early Years Movement: Championing gender equity by recruiting men into early childhood education. Yusuf Ben-Tarifite and Yasmin B., The Aspiring Medics: Mentoring and supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds aspiring to enter the medical field. Alaya Holloway, FirstGens: Providing essential guidance and resources to help first-generation students access and thrive in higher education. Sean Harris FCCT, Tees Valley Education: Tackling child poverty and inequality through community-driven solutions. Each winner will receive hands-on support, including funding to scale their innovative projects. Stay tuned next week as we spotlight each of these trailblazing initiatives! You can also find out more about them at https://buff.ly/3Bfj2xu #FEAInnovationAward

Last week, the FEA Secretariat gathered for our August team day to reflect, get inspired, and prepare for the year ahead. 🎉 A big thank you to IntoUniversity for hosting us and to Emily Magrath for sharing the impactful work of IntoUniversity in communities across the South of England and West Midlands. Our day was filled with valuable discussions as we celebrated our individual and collective achievements from 2023-24 and explored how we contributed to the FEA’s mission. 🙌 This reflection fuelled our planning for 2024-25, helping us set high-level goals and identify growth opportunities in line with the FEA's mission. Here’s to a successful year ahead with more collaboration, joined up working and innovation to make education fairer for all children and young people.

Show your support for Molly Forbes from The Body Happy Schools Programme in her journey to win the Community Choice Award 2024! 🌟 Watch her inspiring video below and be sure to cast your vote here: https://bit.ly/4fLESsu The initiative with the most votes will receive £500 to advance their valuable work! The Body Happy Schools Programme is one of the 10 finalists for the Innovation Award. This initiative fosters body positivity in children and young people by offering workshops, CPD training, and resources that promote a healthy body image. By integrating these practices into schools, they aim to build a generation of confident and body-positive individuals. https://lnkd.in/dwN5HF8G

Stand with Jemma Bourn from Spark Work and choose her idea as your Community Choice Award Winner 2024! 🌟 Check out her inspiring video and cast your vote here: https://bit.ly/4fLESsu The initiative with the most votes will secure £500 to advance their impactful work! Spark Work is one of the 10 finalists for the Innovation Award. This innovative online platform connects London primary schools with local employers, creating strong school-employer partnerships. By enhancing career-related learning for children, Spark Work is helping to promote social mobility and broaden future opportunities for young students.

Vote for Sean Harris FCCT from Tees Valley Education to win the Community Choice Award 2024! ✨ Watch his impactful video below and make sure to cast your vote here: https://bit.ly/4fLESsu The initiative with the most votes will receive £500 to further their crucial work! Tees Valley Education is one of the 10 finalists for the Innovation Award. Their People Learning and Community Engagement (PLACE) programme is designed to tackle the root causes of poverty and inequality through hyperlocal initiatives, community engagement, and deep social listening. By focusing on these areas, they aim to achieve meaningful educational and social outcomes across the Teesside region, making a lasting impact on communities most in need.

Get behind Charly Young MBE from The Early Years Movement as she competes for the Community Choice Award 2024! 🚀 Watch her inspiring video below and make sure to cast your vote here: https://bit.ly/4fLESsu The initiative with the most votes will earn £500 to further their mission and be celebrated as the Community Choice Award Winner 2024. The Early Years Movement is one of the 10 finalists for the Innovation Award. This ground-breaking initiative addresses gender inequality in early years education by recruiting and training retirement-aged men as early years practitioners. The goal is to improve gender equity, provide positive male role models, and enhance children's socioemotional development, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Join forces with Sarah Botchway from THE CHARTER SCHOOLS EDUCATIONAL TRUST as she competes for the Community Choice Award 2024! 🌠 Watch her inspiring video and cast your vote here: https://bit.ly/4fLESsu The initiative with the most votes will win £500 to further their important work! THE CHARTER SCHOOLS EDUCATIONAL TRUST is one of the 10 finalists for the Innovation Award. Their alumni programme is dedicated to providing under-represented students with valuable work experience, gap year roles, and teaching apprenticeships. The ultimate goal is to build a diverse teaching workforce that truly reflects the community it serves.

Support Alaya Holloway from First Gens CIC in her bid for the Community Choice Award 2024! 🎓 Watch her inspiring video below and make sure to cast your vote here: https://bit.ly/4fLESsu The initiative with the most votes will secure £500 to further their impactful work! FirstGens is among the 10 finalists for the Innovation Award. Their initiative tackles the educational disparities faced by first-generation university students by offering in-person events, webinars, mentoring, and peer interactions. These efforts are strengthened through partnerships with universities and tech platforms, ensuring that first-generation students have the necessary resources and support to thrive.

Congratulations to everyone who received GCSE and BTEC results today! We wish you all the best in your next steps. If we zoom out from individual pupils' stories today, we see a worrying and persistent trend: educational inequality. This morning Catherine McKinnell, Schools Minister, shared her thoughts on regional inequality in educational outcomes. We share her concern around the gap in educational outcomes between pupils living in different parts of the country and how this is impacted by the socioeconomic status of the household they live in. Our 300 members are doing brilliant working across all of England to support young people from low-income households and we've worked together to develop solutions to address the root causes of educational inequality. Read our Fair Education Priorities for A New Government to see our recommendations: https://lnkd.in/esD3EeHG.

Vote for Tracy Firth from Cherish to win the Community Choice Award 2024! 🧘♀️ Watch her engaging video below and cast your vote here: https://bit.ly/4fLESsu The initiative with the most votes will win £500 to further their impactful work and be crowned the Community Choice Award Winner 2024. Cherish is one of the 10 finalists for the Innovation Award. This project delivers a series of daily, short, experiential wellbeing videos tailored for primary school children, promoting mental health, resilience, and emotional well-being. By making learning about mental health a core part of the curriculum, Cherish is helping to build a brighter, healthier future for our children. https://lnkd.in/eWKxfChg