Fair Education Alliance

From neighbourhood to national... It's a couple of weeks since our roundtable on systems and place-based change and, in our recent member bulletin, Gina Cicerone has been reflecting on what we've learned: "We heard from dozens of members in our workshop about the intersection between systems change and place-based change. We discussed a few risks and how to mitigate them: - Not enough focus on ourself: When exploring this deeply, what did it all come down to? Us. One participant asked “do we need to change people or ourselves, rather than systems”. Louisa from AllChild (Formerly West London Zone) talked about epistemic humility, which recognises that our own knowledge is incomplete and provisional, and sets us up for constant learning. I think that’s one amazing mental model that can support our growth. We need to embed practices to identify and challenge our own mental models. - Competing across the country: Through the resurgence of “place”, there are many backbone organisations, anchor institutions and local convenors. We all have a role to play, whether connector, facilitator, disruptor or activator, and our join-up is key. This can be hard: everyone is trying to ensure maximum impact and, often, sustainability. Instead of duplication, we need to focus on building trust as an outcome in and of itself – with all those involved, not just community members. - We see “place” as the panacea: As Graeme from Right To Succeed said, the key factor for work in place is the community – for both leadership and involvement. But we must balance that with the fact that community can’t happen in a silo – we need partnerships all the way from neighbourhood to national, and sharing between communities. There are also other ways to take a systems change approach besides place - so starting with the six conditions framework can be a helpful guide to mapping that out. - Ignoring the root causes: Local authorities are facing reduced funding or bankruptcy (reiterated again in the National Audit Office’s SEN report), so other backbones emerge to take on the issues that sometimes were, can and/or should be addressed by local government. This is an opportunity to address the root causes so we don’t end up in a similar situation, but just through another route. What next? We're looking forward to continuing this important conversation with our members and stakeholders. If you’d like to learn more about our work on systems and place-based change or share your own experience, please comment below. If you're part of a member organisation, make sure you use our updated Ecosystem Map – it’s packed with information on member activity in 24,000 education settings across England. It’s a vital tool for collaboration across regions and localities, allowing you to filter by local authority, parliamentary constituency, member activity and more.”

💷 Budget 2024: Protect School budgets and invest in educational opportunity for every child.   If we are to achieve the economic growth and strengthened society that the Government and voters want, we must start with education, and we must have cooperation from business, civil society and government, both at a national and local level.    The education system is in urgent need of investment to prepare our society to prosper in the future. Increasingly, there is a wedge being driven between pupils from low-income families and others, and the proportion of children living in poverty continues to increase. We haven’t equipped schools to meet the needs of the children with the greatest challenges, and that’s impacting our ability to recruit and retain teachers, children’s engagement with education, and the attainment gap that has grown ever wider.    To reverse the present trend, we need sustained attention to its root causes. Through the insight and expertise of our membership, we know what’s needed, and this is laid out in full in our Priorities for a New Government. Achieving a fair education for every child will require investment, and we urge the Government to protect school budgets despite predicted decreases in pupil numbers, and to make targeted investments to support the most vulnerable. These include:   - Extend Free School Meals eligibility to all children whose families are eligible for universal credit. Analysis shows this would bring core benefits of £8.4 billion and wider benefits of £16.2 billion over a 20-year period. - Restore Pupil Premium funding to 2015-2016 rates - Raise the Early Years Pupil Premium to match the primary rate and extend the Pupil Premium to 16-19 education at the secondary rate - Introduce 30 hours of funded early years education for all three and four-year-old children, regardless of parental education or employment status. Children from low-income families should be prioritised for funded hours, with funding covering the full cost for providers. - Restore investment in high-quality 1:1 and small-group tuition for the pupils who most need it. The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) and 16-19 Tuition Fund should be restored to support ongoing pandemic recovery. - Introduce national data collection of the wellbeing of young people so we can better understand the causes and solutions to declining pupil mental health and wellbeing.   We know that demands on the public purse are high as ever, but investing in our children and young people to thrive must be a priority – all of today’s children will be part of tomorrow’s society. This work is the reason we exist, and we look forward to working with Government to make this future a reality.

New polling from Teach First highlights the impact of child poverty on schools serving low income communities. We want to see a joined up approach to tackling these issues. Read our policy priorities on 'a joined up system that meets rising needs' in our Priorities for a New Government report: https://lnkd.in/dzbA3r-g

🚀 Join our team! We're looking for a Digital Communications Manager (part-time, hybrid/London) If you are a digital communications all-rounder, then this role is for you. We're looking for a new team member to manage and develop our digital channels to reach key audiences, drive engagement with our member organisations, and increase public awareness of educational inequality. You will have a creative and engaging approach to content creation and work closely with the Secretariat and Alliance members.  The role is part-time (22.5 hours per week) and we can work with you to find a suitable working pattern. Details in the job ad - please share with your networks! Deadline 4 November. #hr #hiringandpromotion #jobalert #nowhiring #job #gethired #jobopening #recruiting #jobopening #hiring #joinourteam #jobs #jobhirin #remotework #jobsearch #jobsearching #jobseekers #hire #purpose #charityjob #UKcharity #education #charitycomms #digitalmarketing #socialmedia

Our recent Lessons in Leadership session with Brett Wigdortz OBE was full of valuable insights for our Scaling Award winners ✨ Brett emphasised the importance of embracing failure as a learning opportunity, encouraging leaders to see setbacks as a path to growth. He also highlighted the need for education charities to amplify youth voices in strategic decision-making, ensuring that those we serve are always at the heart of our work. The session reinforced the idea that strong leadership is built on trust, adaptability, and a focus on long-term impact!

It was great to meet with David Baines MP and Anthony Broxton this morning – their passion for supporting children and young people came through so strongly. We’d expect nothing less from a former teacher! A few of the topics we discussed in the context of our Fair Education Priorities: - How we can collect and use data beyond academic measures, while also supporting mainstream schools to get the best possible academic outcomes for all pupils? - How can we work with Government to better link up work happening on the curriculum, child poverty, Ofsted, and skills? - How do we create space for teachers to experiment, get creative, and go deep? Gina Cicerone and Janeen Hayat are looking forward to working together with David and Anthony over the months and years to come!  

From centre stage to behind the scenes – take a peek into our #InnovationAward2024 award winners' journey so far! They kicked off their incubator sessions bonding over LEGO and delving deep into their Theory of Change🌟 Yusuf Ben-Tarifite Yasmin B. Charly Young MBE Alaya Holloway Jenna Maudlin Sean Harris FCCT

🚀 Join our team! We're looking for a Digital Communications Manager (part-time, hybrid/London) If you are a digital communications all-rounder, then this role is for you. We're looking for a new team member to manage and develop our digital channels to reach key audiences, drive engagement with our member organisations, and increase public awareness of educational inequality. You will have a creative and engaging approach to content creation and work closely with the Secretariat and Alliance members.  The role is part-time (22.5 hours per week) and we can work with you to find a suitable working pattern. Details in the job ad - please share with your networks! Deadline 4 November. #hr #hiringandpromotion #jobalert #nowhiring #job #gethired #jobopening #recruiting #jobopening #hiring #joinourteam #jobs #jobhirin #remotework #jobsearch #jobsearching #jobseekers #hire #purpose #charityjob #UKcharity #education #charitycomms #digitalmarketing #socialmedia

Our members are working on mental health and wellbeing in over 19,000 education settings - just some of the 70,000 unique partnerships shown on our updated Fair Education Alliance Ecosystem Map. Pupils from low-income households are dramatically more likely to have social, emotional and mental health needs than others. They’re three times as likely to be severely absent, and 40% of children and young people who have an education and health care plan (EHCP) for social, emotional and mental health needs are from low-income households. As a coalition of organisations working to tackle educational inequality, we’re clear that this has to change; we must prioritise the mental health and wellbeing of young people by better understanding the challenges and how to address these in school. Who do you know that is doing great work in this area? Please tag and celebrate them in the comments below! #WorldMentalHealthDay

🔔 Our systems and place-based change virtual roundtable is less than two weeks away! Book your place today so you don't miss out. Delve deeper into how your organisation can take a systems change approach and key considerations when thinking about place-based working. You will hear findings from Gina Cicerone (Fair Education Alliance), who completed her Churchill Fellowship research in Australia, Canada and the USA on this topic earlier this year. She will be joined by Graeme Duncan (Right To Succeed) and Louisa Mitchell MBE (AllChild) who will be discussing their models of place-based change. This series of events is an excellent opportunity to increase your understanding of systems and place-based change and join with others who want to collaborate to achieve system change in education in England.