Case Studies

The final phase of school typically has shared aims across countries around the globe: to support all young people to build and deepen key skills; give them a taste of potential future careers; and set them on paths to achieving their aspirations. Yet how systems seek to achieve these shared aims varies widely. The presentation will provide an overview of 14-18 (or ‘upper secondary education’) across OECD member countries, highlighting the varied approaches to student choice, job discovery and building skills and knowledge in this phase of education. It will focus on ways in which system design and student outcomes differ in England compared with other OECD countries and consider relevant policy responses.

Drilling down into recent research from the Sutton Trust through the lens of regionality, this session will pull our North East specific data on white working class children, how parents navigate the SEND system, intersectionality and the challenge of school admissions

Why do children facing similar levels of disadvantage experience very different outcomes depending on where they grow up? And why has one of the most persistent attainment gaps – affecting white working-class pupils — been overlooked for so long?

Drawing on his experience at the heart of education reform in London, including the transformation of schools in Hackney, Lord Sewell will explore what place-based change can achieve – and where the lessons of London have their limits. In particular, he will challenge the assumption that successful models can simply be transferred from one region to another, asking why the North East must build on its own strengths and develop solutions rooted in its communities.
As founder of Generating Genius, Lord Sewell has spent more than two decades working to ensure that talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are given the opportunity, support and high expectations needed to fulfil their potential. This session will explore the danger of defining children by disadvantage or accepting low expectations – and make the case instead for recognising talent, raising aspiration and refusing to write any group of young people off.

England has spent decades developing increasingly sophisticated approaches to school improvement. But many of the greatest challenges facing children and young people today — from poverty and persistent absence to SEND, mental health, regional inequality and young people becoming disconnected from education and employment — cannot be solved by schools acting alone.

In this thought-provoking session, Jonny Uttley will explore the case for a new settlement for education: one that moves beyond competition between institutions and towards collaboration, collective responsibility and a stronger focus on place. What would it mean to combine the strengths of great schools and trusts with the leadership, democratic legitimacy and local knowledge of communities and regions? At a time when devolution and collective accountability are increasingly part of the national conversation, this session asks a fundamental question: if the challenge of the last forty years was improving schools, could the challenge of the next forty be improving the places in which children grow up?