School
Research Topic
Language: English
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Research problems linked to this topic
- How can professional development be used to help teachers and school leaders to become more effective? What are the features of both the design and delivery of effective teacher and school leader professional development, at scale? Why are these features effective?
- What models of management and professional development of teaching and nonteaching roles support efficient and safe use of data and technology including AI?
- How can we best support and promote mental health and wellbeing in schools, colleges and higher education?
- What are the best ways to ensure that AI is used safely, ethically, and in ways that protect the data and interests of children, young people, teachers, and schools and colleges? What forms of regulation and enforcement may be appropriate?
- What are the cyber security risks within the school estate? What is best practice for cyber security in schools and how can we scale this across the school estate?
- How do AI and other digital technologies support existing ways of working in schools and colleges? What are the main opportunities for the future?
- What are the potential long-term opportunities and challenges of AI use in education at all stages?
- What are the potential impacts of AI, and how can new technologies be used safely and effectively within education?
- How do we create a SEND and AP system that better meets the needs of children and their families? Building on the SEND and AP improvement plan, we would like to better understand local delivery, partnership working in the system, cost and financial stability. What does good provision look like and how can we share best practice?
- How can we improve the education experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND or in AP? How do we best identify needs and level of need, what are the benefits of early intervention, and what are appropriate outcomes to measure for this group?
- How can we best support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those who attend Alternative Provision (AP)?
- How effective have whole school/college approaches to improving student mental health and wellbeing been? What factors underpin the most effective whole school/college approaches? How can schools/colleges effectively measure the impact of these approaches?
- How can we best support children and young people with developing resilience and mental health through their schooling? What programmes and approaches are most effective and why?
- What are the most effective school management practices relating to staffing, resourcing, finances, and purchasing? What tools and approaches provide the most support to school leaders carrying out these practices?
- What is the impact of children’s access to nature from an educational and wellbeing perspective?
- What are the different ways that outdoor learning can affect young people and how can they be measured?
- What are the biggest environmental risks impacting on the educational system and student outcomes, and how can they be mitigated?
- What impact does accountability and inspection have on key outcomes for the education system, including internationally?
- What activities do school trust leaders prioritise to improve their schools' performance?
- Which school-wide (or school trust-wide) systems, processes, and interventions improve pupil attainment and narrow disadvantage attainment gaps? Applied research might explore, for instance, how leaders use behaviour systems, pupil setting, the length of the school day, and whole-school enrichment interventions.
- How can schools and school trusts use their resources (including staffing, estates and technology) more effectively and efficiently?
- How can we better integrate technical education into our schools?
- How do schools use in-school units such as SEN Units, Resourced Provision and in-school Alternative Provision to improve pupil outcomes?
- What knowledge and skills do all teachers and school leaders need to support pupils with SEND? How should this differ throughout the stages of a teacher’s career?
- What are the features of high-quality tutoring? Applied research might demonstrate how schools can use tutoring across phases and subjects to help pupils who are behind, or to stretch pupils.
- What are the barriers to learning experienced by pupils with SEND, and what strategies are effective in helping them overcome these barriers?
- How can we improve outcomes for all pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with SEND?
- What are the drivers of pupils not attending school and what factors influence pupils being at risk of becoming persistently absent?
- What works to address the change in parental attitudes towards attendance?
- How can schools effectively support pupils to improve attendance?
- How effective are attendance interventions in improving outcomes for pupils?
- What works to reintegrate pupils who are persistently or severely absent?
- How can schools and local partners work together effectively to reduce persistent and severe absence?
- What are the drivers of pupil attendance and absence?
- What works to reduce persistent and severe absence and why?
- What are the most valid and reliable assessment methods, and how are these used effectively in schools to support and assess pupil learning? Which ways of representing and sequencing curricula are most effective in supporting pupil learning and why?
- What teaching approaches are most effective in helping pupils to pay attention, grasp new ideas, develop skill (such as writing), retain knowledge, transfer knowledge, and be motivated to learn? Why are these approaches most effective? Applied research might include, for example: how various forms of retrieval practice can help pupils retain knowledge for longer periods, or how teacher instruction, teacher questioning, and in-class reading can be used to enhance understanding, and how these effects vary across different phases or subjects.
- What does evidence from the natural and cognitive sciences suggest about how schools might influence pupil motivation, behaviour, and learning? How can this be translated into teaching practices that reliably improve pupil attainment?
- How can we assess teaching quality and support schools in making valid and proportionate assessments of quality (e.g. comparing novice and expert practice; monitoring impact on pupil outcomes)?
- How can we improve teaching quality in ways that scale?
- What factors influence the recruitment and retention of teachers at all stages of their careers – particularly in schools that serve disadvantaged communities?
- What are the barriers and opportunities for recruiting and retaining teachers, and how does this vary by subject, school type, area, and region?
- What is the social and developmental impact of culture and creative education at schools and higher education?
- What makes a difference in the management of school estates? What can be done to improve management of the school estate?
- What knowledge, skills and techniques are required for good school estate management? Are they available in the employment market and how can they be developed?
- • How effective are trauma and resilience theory informed inputs for staff? Can teacher training about brain development, the stress response, co-regulation strategies and how to teach self-regulation improve student's behaviour in class and help children achieve and thrive?
- • What are the elements that need to be in place or adaptions that need to be made to mainstream schools and teaching practice to make education settings inclusive to children with different types of SEND (at the child, school, and system level?)
- How can we work most effectively in partnership with others to ensure that additional needs (especially regarding Special Education Needs and Disabilities and mental health) are identified and addressed as early as possible?
- What works to raise attainment, taking account of different starting points and different contexts experienced by children, including the most disadvantaged?
- • How can we support all children by removing barriers to opportunity, balancing high standards for all with support for those who need it most, including the most disadvantaged children?
- • Which approaches to school leadership, management and governance help create the right environment for all children to learn, and how can they be more widely embedded?
- • How can we limit administration to enable a focus on teaching and supporting children? (See also the section on Technology).
- • What are the most cost-effective approaches to raise the performance of under-performing (educational) settings?
- • How can we ensure that supporting organisations and policies (such as Multi-academy trusts and Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams) enable schools to improve?
- • How can we better understand the link between governance and school performance (including both achieving and thriving)? How can we improve the diversity of governing bodies?
- • How can schools best work with parents and carers to help their children to arrive each day ready to learn, to get the most from each school day and support their learning outside school?
- What teaching approaches and learning environments are most effective in helping children to concentrate, grasp new ideas, develop skill (such as writing), retain knowledge, transfer knowledge, and be motivated to learn? • How do these things vary for different groups, such as students with SEND, disadvantaged children and for different age groups? Why are these approaches most effective and how can we scale them up?
- • What differences in support are needed across different educational settings (including early years, colleges, and Alternative Provision) to ensure the best support for learners with SEND to thrive and achieve? What support can be universal, and which support needs to be targeted?
- • What are the barriers to learning experienced by children with SEND, and what universal and targeted strategies and interventions are effective in helping them overcome these barriers? How do they vary depending on type of SEND?
- • When and how should targeted and specialist support – including SENCOs, other specialist professionals, specialist units and special schools – be employed [in education]? What is/should be the role of in-school support units in supporting children and inclusive education?
- • How can we improve outcomes for those [pupils/students] who need a specialist placement, preparing them to be as independent and prepared for adulthood as possible? What do the best special schools do that could be replicated elsewhere, including in mainstream provision?
- What works best to ensure high levels of school attendance, when, where, with whom and why?
- • What (individual, school and wider) factors contribute to different types of absences (low-level, persistent, and severe)? Are there significant differences in the root causes of these various types, or differences by age?
- • What factors influence parental attitudes to school attendance and what can we do to address them?
- • What types of practice and/or interventions (including both by schools and other parties such as local authorities), work to prevent or reduce the different types of absence (including low-level, persistent and severe absence) and how do they affect other outcomes (including wellbeing)?• What conditions need to be in place for schools and/or local authorities to effectively implement these interventions?
- • What is the experience of those outside mainstream education (whether being home schooled, excluded from school, in Alternative Provision, attending special schools or Young Offender Institutions) and their parents? Where relevant: how and when could/should these children be helped back into mainstream education?
- • How do we ensure that all children have strong attendance during transitions from primary to secondary school? (See also ‘Every child achieving and thriving’ on transitions)
- How do improved mental and physical health and wellbeing support improved behaviour, attendance, and attainment, and what works best to improve health and wellbeing across our sectors?
- How do improved mental and physical health and wellbeing support improved behaviour, attendance, and attainment, and what works best to improve health and wellbeing across our sectors?
- • What impact do educational settings and practices have on longer-term health (including dental health)?
- • How effective have whole school/college approaches to improving student mental health and wellbeing been? What factors underpin the most effective whole school/college approaches? How can they effectively measure the impact of these approaches?
- • What works best in mitigating the adverse impacts of serious or prolonged ill-health (including long-covid) on educational achievement? What educational support is offered to children who have serious or long-term ill-health and how effective is that support?
- What are cost-effective approaches to promote a sense of safety and school belonging, and ensure attendance and positive behaviour in school, enabling children to be motivated and engaged?
- • What drives differences in school belonging, motivation, and engagement between primary and secondary?
- • What works to support transitions (including to primary school, to secondary school, within secondary e.g. from year 7 to year 8) for different groups, including children with SEND (including transitioning between different types of settings)? (See also 'Every child achieving and thriving’).
- "• What are the most cost-effective school and classroom practices to help children develop positive relationships and pro-social behaviour at school and increase school attendance – especially for those children with challenging behaviour? How do these vary for different groups (and for those students with SEND, for different types of need)? "
- How can childcare for school-aged children best contribute to children’s health, socio-emotional and educational outcomes?
- How do we ensure access to rich and engaging opportunities in and outside of pre-school and school settings, particularly for disadvantaged children? Which are the most cost-effective in helping children to achieve and thrive?
- How do we design and implement systems that promote understanding, and support the best decisions, by learners (of all ages) and parents (where appropriate) regarding the options and pathways available?
- • How are different careers portrayed to children? What careers advice is available, who engages with it, and what difference does the best possible careers advice make to the career paths they choose? How does this vary for different groups (such as by age and background)?
- What works to get disadvantaged students onto the pathways that are proven to lead to upwards mobility and to stay on those pathways (including helping those who are not in education, employment, or training - NEET) and raising ambition where needed? At what age are interventions most effective?
- • What works best in the skills system to support underrepresented groups into higher-paid occupations, sectors, and levels of seniority?
- What are the most cost-effective ways to recruit and retain our workforces? How does this vary across the education and children’s social care workforces (including relevant local authority staff such as educational psychologists), and at all stages of their careers (including recruitment into initial teacher training courses and late career recruitment)?
- How can we ensure that technology (including Artificial Intelligence), supports child and adolescent development, learning and health at all stages, from early years to adult education?
- • How can digital and assistive technology support learners with SEND, including to participate in mainstream education settings?
- • How can artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies be implemented in our settings so that they do not widen existing inequalities or create new inequalities?
- • How has the increased accessibility of generative AI influenced our sectors (including schools, colleges etc)?
- • What mitigations are needed in our buildings, and what mitigations are used, to minimise the spread of infectious diseases and contribute towards a healthy and resilient environment?
- • How can staff best be supported in dealing with challenging behaviour, in ways that reliably reduce disruption to peers, improve pupil wellbeing, behaviour and attainment, and aid staff retention?