Professor Greta Defeyter, Director of the Healthy Living Lab at Northumbria University, has been awarded an OBE in recognition of services to education.

Professor Defeyter has spent the last 20 years researching how meals and enriching activities can be, and are being, provided to millions of children across the UK through schools and community organisations.

Her work has significantly influenced the Department for Education’s rollout of a National School Breakfast programme and funding of the Holiday Activities and Food programme for children and young people across England.

She established the Healthy Living Lab in 2006 to investigate the impacts of school breakfast clubs on children’s health, social and educational wellbeing. Working with Kellogg’s, the Greggs Foundation and Blackpool Council between 2008 and 2019, her research demonstrated that breakfast clubs can improve school attendance and punctuality, motivation, social relationships, educational attainment and quality of life for many children.

This evidence has supported the nationwide expansion of breakfast clubs over the past fifteen years. In September the Chancellor announced a £315 million free breakfast club programme that would provide free school breakfast clubs in all state-funded primary schools next year.

Recognising that school holidays brought difficulties for many families, Professor Defeyter expanded her research. Her evaluations of holiday clubs and city-wide holiday programmes evidenced the need for the UK government to alleviate holiday hunger and ensure that children and young people were offered nutritious food and engaging activities outside of term time as well as during the academic year.

As a result, in 2021 the government announced that up to £220 million was being made available to local authorities across England to fund the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.

HAF and the new HAF Plus programme, which has been co-designed to make it more engaging for older children, provide activities and healthy food to nearly one million children and young people during the school holidays each year. The HAF Plus framework has also been adopted by supporting organisations, such as Kitchen Social, funded by the Mayor’s Fund for London, and has been implemented across all London boroughs.

More recently, Professor Defeyter has been researching broader issues around poverty, school meals, and the Healthy Start Scheme. Through her work with national charities, schools, supermarkets, and caterers, she is currently advising the UK and Scottish Governments on developing national strategies and policies to eliminate the need for food banks. This includes the introduction of Affordable Food Clubs and Cash First Plus programmes; both designed to maximise household income and improve dietary intake and overall wellbeing.

The Order of the British Empire (OBE) is awarded to those who have made a significant impact in the arts, sciences, charitable work and public service.

Professor Defeyter said: “I am both delighted and astonished at being awarded an OBE. To be recognised in this manner for my research with children, young people and families is a humbling experience.

“Most importantly, I would like to thank all the organisations, local authorities, charities, children, young people, parents and carers who trusted me, and worked alongside me to conduct this research that has enabled societal change.

“Finally, I wish to thank all my research colleagues within the Healthy Living Lab for all of their support in conducting the research that has made a difference to millions of children and young people. I thank you all!”

Professor Andy Long, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Northumbria University, said: “We are delighted to see this recognition for Greta and her work. It is clear that her research over the last two decades has informed and influenced government decision making which has led to a positive, and meaningful, impact on the lives of children and families across the country.”

Professor Defeyter has already received several accolades for her work. In 2006 she was named as a Children’s Food Hero by Sustain, following notable award winners, Jamie Oliver and Ed Balls. In 2015, she was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in recognition of her research with children living in areas of social and economic deprivation, and in 2020 she was named as one of the country’s top 100 change makers by the Big Issue for her research and policy impact on childhood food poverty in the UK.

She has a number of executive roles and fellowships with organisations. These include being an executive member of the North East Child Poverty Commission, a Fellow and incoming President of the Health and Food Council at the Royal Society of Medicine, and Chair of Feeding Britain’s Academic Advisory Board.

Professor Defeyter will formally receive her OBE at a ceremony later in the year.

These are just some of the insights highlighted by a new data dashboard, created by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The dashboard draws on data from the School Workforce Census as well as other sources of published data such as school-level expenditure and provider-level Initial Teacher Training (ITT) data.

For the first time, users can access data on a number of key workforce indicators to help understand teacher supply challenges in English primary and secondary schools. Broken down by local authority, parliamentary constituency, school type and academic subject, the data offers insights into teacher retention, recruitment and shortages while comparing regional data with national averages.

The dashboard also reveals little difference in teacher retention between schools in Education Investment Areas (EIAs) and other areas. The rate of secondary early-career teachers leaving the state sector in 2020 was 11.5 per cent in EIAs, compared to 12.3 per cent in non-EIAs.

The new interactive tool also shows that children from schools with a high proportion of FSM pupils are more likely to be taught maths and science by teachers who do not have a relevant undergraduate degree.

NFER School Workforce Lead, Jack Worth, said: “The data dashboard is easy-to-use and easy to access. It will support local and national decision-makers to take action to address teacher shortages in areas struggling the most.

“This initiative is part of our continuing commitment to supporting policy makers in developing robust plans which improve teacher recruitment and retention.”

Dr Emily Tanner, Education Programme Head, the Nuffield Foundation, said: “This innovative dashboard provides key insights into the teacher workforce, showing how the quality of education that students receive varies according to where they live and the type of school they attend. Widening access to this data is an important step in achieving positive change.”

The pilot, which is funded until August 2023, will involve staff from 150 maintained mainstream schools in England receiving free-to-access training to improve the way they use assistive technology (AT).

Delivered with partners at Microlink, the training will encourage staff to use technology which they already have available to them to reduce or remove the barriers to learning for all children and young people, including for learners with SEND.

Schools interested in participating should visit www.nasen.org.uk to express their interest and be kept updated with details about the training offer and next steps in the application process.

The programme builds on the success of a previous AT Training Pilot, which also saw nasen collaborate with Microlink, to run online training sessions to nominated AT Champions in around 80 schools in England. Then, as now, the partnership brought together expertise in AT and SEND, along with an understanding of the day-to-day operation of schools and how assistive technology supports an inclusive classroom for all learners – both with and without SEND.

nasen CEO, Annamarie Hassall MBE, said: “Assistive Technology has an increasingly important role to play in education for all children and young people, and we know that its effective use can be empowering – even life-changing – for a learner with SEND or learning differences.

“nasen is thrilled to have been selected by the Department for Education to run this programme, and delighted to be teaming up with Microlink once more to help ensure all learners are given the tools required to enable progress and achieve the best outcomes.”

Marius Frank, Head of Education and Project Lead at Microlink, added: “We are absolutely delighted to be working once again in partnership with nasen. The feedback we received from primary and secondary schools participating in the pilot programme earlier this year was fantastic. The moment teachers release the power of Assistive Technologies in mainstream classes, so many children and young people get almost immediate benefits.”

To find out more and to express interest in a place on the programme, visit www.nasen.org.uk. Successful applicants will be informed by the end of January, with the first training sessions being delivered by the end of March 2023.

Whether looking through a microscope, up at the stars, or exploring societal issues, a group of University of Warwick students are set to draw back the curtain on their research projects as part of the University’s Resonate programme.

Meet Warwick’s Student Researchers, which will take place at The Oculus on the University of Warwick campus from 7pm until 8.30pm on Wednesday, September 28, will allow potential students, local residents, as well as friends and families of current students to explore the research that is being done at Warwick and chat to undergraduates about their projects.

The event will bring together a range of research topics and fields of study from life sciences and astronomy to politics and international studies, presented in a fun and informal setting with interactive displays and complimentary refreshments.

Resonate is a year-round programme of inspiring and interactive events that aims to spark ideas, curiosity and creativity across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Life Sciences student Adele Morgan is looking into how dietary and reproductive restriction can extend life span in the microscopic worm C.elegans. She hopes that the findings can be used to influence human ageing therapies in the future.

She said: “I’m taking part because I’d really like to get involved in communicating scientific research to as many people as possible and the Meet Warwick’s Student Researchers event is a brilliant opportunity to do that.

“At my stand people will be invited to take a deeper look at how ageing research is done and get to see some of our little model organisms – nematode worms.”

Other research topics include the use of statistics to rank cricketers and using light patterns to catalogue exploded stars in the Fireworks galaxy.

The Research Excellence Framework 2021 deemed 92% of Warwick’s research to be ‘world leading or international excellent’.

Prof Michael Scott, of the University of Warwick and presenter of BBC TV’s Invisible Cities series, said: “We welcome everyone to come along and enjoy learning about the amazing research being conducted by students at the University of Warwick.

“Be wowed by some science demonstrations, find out new ways of thinking about common problems, and discuss how we can move forward with some of the greatest challenges facing our world today. No previous experience or knowledge necessary: this is an event for everyone.”

For more information about Meet Warwick’s Student Researchers, part of the University of Warwick’s Resonate Festival, visit www.resonatefestival.co.uk/events/meet-warwicks-student-researchers

The findings suggest that primary-age pupils have significantly lower achievement in both reading and maths as a likely result of missed learning. In addition, there is a large and concerning attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils.

This study is one of the first to provide robust insights into the extent of learning loss that might have occurred as a result of partial school closures. It is based on data collected by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) from assessments in reading and maths taken in November 2020 by more than 5,900 Year 2 (6 / 7 year olds) pupils in 168 representative primary schools. These were compared with tests taken by Year 2 pupils in autumn 2017, also from a representative sample of schools.

Overall performance in both reading and mathematics in autumn 2020 was found to be significantly lower compared to the 2017 cohort, with pupils, on average, making two months less progress in both subject areas compared to the standardisation sample. Worryingly, the study finds that “a very large number of pupils were unable to engage effectively with the tests”.

The study also finds a large and concerning gap between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils. For both reading and maths this gap is estimated to be the equivalent of seven months’ learning. While both calculations indicate a large gap, the results, expressed in terms of months of learning, should be interpreted with caution.

The 2017 NFER assessment data did not compare the performance of disadvantaged pupils with all other pupils. As a result, it is not known if the gap has grown compared to 2017.

These interim findings are part of an ongoing EEF-funded study. Further analysis will be carried out in March 2021 and June 2021 to examine whether the gap narrows, widens or remains stable. In addition to these preliminary findings, NFER is preparing a short publication for teachers that will include more detailed commentary on pupils’ responses and suggestions that schools can act upon.

Last June, the EEF published a rapid evidence assessment, Best evidence on impact of school closures on the attainment gap, which found that school closures are likely to reverse progress made to close the gap in the last decade since 2011.

Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “By the time schools reopen, children and young people will have faced almost a year of learning disruption. The repercussions of these months of lost learning are devastating and will be felt for a lifetime, especially by those from low-income backgrounds.

“Today’s findings give valuable insight into the challenges facing schools and teachers.  Vast resources need to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils by raising the pupil premium significantly and providing funding for tuition.”

Professor Becky Francis, CEO of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “This new research offers compelling evidence of what we have feared since schools were closed to most pupils in the first national lockdown – that there will be a large negative impact on learning, with disadvantaged pupils suffering the most. Despite the inspiring and tireless work of schools across the country, this will only be compounded by the current partial school closures.

“It is vital, therefore, that we draw on the best available evidence in responding to this national crisis, supporting teachers and school leaders to get the right support to the pupils who have missed out most.

“But we should be under no illusions that there are quick fixes. Schools will need continued and significant support in the years ahead if we are to avoid a generation of pupils being left behind. This latest research highlights, yet again, the need, to make tackling educational inequality a national priority.”

Dr Ben Styles, head of the National Foundation for Educational Research’s Education Trials Unit said: “There has been lots of speculation about the extent to which children may have fallen behind and it is valuable to report some attainment data on this question.

“Measuring gaps in test scores is not much use to teachers without more diagnostic information concerning where children have fallen behind and we hope to provide this imminently.”

This newly launched Creative Education CPD course has been designed to help educators to reflect on their teaching and learn new skills that will allow them to implement small changes to their professional practice, and support their teaching in this new and uncertain world.

The global pandemic has massively impacted teaching staff, who have had little or no time to keep up with changes necessary or reflect on how to transform the landscape of teaching and learning.

Pupils’ deteriorating mental health, exam confusion, excessive workload, pressures of assessment targets and inspections, infection risks… The stressors in teaching are many and varied.

Led by Natalia Ernstman, Plymouth College of Art’s Senior Lecturer on their MA Creative Education: Making Learning, this new course, which will be delivered solely online, focuses on the belief that creativity is the route through which wider systemic challenges in education and personal resilience can be addressed.

Natalia said, “Teachers are at the front line of the pandemic in so many ways. Apart from having their own health to worry about, they are also dealing with increased feelings of anxiety and disillusionment among pupils, as well as fears and frustrations from parents. They are carrying enormous amounts of responsibility, yet it seems that they haven’t received the necessary support to be able to deal with this mental and physical burden. Nobody was prepared to deal with what Covid did to our society, but where other sectors have had more leeway to get it wrong and try again, teachers are under constant pressure to handle and solve the situation correctly and immediately. They are just expected to get on with it and make it work, because if they don’t, it’s our children’s futures that are on the line. It personally really worries me that so many teachers suffer from mental health issues as a result. It is harrowing to hear how many ambitious, enthusiastic and capable people decide that the teaching profession is too stressful for them and quit. It puts even more strain on the ones that remain, it’s desperate on so many levels.”

“At Plymouth College of Art, we don’t have the solutions to all of this, but we do know about creating safe and creative spaces where people can learn together to tackle challenging societal, professional and personal issues. That is what this short course is all about: creating a space to catch our breath, take stock and using the arts and research to design and implement small changes that support our teaching in this uncertain world. I have designed the course in a way that allows for ‘relaxed’ sharing of experiences and playful approaches to exploring where we are and where we want to go. Experts will share their view and will provide theoretical pedagogical underpinning.”

The course will also welcome guest speakers and educators to two of the sessions, one of which will be Dr Penny Hay, artist and educator, Reader in Creative Teaching and Learning, Senior Lecturer in Arts Education, Research Fellow, Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries; School of Education, Bath Spa University and Director of Research, House of Imagination (formerly 5x5x5=creativity).

The course is open to teachers in both primary and secondary education, as well as headteachers and managers in education, NQTs, and support workers. A limited number of places are available. The course will comprise of 5 online evening sessions over a period of 10 weeks. The first session will take place on 22 February 2021. Click here to find out more and to book your place.

The National SENCO Workforce Survey 2020, which this year captured the experiences of SENCOs in response to the pandemic and the first national lockdown, revealed a key issue with universal inclusive provision and differentiation of SEN support as teaching moved online for the majority of pupils, with almost three-quarters (73%) of SENCOs stating their school experienced challenges with providing virtual support for children with SEN, and 8 in 10 finding it difficult to provide differentiated learning online.

The results also reported a sharp increase in SENCOs workload as schools responded and adapted to the unprecedented situation, which saw them faced with more management tasks and paperwork, including teaching, safeguarding, completing risk assessments and quickly responding to changing national guidance – all impacting a role that was already severely lacking in time pre-pandemic.

Of those surveyed, nearly three-quarters of SENCOs (72%) felt that their schools had experienced challenges in providing support for children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) during the lockdown, with over half (56.7%) finding the management of risk assessments a key challenge.

Only 1 in 10 were happy with the support they received during the pandemic, reporting that expectations and guidance changed frequently. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds (64.4%) would have welcomed more support and guidance from central government – findings that have led to recommendations around the provision of national exemplars and guidance in responding to unprecedented events in the future.

Dr Helen Curran, Senior Lecturer in Education: SEN at Bath Spa University, said: “The global pandemic has exposed the existing crisis in SEND, and amplified challenges that SENCOs already faced, such as a lack of time to execute the role.

“We know that schools have worked tirelessly to support young people during the pandemic, facing daily challenges, difficult decisions and changing national guidance. As we get to grips with a third lockdown and return to remote learning, there is a real risk that children with SEND will continue to be disproportionally impacted by the pandemic, unless teachers, SENCOs and pupils are given additional support in areas like providing appropriate and differentiated virtual learning.”

Although the research highlighted a number of challenges as a result of the pandemic, there were some positive experiences of online learning reported for some children with SEND, including a reduction in social communication and interaction anxieties.

Additionally, the majority of SENCOs (84.2%) reported an increased focus on communication with parents and families, and most SENCOs (71%) in academies were satisfied with the support from their Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs.)

Professor Adam Boddison, Chief Executive at nasen commented: “The SENCO Workforce Survey not only shines a spotlight on the strengths and challenges that impact SENCOs in their work, it also exposes some of the hidden challenges that continue to perpetuate inequalities impacting children and young people with SEND and their families.

“The pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on children and young people’s social, emotional and mental health needs, exacerbating social interaction challenges. It is vital that we support them and the mental wellbeing of our education workforce. We would like to see routine wellbeing arrangements put in place following this extended period of national challenge, including priority support for SENCOs.

“Moving forward, it is important that we work collaboratively and share good practice across mainstream, special schools and specialist settings to help all children and young people, particularly those with SEND, to learn and thrive regardless of their background or need.”

The full report, National SENCO Workforce Survey 2020: Supporting children and young people with special educational needs and their families during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, can be viewed here: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/projects/senco-workload/

As part of its commitment to ensuring expertise in SEND is available to every school and setting, nasen will be offering membership for free from January 25th.

To find out more information about nasen and their upcoming free membership, visit: www.nasen.org.uk/membership.

Additional COVID-19 information and resources can also be found at www.nasen.org.uk/covid-19.

The team is looking for ‘unanswered questions’ about EAL that can be investigated for the benefit of those who teach and study it.

The project, known as a priority-setting partnership, will gather suggestions from a broad group of participants before creating a ‘top ten’ of EAL research topics that will be made available to the academic community.

Questions could be related to classroom practice, such as ‘What is the best way to teach the finer points of English grammar to advanced EAL learners?’, or ‘How can I help “new to English” students understand the content of my geography lessons?’

They could be related to parental support of EAL learners at home, such as ‘What are the effects of reading bilingual story books with my child on their literacy development in English?’, or ‘How can I help my child with their homework if I am not confident with my own use of English?’

Or they could be related to what EAL learners can do to support their own learning, such as ‘When I take notes in class does it matter if I use my home language?’, or ‘Are some ways of practising new words that I have learned more effective than other ways?’

Project organiser Dr Hamish Chalmers, of Oxford University’s Department of Education, said: ‘People who do research are not usually the people who use research. It’s important, therefore, that the people who use research tell the people who do research what kinds of questions they think those researchers should try to answer. That way, our research will be as meaningful and impactful as possible. We are working with teachers, parents of EAL learners, and EAL learners themselves to identify the most pressing questions in the field.’

A steering committee consisting of teachers, parents and EAL learners has been formed to oversee the priority-setting partnership (PSP). They have created a survey inviting teachers, parents and students to contribute their questions to the PSP. The team is keen to spread the word about the survey and the PSP so that organisers can hear as many voices as possible.

The survey is open until the end of January 2021, at which point all the questions and comments will be analysed by researchers at Oxford University. They will look carefully at what everybody has said in the survey, create themes from the information gathered, and turn those into a list of questions that could be answer through research.

Dr Chalmers said: ‘Themes that arise during priority setting will be turned into specific research questions for researchers to explore. For example, in the survey people might say things like “I want to know what the best way to teach vocabulary to my EAL learners is”, or “I find it difficult to remember new English words and I am not sure how best to solve this”, or “My son uses an iPhone app to learn English words – does this help him?”

‘All of these thoughts can be combined into a research question like “What approaches to teaching English vocabulary have been shown to be effective?”’

After the research questions have been created, they will be organised into a new ‘ranking survey’ that will ask participants to rank the research questions by importance. Finally, a workshop will be convened to allow participants to explore the ranked list of questions and decide together which of them should be in a ‘top ten’ of unanswered EAL research questions.

The top ten will be published in magazines and journals, publicised at conferences and seminars, and sent to researchers in EAL and to people who fund their research so that new research in EAL can be informed by what matters to EAL research users.

Speaking to teachers, parents and EAL learners, Professor Victoria Murphy, Deputy Director of the Department of Education at Oxford University, said: ‘Please let us know what you think, so we can get a good response to what research is maximally of interest to teachers, parents and EAL students. Public engagement in research in this way helps to ensure that the research we do is meaningful, relevant, and that it meets the stated needs of the people whose practice it is intended to benefit.’

Links:

• More information on the EAL priority-setting partnership can be found on the project website: www.ealpsp.wordpress.com
• A video explaining the project and how to take part can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/rf-5KyY24Vg
• Short animated clips can be viewed here: https://ealpsp.wordpress.com/2020/12/15/social-media-quick-clips/
• The survey can be accessed directly here: bit.ly/EAL_Survey

The project is funded by BAAL (the British Association of Applied Linguistics) and supported by the University of Oxford’s Department of Education. The Oxford team comprises Dr Hamish Chalmers, Professor Victoria Murphy, and doctoral teaching fellow Faidra Faitiki.

Despite the continued adaptability and resilience shown by educators, the Naace COVID-19 Education Impact Report has highlighted that 72 percent of educators surveyed are not confident that their students are learning. Educator feedback suggests that while technology has been instrumental in the delivery of remote learning, student engagement is a cause for concern.

The Naace COVID-19 Education Impact Report surveyed over 1,000 educators from around the UK, looking to provide an insight into educator opinions on teaching and learning during the pandemic.

Some of the report findings include:

• 62 percent of educators surveyed believe no more than 60 percent of students are engaged in home/remote learning.
• There is a mixed outlook on communication with students, 33 percent agreeing it has been easy, in comparison with 36 percent who disagree.
• 79 percent of educators strongly agree they are confident using their edtech skills to support home learners.
• Only 28 percent of educators surveyed agree their mental health has not been affected.

Philip Blackburn, Chair of Naace, said: “Being embedded in the education community, Naace has seen first-hand how the pandemic has had such a significant impact on teaching and learning. We hope schools will use the findings of the report to start conversations about how edtech strategies can be strengthened as we move through a challenging winter.

“We would urge schools to take advantage of the fantastic resources and learning opportunities that exist in the education sector. Whether through organisations like Naace or with your edtech suppliers, utilise the expertise that is available to you. Committed to education, we all have a vested interest in technology provisions that have the maximum impact on lesson delivery and student outcomes.”

Read the full Naace COVID-19 Education Impact Report here.

The 2019 National Report for England, written by researchers from the UCL Institute of Education, was funded by the Department for Education. Testing of 9,595 pupils in years 5 and 9 across 368 schools in England was carried out between February and June 2019 by leading learning company, Pearson.

The report, which includes comparative data from 64 countries, places pupils in England behind those in the highest-performing group of countries, but significantly above the TIMSS average scores for mathematics and science. As in previous years, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Russia all performed strongly across both subjects and year groups.

Co-author Dr Mary Richardson (UCL Institute of Education) said: “Our analysis of the data means we’ve been able to look not only at how pupils perform in mathematics and science, but to what extent gender, socioeconomic status, school and home environment impact on their educational performance.

“This year we see England has performed, on average, significantly above most other countries. Compared to the 2015 results, most notably, England’s performance in maths has significantly improved at year 5 and decreased significantly in science at year 9.

“Longitudinal data like this can help us understand these trends and we will now seek to interpret why these trends have occurred. For example, the study reveals that, unlike in 2015, year 5 boys’ average mathematics score was not significantly above year 5 girls’ scores.”

The report also highlighted significant gender differences in attitudes towards maths and science. In both year groups and subjects, boys were significantly more confident, and liked learning more than girls. Boys also valued both subjects more in year 9 (which was the only year group asked about how much they valued the subjects). Significantly more girls than boys were not confident, and/or did not like, mathematics and science.

For example, looking at year 5 pupils’ confidence in mathematics, significantly more boys said they were very confident compared to girls (39% compared to 24%).

Co-author, Dr Tina Isaacs (UCL Institute of Education) added: “The TIMSS data enables us to draw comparison between the attitudes of boys and girls in each subject in their respective year groups and to compare England’s gender differences with those of other countries.

“Despite social concerns about the differences between boys’ and girls’ performance, the results show that they’ve performed largely at the same level in both subjects and both year groups. However, girls still are less confident, and don’t much like, mathematics and science.

“There is already a plethora of research underway into why girls lack confidence in and enjoyment of mathematics and science, and the data may hold useful findings for researchers studying these and other behavioural issues.”

The National Research Coordinator for TIMSS 2019, Dr. Grace Grima, (Director of Research at Pearson), said: “Pearson was delighted to be chosen by the Department for Education to deliver this important, international assessment in mathematics and science.

“This trends study provides policy makers with rich, internationally comparable data and information on student attainment and attitudes that will inform policies and support the teaching and learning of mathematics and science.

“Having pioneered the transition to eTIMSS in 2019 in England, we were pleased to successfully deliver these assessments using an innovative tablet-based platform in both primary and secondary schools.”

The TIMSS study, run by the Evaluation of International Achievement (IEA) takes place every four years and England has participated in every cycle since its inception in 1995.