News

We are delighted to announce the launch of BlendEd, a programme of free professional development and resources to support teachers delivering a blend of distance learning and face-to-face teaching, managed by Education Development Trust’s Connected Learning Centre (CLC).

Fifteen months from its launch, the Early Years Professional Development Programme has already helped over 380 Early Years practitioners to successfully develop their practice and help young children to learn key language and communication skills. Despite the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, all of the practitioners in the programme to date have gained new qualifications and 98% have reported positive changes in the children in their care.

This year has been an especially challenging one for education around the world, but as we mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we must acknowledge that in many places, the Covid-19 pandemic has deepened the barriers to learning faced by children with disabilities.

The OECD has just launched its Global Teacher InSights Policy Report, featuring new findings on the teaching of mathematics in secondary schools around the world. We are delighted that Education Development Trust has contributed to this innovative study, leading the study in England in partnership with the University of Oxford, on behalf of the Department for Education in England.

The Covid-19 crisis has caused disruption for approximately 1.6 billion learners worldwide and exacerbated existing inequalities in education – but it has also demonstrated the importance of education research in addressing such profound challenges. Across the world, education leaders, policymakers and practitioners have turned to the field of education research to inform high-stakes decisions as they move through the crisis. Throughout this period of uncertainty, Education Development Trust has conducted rapid research to build the evidence base on learning in times of crisis, and our findings have helped to inform a recent white paper by Bett.

When schools in England closed their doors in March this year, school leaders were thrown into the unknown, needing to make quick decisions and rapidly develop practical solutions to a whole range of new issues and challenges. Throughout this crisis, our Schools Partnership Programme has provided a reliable support network for participating schools, and has developed a Rapid Response model to better support the school leaders we work with in a context of continuing change and uncertainty.