Learning from schools today to evolve education tomorrow
Sharon Hague, Managing Director of Pearson School Qualifications, reflects on the launch of our first Pearson School Report earlier this year
Today’s education system is delivered by the most dedicated and compassionate educators who serve the varying needs of the children and young people in their care and enhance the lives of future generations. So how do we ensure that the wellbeing, knowledge and talents of our educators are truly sustained? We start by actively seeking their views and sharing their experiences.
The Pearson School Report
Towards the end of the summer term, we launched our first Pearson School Report, which captures the views of almost 7,000 educators and sheds light on the impact of world events on classrooms across England, as well as on how education can be evolved to best support learners in 2022 and beyond.
The report shares perspectives on a range of topics impacting the profession and its learners – from the environmental to the economic, the social to the emotional. The collective findings help create a clearer picture of what’s needed to shape a system that fully reflects the diversity of all learners – along with the teachers supporting them.
The findings:
It's almost impossible to summarise the breadth of findings in one blog, but one of the emerging themes that came out of our research, and explored in the report, is sustainability in schools. Key findings relating to this include:
- six in 10 teachers (61%) do not think the current education system is developing sustainably minded, global citizens of the future
- more than six in 10 headteachers (65%) are taking steps to be a more sustainable and eco-friendly school in the next two years, and half (47%) are planning to teach climate change
- almost half of all teachers (48%) have seen an increase in awareness amongst pupils around sustainability and the environment over the past year
- two-thirds of teachers want to see core life skills, such as managing finances and communications skills incorporated into the national curriculum with as much time and emphasis as core subjects – along with mental health/wellbeing (60%), social skills (54%) and responsible decision making (48%), which echoes similar findings in or recent Future of Qualifications and Assessment research.
When it comes to addressing these issues for learners in the months and years ahead, our respondents also took time to suggest a range of pragmatic solutions:
- three-quarters of teachers think the curriculum’s approach to life skills and readiness for adult lives could be changed to better support pupils
- two-thirds of headteachers are taking steps to be a more sustainable and eco-friendly school in the next two years
And the conversation continues…
Now that educators have spoken, and spoken with such clarity, we’re keen to keep this conversation going, and build on the passion for driving proactive change.
As the world’s leading digital media learning company, listening to the views and experiences of schools, learners, families and leaders – learning from what they tell us – will always be our top priority.
Amid some of the most challenging times the sector has ever known, we welcome this chance to help shine a light on what can be done to better support all learners, sharing these crucial messages far and wide and working collectively to shape a system that has the biggest possible impact on our society, people and planet.
If you’re invested in education – both now, and for the future – we want to hear your views. Explore the full School Report and let us know your thoughts. Look out too for further opportunity to get involved in the conversation this autumn.
About the author:
Sharon Hague is Managing Director of Pearson School Qualifications
To discover our range of support, tools and resources for primary and secondary schools visit our School educators page.