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Shaping South Yorkshire
Last week the Princess of Wales launched the Shaping Us campaign aimed at raising awareness of the importance of early childhood experiences in how we develop physically, socially and emotionally. The campaign starts from the premise that: “The way we develop, through our experiences, relationships, and surroundings during our early childhood, fundamentally shapes our whole…
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The toll of the Covid-19 pandemic on children’s wellbeing and mental health. How can we support children in ‘new times’?
Picture this: it’s March 2020; you’re in lockdown; you can only go out once per day for provisions or exercise; and your time is taken up juggling lengthy zoom meetings and home schooling. For many of us, this will be an uncomfortable memory. But in the first few days and weeks of lockdown, we presumed…
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It’s who I am, not what I do
On the way back from a trip ‘up North’ (further up as it were) to see my eldest son, we stopped in Boroughbridge (https://www.visitharrogate.co.uk/explore/boroughbridge) for lunch. When I say lunch, I mean we picked up some pies from the butchers to eat by the mediaeval market place. There’s a fabulous stone structure, the Market Well,…
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The apprenticeship levy: where are we now?
Apprenticeships are back in the news since King Charles’ comments about the need for more technical education at the ‘Repair Shop’. Given that our new Education Secretary was an apprentice herself, perhaps now would be a good time to reflect on the state of apprenticeships today. First, some background: the new apprenticeship system, introduced in…
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SIOE Staffing Update
Dear friends and colleagues, Now that the semester is in full swing, here’s a brief staffing update. Please support all colleagues below in their new roles, change of roles, or next steps in their professional life: Following a competitive selection process, Rebecca Mallett will become Deputy Head of Department (fixed term contract until August 31st,…
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Who gets to access undergraduate study in the context of Levelling Up? The political economy of higher education
It is becoming clear that higher education faces some potentially momentous changes in the coming months – although, as is often the case, we can’t be clear of the direction of that change. The largest policy challenge is set by the Levelling Up agenda (DLUHC 2022) and subsequent policy reforms set in train by the…
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Issues and Answers: Teacher Recruitment and Retention
COVID 19 showed us more clearly than ever the importance of education and why we need to protect it. We have not only seen how hard it is when teachers and their pupils cannot be together but also how much it matters that we address the disruption to learning this has created. We have also…
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From safeguarding and confidentiality to GDPR and online methods: considerations for researchers during the pandemic and beyond
The world changed for everyone back in March 2020. The transition to working from home happened overnight, with little time to consider how effectively that would work in terms of the jobs we do. As a mixed methods educational researcher with a role as an Information Governance Guardian[1], I was faced with immediate concerns around…
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Executive Summary of Sheffield Hallam’s Institutional response to the Initial Teaching Training Review
You can read Sheffield Hallam’s full response to the ITT review – SHU Response to ITT Market Review The story of Sheffield Institute of Education and our response With over 100 years of experience, we are one of the largest providers of teacher professional development, we work with over 600 partners, and we are home…
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Can COVID-19 break the rigid opposition to teachers working flexibly?
It feels strange to talk about a global pandemic having upsides, but as we approach the end of many restrictions in the UK, it seems apt to reflect on what lessons we might learn from the life-changing experience we’ve all been through. As a Sheffield Business School academic with a passion for exploring professional lives,…
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