A research in practice Change Project, run in partnership with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)

View the poster for this Change Project (PDF new window)

view the Action Pack contents:

feedback form - online feedback to help with the piloting of the Action Pack download pdf - The entire Action Pack available as a PDF file (578KB) view tools - all the Action Pack tools in one handy place The Action Pack also contains video clips

Aims and Objectives

This Change Project, run initially in partnership with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), is funded by the DfES. It is focused on the engagement and re-engagement of young people in learning – specifically on the challenges of keeping young people engaged in education at Key Stage 3.

This project has introduced a group of local policy makers, managers and practitioners in education and social care to the research messages from a recent review of UK and European research on pupil engagement, disengagement and disaffection at Key Stage 3. This group have been supported in a project designed to shape practice or planning in their agency (informed by the research in this area) over the period the group met. Materials, guidance and the tools, that have been the outcome of this collaborative learning process, have now been incorporated into an Action Pack which will be piloted during Autumn 2008 and early 2009.

The evolving policy context promoting collaboration and joint working in this area means that the relevance of this material will span a number of different disciplines – social work, teaching, youth work and the range of other staff currently involved with disengaged youngsters. It will also span a range of settings - people working both within and outside schools. We are now planning to pilot the Action Pack and are recruiting individuals from across the research in practice network to pilot the materials and to add to the project examples the Pack contains. We are planning to extend the  examples of practice in the final Handbook to include more ‘out of school’ settings and projects working specifically with parents as partners in their children’s learning.

The resulting material will be published as a Handbook in 2009. If you have any questions about the project or would like your agency to be considered for the pilot please contact Elizabeth Cooke, Knowledge Manager in Dartington - T: 01803 867692 elizabeth@rip.org.uk