Projects with communities
We are involved with learners and learning communities far and wide, from small local schools to large international education departments.
Partnering with Sharjah Education Academy
Corresponding to the vision and commitment of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to extend inclusive educational opportunity for all citizens of Sharjah, the School of Education has been working in collaboration with Sharjah Education Academy (SEA) to develop a jointly funded Sharjah-Exeter Centre of Excellence in Special Educational Needs.
The Centre will bring together researchers, teachers, practitioners, policy advisers and doctoral students in Sharjah and the United Kingdom who are interested in the teaching, learning, inclusion and provision for children and young people with special educational needs. The Centre will aim to effect change in order to improve educational provision from the early years to post-16, and to optimise the wellbeing, development and academic participation for those in these settings. Collaboration activity has included several trips to the Emirate by SoE staff – watch this space for news about our innovative plans!
Schools across the ocean
The University of Exeter with the University of Khorfhakkan, and Sharjah Education Academy secured British Embassy funding to develop a Climate Literacy Toolkit to bring marine science/ scientists into coastal schools in UK and UAE to help affect longer-term changes to curricula and behaviour. With support from Emirates Literature Foundation, the institutions have produced a bilingual children’s poetry anthology, and film.
Children’s voices carry vital messages about the climate and this project, funded by the British Embassy, allows their voices to be heard. Children need hope and agency in the face of eco-anxiety. The project, led in School of Education by {Anita Wood}, develops their understanding of climate science – and particularly the vital seagrass ecosystems. The project links teachers and their classes, “twinning” schools across the oceans. Teachers from UAE and England have access to a Climate Connections toolkit and each class is linked to a marine expert from Exeter or Khorfhakkan University. All children and their teachers were linked with a creative writing expert from the University of Exeter or Emirates Literature Foundation. Connecting with science, art and words, children have shared their ideas via a digital platform with their voices travelling via a poetry anthology "We are the Ocean" to world leaders at COP28 in December 2023.
Penryn Partnership Creativity Collaboratives
Researchers from the University of Exeter School of Education are working with Penryn College in a ‘Creativity Collaborative’ investigating whether teaching for creativity across the curriculum leads to young people who are better prepared for their future in a changing workforce.
Creativity Collaboratives is an England-wide initiative, building a network of schools that will test a range of innovative approaches to teaching for creativity. It is funded by Arts Council England with support from the Freelands Foundation, and began in October 2021. The Penryn Partnership is one of eight national pilots, led by Penryn College with eight local primary schools and research partner, the School of Education at the University of Exeter. The Penryn Partnership is led by Sarah Childs, lead practitioner from Penryn College, with the expertise of Associate Professor {Kerry Chappell}, {Ursula Crickmay} and Professor Alex Thornton from the University of Exeter.
During year 1 we explored why creative skills are needed in a changing workforce and what creative skills are needed for Cornish students to become better prepared, as well as exploring approaches to teaching and learning across the partnership. Based on our findings, we developed a ‘Better Prepared for a Creative Future’ framework that describes creative skills and maps them across different key stage groups.
Image shows children reflecting using the PCC Creative Skills wheel.
Linking with local Schools
Our research partnership with Exeter Mathematics School has led to an exciting collaboration between teachers and researchers. Projects have included investigations into young people’s emerging understandings of themselves as achievers and peer group members. Researchers and teachers were particularly interested in understanding students’ identities within the ‘unique’ context of EMS, a high-performing sixth-form college which specialises in maths, physics and computing. Findings highlighted the inclusive culture of the school where students described themselves as feeling comfortable identifying as diverse and ‘different’ from the majority. Joe Rowing Deputy Headteacher of the schools said: ‘The process of the research was very illuminating for the students involved and the findings confirmed our view of EMS as a welcoming and inclusive environment in a rigorous fashion’.
In another collaboration with the school, the Strategic Partnership for Innovative in Data Analytics in School Project explored the teaching of data analytics through student-centred, problem-based learning, focusing on the impacts of weather and climate change. Students were asked to identify errors in a very large weather dataset provided by the UK Met Office, using a variety of statistical methods and programming skills. As well as learning data manipulation and analysis techniques, the students learned how to plan a long-term project and work efficiently in a team. They also wrote a report and presented their findings to a group of experts at the Met Office. Find out more here.
Thinking Schools
Thinking Schools is a research informed approach to the teaching of thinking in schools, taking a whole-school approach and methodology to cultivate metacognitive and self-regulating learners. Built upon research undertaken at Exeter by world leading researchers in cognitive education, teaching for thinking and creativity more generally led to the establishment of ‘thinking schools’ and the creation of the Thinking School accreditation enabling schools and educational establishments around the globe to gain recognition as a thinking school through the Exeter Thinking School Award.
