Past events

Read more about previous events.

  • Improving Life Outcomes Through Post-16 Education

    Friday 27 June 2025, 9.15am-3.30pm

    The day included:

    • Keynote from Sharon Gewirtz, Professor of Education in the School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s College London and co-director of the Centre for Public Policy Research. Sharon discussed the findings from the five-year Young Lives, Young Futures study. This focused on the 15-20 age group and how the vocational education and training (VET) system can be developed to better support the school-to-work transitions of those young people at greatest risk of falling between gaps in the system and experiencing a range of negative outcomes and lifetime costs.
    • Two presentations of recently completed research:
      • Understanding embodied learning in Level One Construction classrooms in FE (Greg Campbell)
      • Navigating Post-16 education, employment and training trajectories from Alternative Provision (Hannah Olle).
    • A policy and practice panel discussion, which explored a wide range of sector and service experiences on challenges, opportunities and needs. Panel members included:
      • Cath Oddhayward, Head of the Swan Centre, a specialist centre for young people with Speech, Language and Communication Needs, including Autistic Spectrum Condition, based in a mainstream secondary academy, Brighton and Hove City Council
      • Fenella Potterton, Assistant Principal for Student Experience, East Sussex College
      • Tolulope Sawyer, Inclusion Officer for Children with a Social Worker/Previously Looked After Children/ Kinship, Essex Virtual School.
  • CTLR Workshop: Researching fragile educational and life trajectories with Neil Harrison

    Monday 28 October 2024, 10-12am

    The session began with a presentation from Professor Neil Harrison, University of Exeter. Professor Harrison is a mixed methods researcher with a particular interest in education policy and inequalities. Specific areas of interest include higher education access and the educational outcomes experienced by care-experienced learners in England.

    Neil drew on three of his recent studies focused on care-experienced learners at different life stages, exploring how contrasting approaches can generate new insights, as well as their limitations.

    Attendees were asked to think about the following two questions:

    • What unequal life outcomes am I particularly interested in and why?
    • Why is the idea of a fragile educational trajectory relevant to my research?
  • CTLR Literacy Network: Reading for Pleasure Changes Lives Forever with SF Said

    Wednesday 10 July 2024, 4-5pm, Zoom

    SF Said is the award-winning author of the Varjak Paw books, Phoenix and Tyger. His books are all currently being read and worked with in classrooms around the UK and elsewhere. SF Said has also written widely about children's literature, and is a passionate campaigner for literacy and reading for pleasure.

    More information can be found on his website sfsaid.com and on social media (@whatSFSaid).

    He shared his journey from a young reader to author, including his childhood reading experiences, dreams of writing, and insights into the writing/editing process. He read from his book Tyger and showed artwork by Dave McKean.

  • CTLR/SEAP: Drug Use and Child Protection: What can/should schools do? with Dr Simon Flacks

    Thursday 30 November 2023, 4-5pm, Zoom

    Dr Simon Flacks (Law, Sussex) reflected on his research into how drug use (including alcohol) by both children and parents can trigger child protection interventions and school exclusions. He considered the tensions between discipline/punishment and welfarist approaches, and how professionals can navigate this morally charged space.

    The SEAP Network: The School Exclusions & Alternative Provision (SEAP) network brings together researchers, practitioners and policymakers to improve the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people.

  • 10th Annual Researching Educational Practice Conference

    Saturday 25 November 2023, 9.30am-1pm

    Location: Ground Floor, Fulton Building, University of Sussex

    The CTLR welcomed teachers, ITE colleagues and others in Higher Education to a showcase of MA and PhD research in education.

    Conference themes included:

    • Culture, equality, inclusion & widening participation
    • Oracy, reading, writing and student voice
    • Arts-based learning and critical reflection in teacher training

    Keynote: Professor Meg Maguire (King’s College London) – “Why should we research educational practice and what should we be doing?”

  • Re-thinking Challenging Behaviour: Improving Outcomes and Life Chances

    Wednesday 12 July 2023, 9.30-3.10

    Location: Terrace Room, Bramber House Conference Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton

    Stakeholders and researchers discussed developing approaches to challenging behaviour to support better educational outcomes and life chances for CYP (Children and Young People).

    Programme included:

    1. Excluded Lives research – Prof. Gillean McCluskey (Edinburgh)
    2. Panel and Q&A:
      • Trauma-informed behaviour policy – Hayley Butchard
      • Restorative practice – Chris Harvey
      • In/exclusion in Alternative Provision – Anton McLean
    3. Early adversity and CYP development – Dr Vanessa Putz (UCL)
    4. Learning from the Virtual School’s extended remit – Researchers, University of Sussex

You might also be interested in: