The NEA exists to ensure that voices from across education help shape the future of the system. It is a space where experiences are heard, perspectives are shared, and insights are amplified into the national conversation about education.

As a key sponsor of the Schools and Academies Show, FED is providing space for the NEA to convene and continue this work in a high-profile national setting. This is a unique opportunity to hear from education professionals, engage in discussions, and gain insight into the priorities shaping the sector.

We would be delighted for you to join this session, connect with colleagues from across the education community, and be part of the conversation that informs the NEA’s work.

Event details:

• Date: 7th May
• Time: 10am-3.20pm
• Location: Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, London, E16 1XL

For travel guidance, venue details, and accommodation information, please click here.
To confirm your attendance, please use this NEA registration form.
Places are limited, so please do register if you would like to join us.

If you have any questions, please get in touch via email at hello@fed.education.

We very much hope to see you there and continue the work of ensuring the voices of education are heard, shared, and amplified.

FED Theatre: Hosting the NEA

10am-10.10am
Chair’s Opening Remarks

10.10am-10.55am
SEND Reform: Policy Promises into Trust, school & College Reality…have your say!

Panel:

• What are the practical implications of SEND and inclusion reforms?
• How do new support models work in practice and what do schools and colleges need to enact these?
• How do we ensure that broader stakeholders are utilised and engaged in a meaningful and collaborative manner for the best outcomes?

This session relates to a number of FED projects, including the FED Futures Project 2025 to 27: The Future of SEND, The Future of Inclusion, The Future of Funding.

11.15am-12pm
The Gap That Won’t Close? Tackling Persistent Disadvantage in Trusts, schools & Colleges

Panel:

• What are the challenges that have created persistent disadvantage in trust, schools and college communities?
• How can funding reforms drive the closing of the attainment gap?
• How do we create organisations that enable all children to thrive and flourish?

This session relates to a number of FED projects, FED Futures Projects 2025 to 27: The Future of Funding in Education, The Future of Nutritional Inclusion, The Future of Inclusion, The Future of Skills & Careers, The Future of English & Literacy, The Future of Mathematics & Numeracy.

12.20pm-1.05pm
Middle of the Road or World-Class? What Needs to Change and How We Might Do It

Panel:

• How will proposed changes to the curriculum shape learning experiences, engagement, and post 16 pathways?
• What do trusts, schools & colleges need to deliver a rich, meaningful education?
• What does a curriculum fit for the middle of the 21st century look like?

This session relates to a number of FED projects, FED Futures Project 2025 to 2027: The Future of Assessment & Accountability, The Future of Skills & Careers, The Future of English & Literacy, The Future of Mathematics & Numeracy

1.25pm-2.10pm
Burned Out or Bought In? Tackling Staff Engagement in Trusts, Schools & Colleges

Panel:

• How do you build an organisational culture that fosters ‘buy-in’ from pupils, staff, parents and carers, while strengthening staff loyalty and morale?
• What strategies most effectively support staff attendance, engagement and long-term retention?
• How can organisations better attract, engage and retain staff, and what are the key drivers of teacher retention across Trusts, Schools and Colleges?

This session relates to a number of FED projects, FED Futures Projects 2025: The Future of Education Workforce

2.35pm-3.20pm
Is The Accountability System Fit for Purpose? What Do We Need to Do to Make It Better?

Panel:

• What does effective and fair accountability look and feel like?
• How can accountability systems offer more worthwhile development experiences for those working in trusts, schools & colleges?
• How can accountability systems improve better serve stakeholders?

This session relates to a number of FED projects, FED Futures Project: The Future of Assessment & Accountability.

Reimagining English – The Human Connection

I went to watch the dance troupe Diversity at Stockton Globe recently and after a flurry of body pops and backflips Ashley Banjo closed the show with:

“We need to re-teach ourselves human connection”

And it got me thinking about the re-imagining of the English curriculum.

At a recent FED event on re-imagining the English curriculum, themes such as empathy, listening, connection, speaking, arguing, critical thought, decision making, explanation, judgement, drafting, process… all came up. Many of which are about human connection. 

So, in a landscape where our young people are leaning into the digital quick fix world, should the English curriculum be the place to reconnect with what makes us human?

The teachers and scholars amongst us know that it is within literature where we learn about ourselves, our past, our present and our future…

As we read and build our minds, the English curriculum should then teach us how to express our minds through writing. Whether creatively or critically.

Also, the English curriculum should then teach us how to articulate our minds, through speech. How to listen, respond, think on our feet, pivot, adapt, re-engage, challenge, question.

The problem with the current English curriculum at secondary school is we expect students to do all of the above and then perform their best work in 45 minutes, with no drafting or proof of progressive thought. So to re-imagine the English curriculum do we actually have to start with re-imagining the assessment?

In our AI ‘fake truth’ world and to get us closer to reconnecting as humans, is an assessment system that assesses process a way forward including: developmentally appropriate practise, drafting, viva voce, qualitative in the moment assessment, leveraging technology, where appropriate, to facilitate the assessment but keeping the human thought at the centre of the process?

We also have to be realistic. A large percentage of students reach secondary school lacking reading automaticity; with some still having gaps in decoding. Reading automaticity and fluency allows for freedom. Freedom in learning, thought, speech and progress. 

There’s a dignity in reading automaticity. It frees up cognitive space to allow for learning, we know all this, yet too often we turn to the English department alone to fix it. The study of English Language and English Literature is a subject specialism and shouldn’t be confused with literacy. Literacy is needed across every aspect of the curriculum, and beyond, whereas only the English classroom needs the skills and knowledge to study literature and language. 

To remove the ‘forgotten third’, having a simple vision that no student should leave school without possessing reading automaticity, the re-imagining of the curriculum will need to include a space for targeted interventions and significant professional learning to develop pedagogy of how to develop the literacy skills that facilitate mastery in the specialist subjects being taught. Not shoe horned into the peripherals of the content, but living and breathing in every aspect of instruction. It’s the old adage “teach them to read, write and think like a scientist”. This knowledge can be supported within the English curriculum, but isn’t the only component of the curriculum.

This is just the tip of the English curriculum re-imagining iceberg. We could talk about banishing key stages, scaffolding English learning from ages 2 – 19, seamless transition, reading for pleasure V’s reading for value, relatable content V’s association content, is what we study as important as the way we study…

The English curriculum is the one space where, through the study of literature, fiction and non-fiction, we can focus on the human connection. It can allow the isolated generation the skills to articulate their own thoughts through speech and writing. It can explore the human condition and through literature, exploring what we can learn from the past to make sense of our present. It can teach us how to form differing arguments and learn how to articulate an informed, educated stance. It can teach the craft. The English curriculum has the potential to teach young people their own minds before they get hacked!

Understanding Difference: Why Empathy Education Should Start Earlier

Across the UK, schools are working harder than ever to support children with increasingly complex needs. Teachers are navigating rising behaviour challenges, growing SEND identification, and classrooms where pupils experience the world in very different ways.

Policy discussions often focus on interventions, support structures and behaviour management. These conversations are important. But one crucial element is often overlooked: the understanding children themselves have of difference.

Many pupils today share classrooms with peers who may have dyslexia, ADHD, autism, anxiety, hearing loss or other neurological or sensory differences. Yet these differences are often invisible. Without context, they can easily be misunderstood.

• A child who needs extra time to read may appear “slow.”
• A pupil who wears headphones may seem “odd.”
• A classmate who struggles to sit still may be labelled “naughty.”

Children are naturally curious. They notice differences quickly. But when those differences are not explained, curiosity can turn into confusion — and sometimes exclusion.

This is why Neurodiversity Celebration Week is so important. It shines a light on the many ways people think, learn and experience the world. Awareness among adults has grown significantly in recent years across education, workplaces and public life.

But a key question remains: how do we translate that awareness into everyday understanding among children themselves?

If pupils are never given simple, age-appropriate ways to understand why someone learns differently, communicates differently or experiences the world differently, the gap between awareness and behaviour remains.

Children rarely intend to be unkind. More often, they simply do not yet have the tools to understand what someone else may be experiencing.

This is where early empathy education becomes important.

Just as schools deliberately teach literacy and numeracy, we can also teach the social and emotional skills that help children navigate difference: curiosity, kindness, patience and understanding. These are not abstract values. They are practical skills that shape how pupils treat one another in classrooms, corridors and playgrounds.

When children learn early that everyone carries their own challenges — sometimes visible, sometimes hidden — something powerful happens. Instead of asking “What’s wrong with them?”, they begin asking “How can I be a good friend?”

One practical example of this approach is The Kindness Crew, a primary school initiative I developed to help children understand differences through storytelling and discussion. Through story and characters, the programme introduces pupils to different ways people experience the world, encouraging curiosity, empathy and kindness toward differences that may not always be visible.

In recent school trials involving over 500 pupils across primary year groups, teachers reported extremely high levels of engagement, with 95% of pupils described as mostly or highly engaged with the content. Feedback also suggested strong impact across key developmental areas including empathy, emotional intelligence, understanding differences, positive behaviour culture and PSHE/RSHE learning outcomes, with average scores above 4 out of 5 across all measures. Among younger pupils in Years 1–3, scores were even higher, reaching up to 4.75 out of 5, suggesting these concepts resonate particularly strongly in early primary years. 

Recognising the pressures schools already face, the initiative was deliberately designed to remove common barriers to participation: it is free for schools and requires no preparation from teachers, with pilot feedback confirming that most assemblies required less than ten minutes of preparation or none at all. 

The goal is not simply awareness. It is about embedding positive behaviour change.

If we want classrooms where all children feel they belong, understanding cannot begin in adulthood. It must begin much earlier.

Because before behaviour policies, intervention strategies and support frameworks take effect, something more fundamental shapes the culture of a school: how children learn to see each other.

And that lesson may be one of the most important we teach.

Beyond national conversations, we want to understand the lived reality in education settings.

• What issues are presenting most often?
• What barriers are schools and colleges facing?
• Where is support most needed?

This short, anonymous survey takes around four minutes to complete and is open to educators working with students aged 11 to 18. The insights gathered will help shape future support, resources and professional development, ensuring the voices of the profession are heard, shared and amplified.

As a thank you, participants will receive access to a live webinar delivered by Thrive, specialists in young people’s social and emotional development, on Friday 27th February. The session will respond directly to the themes emerging from the survey and share practical strategies for schools and colleges. We really appreciate your time and insight. 

Updates from this work will be shared across social channels in the coming weeks.

Lived experience of early years and rethinking the conditions shaping school readiness in children.

As part of our FED National Education Futures Projects on Inclusion, we want to hear from those who know the early years best – families and practitioners. This interactive online session will create space to share lived experience, reflect together on the realities facing young children today, and consider what changes could make the biggest difference. By bringing together diverse voices, we aim to rethink the conditions that shape children’s early development and build momentum for stronger starts for every child

Objective(s):

1. To explore the lived experience of early years, especially that of families, practitioners and leaders.
2. To understand what is currently getting in the way of children having a strong start and what would need to change in the system for that to be different.

Key questions:

1. If children’s school readiness is shaped by the conditions around them, what conditions are we currently accepting and which ones should no longer be tolerated? (causality)
2. If one part of the early years system were redesigned to better support children and families, what should it be and why? (redesign)

Speaker: Sarah Gordon: Sheffield Hallam University

Sarah Gordon is a Senior Lecturer in Early Years Education at Sheffield Hallam University, where she leads the Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS) programme and the Early Years and Primary PGCE. With more than 25 years of professional experience across PVI settings, children’s centres, schools, local authorities, and higher education, she brings substantial expertise in Early Years pedagogy, inclusion, leadership, and workforce development. Her professional roles have included teacher, SENCO, assistant head, mentor, lecturer and trainer, providing a comprehensive understanding of the Early Years sector and its policy, practice, and professional standards.

Sarah’s academic and professional work is driven by a commitment to improving quality, embedding inclusive practice, and raising outcomes for children, families, and communities. She has extensive experience in leading strategic initiatives, quality assurance processes, and practitioner development across diverse educational contexts. Her leadership approach combines analytical and strategic thinking with values‑based practice grounded in empathy, integrity, and collaboration.

She is an experienced communicator and regularly contributes to professional learning through keynote presentations, international delegation engagements, and specialised EYFS and SEND training for practitioners and parents. Her teaching and CPD design emphasise interaction, critical reflection, and practical application, aligning with sector benchmarks and national standards for early childhood education and teacher preparation.

Often in history, we distinguish between “pre-literate” and “literate” societies. Literacy it seems was a simple threshold: you either could read and write, or you could not. Today, literacy is far more complex – and far more contested. Today we talk about media literacy, financial literacy, digital emotional literacy and cultural literacy. But in our education systems, whose literacy counts? Whose ways of meaning-making are recognised in schools and whose are ignored?

As we look to the future – in the context of curriculum reform, debates about media literacy, concerns about conspiracy theories, and questions about citizenship – we want to explore a series of questions, including

• What does the word literacy mean in the present day?
• Whose literacies count – and why?
• Whose literacies are unheard?
• What are the literacies of the future?
• What are the literacies of hope?

As part of our FED National Education Futures Projects on English and Literacy, this session will create space to explore literacy not simply as a specific skill but as a lived, social and civic practice asking how literacy intersects with culture, identity and civic engagement and what implications this might have for the school curriculum?

Our Keynote speaker is Professor Kate Pahl from Manchester Metropolitan University Professor of Arts and Literacy, School of English, Manchester. She is the author, with Jennifer Rowsell, of the book, ‘Living Literacies: Literacy for social change’ (2020) in which they argue that lived literacies, whether in homes, playgrounds, streets, libraries, forests, buses, online and off-line and ephemeral, messy and miscellaneous, all matter. Her research projects have been co-produced with young people in community settings, and she worked for many years in Rotherham and the Dearne valley with a focus on community literacies. She has recently completed a large- scale project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) called ‘Voices of the Future’ which explored, with climate scientists and educationalists, literary theorists and philosophers, landscape architects and plant ecologies, how children and young people can become more involved in future treescapes. From this work, she is currently writing a book, ‘Forest Literacies’ about hopeful literacies.

We know that moving between stages of education – early years to school, primary to secondary, and into post-16 – can be exciting but also challenging for children, young people and families.

As part of our FED National Education Futures Projects on Inclusion, we’re holding this conversation to hear directly from parents, carers, practitioners and the learners themselves about what really helps, and what gets in the way, when children move from one stage of education to another.

We’re particularly keen to hear from people whose voices aren’t always heard in education consultations. There are no right or wrong answers – we want to understand real experiences and ideas for making transitions smoother, more welcoming and more supportive for every child and family.

We’re interested in what happens in real life, in practice as well as in policy. What makes a difference day to day? Where do things work well? And where do systems, processes or expectations make transitions harder than they need to be?

Your experiences and insights will help shape The FED’s practical and policy recommendations about how transitions between stages of education could work better for children, families and those who support them.

Key Questions:

1. Thinking about a time when a child moved from one stage of education to another (for example nursery to school, primary to secondary, or into college), what helped that transition go well – and what made it harder?
2. What do schools or services often not understand about children and families during transitions?
3. If you could change one thing to make transitions between stages of education easier and more supportive for children and families, what would it be?

Special guests:

Rochelle Wong is an education and equity advocate committed to expanding opportunity for underrepresented communities. She serves as Alumni Engagement Manager at the Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation and Co-Chair of the Learners Council at the Foundation for Educational Development. Through public forums, board service, and volunteering, Rochelle contributes locally, nationally, and internationally towards driving greater inclusion and innovation within education. She has led impactful student development and wellbeing campaigns, pioneered DEI initiatives across schools and universities, developed practical student toolkits, and shaped policy recommendations advancing equitable education reform.

Siân Lewis is Head of Parent Participation at Parentkind, the largest parent charity in the UK. Parentkind has a network of 13,000 PTA fundraisers, they represent parent voice and champion the role of parents in education, to support every child to thrive and reach their potential. Siân’s focus is on delivering content to parents to support them to navigate parenthood and to participate fully in their child’s education and school life. Siân’s team produces regular webinars, blogs, toolkits, guides, newsletters and campaigns to provide the information, ideas and advice that parents tell us they need. Siân hears from parents on a range of pressing challenges but with a clear demand for information and guidance around SEND, inclusion, mental health and wellbeing, behaviours and safety. Parents readily share their views and experiences on their weekly webinars, polls and national surveys and share their support needs in managing schools, processes and systems. Siân is a parent to a child with SEND who has recently started secondary school, and has experienced first-hand the difference an effective transition can make.

The Future of Education Depends on How We Look After Teachers

Conversations about the future of education rightly focus on students, their outcomes, opportunity and belonging. However, the future of education is shaped just as much by the people delivering it every day. The conditions in which teachers and school staff work directly influence the quality, consistency and sustainability of education for young people.

Across schools and academy trusts, workforce pressures around recruitment, retention and workload are now a familiar part of the landscape. These challenges are not separate from educational outcomes; they shape classroom experiences, staff wellbeing and the ability of schools to plan for the long term. Sustainable education systems depend on teachers and school staff who feel supported, valued and able to remain in the profession.

The Education at the Crossroads: Shaping a System That Works for Everyone (National Education Futures 2025) report brilliantly recognises the central role of the education workforce in shaping long-term outcomes. Alongside curriculum, assessment and system reform, the report highlights the importance of building capacity and resilience across the sector. As we look ahead, questions of workforce sustainability and school culture must sit at the heart of conversations about educational futures.

Supporting the workforce in practice

Supporting the teaching workforce is not an abstract challenge. It is reflected in everyday decisions about workload, flexible working, progression and trust. For many teachers, the ability to stay in the profession is shaped by how schools respond to different life stages and circumstances. This includes ethnicity and neurodiversity to support managing live events such as caring responsibilities, fertility journeys for all paths to parenthood, parental leave and the menopause.

Across the sector, schools are finding thoughtful ways to respond. Flexible working arrangements, family-friendly approaches, and supportive return-to-work practices are increasingly part of the conversation. Other schools are reflecting more intentionally on recruitment, progression and job design, ensuring that teachers with different backgrounds, experiences and ways of working can contribute and thrive.

Recognising the strength of teacher who bring transferable skills from other sectors is also taking place. Recruitment and progression pathways are valuing the diverse professional journeys of career changers entering teaching alongside traditional routes into teaching.

These approaches are not about lowering standards. They are about creating sustainable ways of working that enable excellent teaching to be maintained over time. This also ensures that teaching is an attractive career attracting the brightest and the best. When teachers feel trusted and supported, they are more likely to remain engaged, motivated and effective. This ultimately benefits our children and strengthens school communities.

Workforce sustainability and student outcomes

The link between workforce sustainability and student outcomes is clear. Continuity of staff matters. Experienced teachers bring deep professional knowledge, strong relationships with pupils, and stability to school teams. When schools retain their teachers, workload pressures are reduced, collaboration improves, and students experience more consistent support.

The National Education Futures report highlights the importance of long-term thinking. Retaining experienced teachers is one of the most significant long-term challenges facing the sector. It is also a huge opportunity. Schools that prioritise sustainable cultures for their workforce are better positioned to deliver high-quality education now and into the future.

Why recognition matters

One of the challenges in strengthening workforce practice across education is visibility. Many schools and academy trusts are already translating policy guidance and evidence into thoughtful, people-centred practice. They are actively embedding guidance on flexible working, family-friendly practice and inclusive workforce support into everyday culture. Yet this vital work goes unseen and unrecognised.

Recognition plays a powerful role in bringing this work to the surface. By celebrating schools and trusts that are building supportive, sustainable cultures for their workforce, we help to share learning, normalise effective practice and signal what the sector values. Recognition encourages reflection and provides space for the sector to learn from what is working well.

The National Education Diversity Awards (NEDA) were established to do exactly this. As the UK’s first awards celebrating inclusive teaching workforces and sustainable school cultures, NEDA shines a light on schools and academy trusts supporting teachers to stay, grow and contribute over the long term.

NEDA’s approach is rooted in three principles: Shine the Light, Share the Story, Shift the System. By highlighting positive practice, sharing stories from across the sector, and encouraging collective learning, NEDA aims to support a more sustainable future for education. A future that recognises the central role of the workforce in shaping student success.

Looking ahead

As the sector continues to navigate change and complexity, workforce sustainability must remain part of the conversation about educational futures. Supporting teachers is not a separate agenda; it is integral to delivering high-quality education for all students.

The future of education depends on our ability to build school cultures where teachers feel supported, valued and able to remain in the profession. By recognising and learning from schools that are already doing this well, the sector can move towards a more sustainable, resilient future.

When teachers thrive, students benefit and the foundations for strong educational futures are laid.

Just get the grade and don’t ask any questions

My name is Marshal Ngcongco I am a dyscalculic science teacher, and this year I was invited to attend a maths consultation at Windsor Castle – words I never thought I would say.

Like many young people, my relationship with maths has been strained from an early age. Despite enjoying school and excelling in other subjects, maths was the one subject I simply could not grasp, a reality reflected nationally, with only 58.2 per cent of students achieving a grade 4 or better in 2025.

Due to a lack of meaningful support for dyscalculia, I failed maths at school. I attempted to navigate life without it and quickly realised that this was not possible. Maths, or more specifically the GCSE version of maths, acts as a gatekeeper to many opportunities. Eventually, I returned to education and achieved the grade. What stayed with me most, however, was not the qualification itself but the experience I gained once maths was no longer a constant barrier. For the first time, I could fully engage in education: taking part in extracurricular activities, building confidence, and genuinely enjoying learning rather than merely surviving it. These experiences have since informed my work to address gaps in numeracy support.

Going into the consultation, surrounded by education and industry experts, I expected my perspective to be unusual. Surely those in the room had all “done well” at maths. What became immediately clear, however, was that we shared a common concern. The issue was not simply whether students were achieving the grade, but a deeper confusion about what was being assessed and why. There was widespread agreement that the purpose of maths itself has become unclear.

Maths is not something we can escape. It weaves itself into almost every aspect of life. What can be changed is how we approach it, as educators, students, and as a society. For too long, maths has been something done to students: something to endure in order to “get the grade”.

The phrase “just get the grade and don’t ask any questions” reflects a system under pressure. Educators are navigating overloaded curricula, limited time, and disengaged learners, often with little opportunity to connect mathematical concepts to real life. When students ask questions that sit outside the narrow scope of assessment, it can feel easier to shut down curiosity than to open it up. Over time, this wears down understanding, confidence, and purpose. As I write this, a few days before Christmas day and less than two weeks before the end of 2025, I feel a genuine sense of hope. Not hope in a vague or wishful sense but hope grounded in intention and shared responsibility. Hope that recognises the scale of change required and the collective effort needed to achieve it. I am hopeful not only for students and educators, but for our country’s relationship with maths in the years to come.

We are inviting education stakeholders from across the South to help shape the first National Education Assembly (NEA) South meeting.

The National Education Assembly (NEA), powered by the Foundation for Education Development (FED), provides a space for people with day-to-day experience of the education system to share insights that can help shape national policy. It’s purpose is simple: your voice, heard, shared, amplified.

FED & NEA South, delivered in partnership with FED and The Edwin Group and Co-Chaired by Phil Hedger (CEO, LEO Academy Trust) and Dr Nicole Ponsford (CEO, Global Equality Collective), will launch in Spring 2026.

Before then, we’re hosting a lunch to shape the work. And we’d really value your insights, your priorities and your experience. We want to know what matters most to you.

This first conversation will explore:

• What regional issues need greater national attention?
• What parts of your work are most misunderstood or overlooked?
• How should this new forum be shaped to genuinely support you and your community?

Event details:

Date: Wednesday 21st January 2026
Time: 12pm-2pm
Venue: A lunch spot near the BETT venue entrance – Crowne Plaza London Docklands, E16 1AL

This meeting is scheduled to coincide with many of you being in London for BETT. It’s not part of the official programme, but it’s a chance to make the most of people already coming together.

Who can attend?

This meeting is free to attend, open to anyone working within NEA South: Berkshire; Bristol; Buckinghamshire; Cornwall; Devon; Dorset; East Sussex; Essex; Greater London; Hampshire; Hertfordshire; Isle of White; Kent; Middlesex; Somerset; Surrey; West Sussex; Wiltshire.

Spaces are limited. Sign up closes on the 12th January, and we’ll confirm places shortly after. A larger online launch will follow in Spring 2026.

Please join us and help set the direction for FED & NEA South. Your voice matters.