We are delighted to share a thinkpiece by Rosie Clayton, FED Ambassador and education specialist and entrepreneur with extensive experience working with leaders in schools, colleges, Multi-Academy Trusts and Government on high-profile innovation and edtech programmes. This article explores the five powerful forces – Dignity, Diet, Digital, Devolution and Disaster – set to reshape England’s education landscape over the next decade. It’s a call to look beyond policy headlines and understand the deeper currents that will define the system’s future. Read more below.
The 5Ds of the Next Decade
As we head towards the end of 2025, the first half of this decade, and in England, years of speculation about the possibilities for education reform, I’ve been attempting to take a breather and think about the subcurrents that will shape the next education era.
Education often finds itself at the confluence of different propellant forces — be they economic, societal, political, technological, or environmental. It’s a domain that speaks to many different narratives, ideologies and political agendas.
With the Curriculum Assessment Review, School Report Cards, Post 16 Education & Skills White Paper, and the forthcoming Schools White Paper setting the scene for this Government’s term of office — for evolution not revolution — what comes next.
In pondering this question I’ve so far distilled five ‘Ds’ that are likely to guide the agenda over the next decade, regardless of the prevailing political winds.
1. Dignity (for all young people)
I’m not sure how much longer we can sustain an education system that defines success and achievement in such narrow terms. A system within which such a large proportion of every cohort leaves school feeling that they have failed, that they are not valued or worthy, and locked out of opportunities. Where year on year we have the same tired debates about attainment gaps and social mobility whilst 20% of young people leave formal education with nothing to show for it, disillusioned and dispirited. The under achievement spotlight is now turning to white working class boys, and with 600,000 University graduates now on Universal Credit, one continues to wonder: who is the current education system actually serving anymore.
2. (Curriculum) Diet
A narrow view of achievement has precipitated a restricted curriculum diet. One that no longer meets the needs of so many young people who are voting with their feet and opting out of education altogether. The attendance crisis is fuelled by a crisis of engagement, with more than one in four pupils beginning to disengage from school during Year 7. As sector leaders argue, we need radical solutions. No need to reinvent the wheel, there is already a cadre of Headteachers, Principals, MAT leaders and teachers leading the way and demonstrating the art of the possible. Employing pedagogies and practices oriented around inquiry based learning, entrepreneurship, social action, career connected learning, design thinking, creativity and crafts, and flexi education as some examples. Nourishment for the soul through relevant, relational, real world experiences that allow all students to be seen and celebrated.
3. Digital
Since the launch of the smartphone in the 2000s we have been experimenting with new technologies en masse. The latest incarnation being AI. Digital tools and systems are reshaping how we learn and work in ways both visible and invisible in the day to day. Education Ministries and Governments around the world are adapting quickly, developing partnerships with tech companies, creating regulatory guardrails, and importantly, investing in national pilots and R&D. Cognisant of the reality that the train is leaving the station and it would be prudent to get on board. Beyond the moral panic which dominates the headlines it seems probable that digital technologies will continue to influence discussions about the future of education, whilst opening new possibilities in areas such as assistive technologies, adaptive teaching and assessment, workload reduction and process automation.
4. Devolution
Across the Western world we are experiencing a collective crisis of confidence. A loss of faith in central Government bureaucracies to adequately understand and respond to seemingly intractable challenges, combined with a drive for localism and proximate decision making closer to those communities impacted. In England, there is already momentum around regional devolution, with some education / skills powers being handed to Mayoral Combined Authorities. Regions may become the engines of innovation in sharp contrast to an ever more sclerotic State, pioneering new place-based approaches such as the MBacc, AI hubs and Cities of Learning. Connecting education to community as well as labour market needs. Reviving previous legislative provisions such as the Power to Innovate (Education Act 2002) could give further impetus, signalling national support and giving ‘permission to innovate’ to education leaders across the system. Its back to the future!
5. Disaster (climate)
The stimulus for a radical rethink in education may come from unexpected sources. An article in TES over the summer caught my eye — Is it getting too hot for summer exams? — suggesting that it may soon no longer be viable to hold GCSE and A level exams in May and June due to soaring temperatures. With the current assessment system tailored to the summer months, changes to the annual exams timetable would have significant knock on affects on many different structural processes underpinning the education system and academic calendar. The modality of assessments, as well as the administration of them, may also need to be reconsidered. It may be that the least disruptive option wins the day, and the school estate is upgraded with vast spending on air conditioning units. Whatever the eventuality, it feels like the days of the timed written exam (typically 30hrs worth!) sat in a stuffy sports hall in June may be numbered.
A final D (or Ds) concerns the manner in which our politics is currently conducted, the method of agenda setting and of Governing. The zeitgeist comes in the form of a politics of action — of decisiveness, of doing, of delivering. Importantly, being seen to be doing things that affect change, often regardless of what is actually being done. This is nothing new — dead cat strategy anyone? However takes on a heightened significance in the attention economy which requires bold leadership, dynamism and pace. A politics of tinkering and timidity may appeal to a narrative of stability — but may unintentionally result in irrelevance and invisibility.
The times they are a-changin. Bob Dylan