Youth & Education

Secondary Education

YE-SE-26

Adolescence has become measurably harder. Attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, mental-health referrals are at record highs, and academic pressures now compete with smartphone use.

Location

TBC

Timeframe

TBC

Delivery Partner

1851 Trust

Mossbourne Federation

The Drapers' Company

Key Partners

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Attendees

MPs, Peerage & Parliamentarians

Focus Areas

Secondary education; Attendance; Mental health; Smartphone use; STEM participation

Headline Outcomes

Members will understand the intersecting pressures affecting secondary pupils and schools, from attendance and mental health to technology and subject participation.

Youth & Education

View Case Study

Overview

Adolescence has become measurably harder. Attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, mental-health referrals are at record highs, and academic pressures now compete with smartphone use. STEM engagement, particularly for girls and disadvantaged students, remains a predictor of access to higher-paid careers later on. The cohort will work alongside the 1851 Trust during one of their workshop days to see what keeps 11–16 year olds engaged.

Learning outcomes: Experience a secondary-school setting; examine behaviour, attendance and wellbeing; understand barriers to STEM engagement and effective school responses.

Youth & Education

Other Modules

Alternative Provision: Primary

This proposed module will explore how community youth provision supports children at risk of disengagement, and how early, place-based support can complement schools and statutory services. The precise age group, delivery model and location remain to be confirmed.

Secondary Education

Adolescence has become measurably harder. Attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, mental-health referrals are at record highs, and academic pressures now compete with smartphone use.

Third Sector Organisations: Scout Camp

Third sector organisations play a huge role in shaping the lives and outcomes of young people, providing a wide set of voices and experiences to learn and grow from.

Ten Tors Volunteering

The Ten Tors race sees 400 teams of young adults from across the UK complete on one of the three routes across Dartmoor. The cohort will volunteer at one of the checkpoints along the course.

Early Years Overview

Early years provision sets children up for the rest of their lives, yet the workforce delivering it is often underpaid, under qualified relative to schools, and short staffed.

Post-16 Education Pathways

Post 16 choices shape the future workforce more than any other educational stage, with A levels, T levels, BTECs, apprenticeships and university competing for the same young people.

International: Norway

As Norway redevelops its total defence model, what does one of the UK’s closest neighbours see as its immediate threats? How does this model—training directly for a career role—differ from the UK’s system and set-up?

Education and Creative Industries

The UK creative sector is a global heavyweight, but the routes in are narrow, often unpaid and overwhelmingly weighted to those who can afford to wait.

Career Pathways including Post 16 SEND

Linking local education to local employers transforms outcomes in areas of coastal and rural deprivation, where the route from school to a decent wage is often the deciding factor in whether young people stay or leave.

Regional Focus (NE): Apprenticeships

The North East runs one of the strongest regional apprenticeship ecosystems in the country, with employers, providers and devolved leadership pulling in the same direction in a way most regions struggle to match.

Teacher Training and Teaching Assistant Shadowing

Every classroom in the country depends on a workforce being actively built, retained and retrained. Shortages bite hardest in maths, science and SEND.

Safeguarding and Multi-Agency Working

National safeguarding practice reviews highlight consistent patterns: information held by one agency often doesn’t reach the people who needed it.

Alternative Provision: Secondary

Permanent exclusions and suspensions have reached record levels, and the evidence linking the loss of a mainstream place to later contact with criminal justice, A&E and long-term worklessness is well established.

Post-16 SEND Deep Dive

The cliff edge between school SEND support and adult services can be incredibly hard, with young people losing structure, therapy and routes into work almost overnight;.

EHCP numbers have roughly doubled in five years, and councils lose the overwhelming majority of the tribunal appeals brought against them.

Primary Phase School Visit and Workshop

The cohort will shadow a full school day in contrasting primaries to see how teachers and senior leadership manage these demands.

Working Nursery Visit

Childcare in England is among the most expensive in the OECD. The sector is held together by a workforce paid at or near minimum wage, with retention falling and maintained nursery schools facing closure.

School Readiness and Inequalities

Vocabulary, speech and development gaps appear before a child sets foot in reception, and once embedded they shape outcomes through school, work and health.

Early Years, Primary and Secondary Constituency Credits

Supported constituency visits across early years, primary and secondary settings, helping MPs understand what makes an education visit substantive and credit-worthy.

Wales Multi-Scheme: Engagement in Nature and Farming

Children are disconnected from the sources of the food they eat, with knock-on effects for diet, mental health and the rural economy.

News & Insights

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