First Federation Trust workshop

Logo of First Federation Trust, which is two F's joined together on a white background

On 25th January, Katherin and the BIPE team gave a workshop on biases in primary education to school leaders and teachers from the First Federation Trust.

The First Federation Trust is a multi-academy trust and education charity linking 19 primary schools located across Devon and into Dorset. The aim of the trust is to enhance the provision of the schools, whilst enabling them to maintain their individual identities and the freedom to shape and deliver a curriculum that reflects their school’s values and the aspirations of the children they serve.

Participant feedback was very positive highlighting the importance and impact of such activities. Participants said, for example, that the seminar motivates teachers to:

Extend our curriculum further, to include opportunities to challenge bias thoughts, to support both children and staff on views and openly discuss their views.

If you are interested in hearing more about our teacher workshops, further information can be found on our flyer, on our ‘Teaching materials’ page.

Katherin presents at the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE) of the University of Bristol

CIRE logo in large yellow letters on a dark green background with a flower over the I.

On the 6th of December, Katherin presented at an internal CIRE meeting, a forum intended for faculty and PGRs to share research ideas and ongoing projects in order to receive feedback from faculty and PGRs with different research interest and areas of expertise in the field of educational research.

Katherin presented some preliminary results of the BIPE project focusing on social and ethnic biases in primary school in England.

Slides from the presentation can be viewed on our ‘Materials and publications’ page.

Valentina presents at the 2022 International Conference of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies

Logo for the SLLS conference titled "Growing Up and Growing Older Across Societies: Harnessing the Power of Comparative Research". The logo is blue with a drawing of a white tree

On 24th October, Valentina presented a published study on biased teacher assessment at the 2022 11th Annual International Conference of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS) – Growing Up and Growing Older Across Societies: Harnessing the Power of Comparative Research.

The study, titled “Teacher judgements, student social background, and student progress in primary school: a cross-country perspective,” was conducted as part of the Open Research Area-funded project DICE (Development of Inequalities in Child Educational Achievement: A Six Country Study) on which Valentina worked on between September 2020 and June 2021. At the 2022 SLLS Conference, Valentina presented the paper as part of a symposium dedicated to the DICE project alongside three other papers – presented by three other project members – investigating different aspects of educational inequalities.

Slides from the presentation can be viewed on our ‘Materials and publications’ page.

Welcome to our new Senior Research Associate

We are delighted to have a new member on the project team!

Valentina Perinetti Casoni has joined us as Senior Research Associate and will be working with us on data analysis, writing up of publications and impact activities.

We are now getting started with a paper on discrepancies between teacher, parent and children’s perceptions of learning and teaching. We are curious to find out whether such discrepancies vary by student, social and ethnic background, and what their impacts on further educational pathways are.

Jurassic Coast Teacher Network

Scenic photo of the Jurassic Coast, featuring a blue sea, cliffs and sand dunes

On 30th June, Katherin gave a workshop on unconscious bias to teachers in the Jurassic Coast Teacher Network. This network, which is led by Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis, connects teachers across schools in West Dorset, South Devon and Somerset.

Participant feedback was very positive and shows the workshop will have impact on practice:

It was very thought provoking and produced many conversations about what we do or don’t do, and what we might need to think about…it will help inform our work next year on feedback and marking.

If you are interested in hearing more about our teacher workshops, further information can be found on our flyer, on our ‘Teaching materials’ page.