The Education Foundation is the UK's first cross sector education think tank with a focus on education reform, technology and innovation and helping to tackle major challenges affecting the sector. Founded in 2011, they work with leading educators, policy makers and businesses on the future of education and learning and support organisations across the UK and globally who are looking to be at the leading edge of education thinking and practice.
The Education Foundation is a not-for-profit social enterprise, funded, in our first three years by a combination of: co-founder investment; demonstration and innovation projects with schools, colleges, universities, companies and government; commissioned research from charitable foundations and local government; sponsored roundtables and events; and funding from leading businesses for our advisory work and projects.
Key achievements for The Education Foundation in its first 3 years of work have been:
Developing ground breaking projects in the arenas of: teacher’s professional development (Teacherlab); technology and innovation (Learning Lab); bridging the gap between business, entrepreneurship and education (Education Britain); creating a vibrant UK edtech startup ecosystem (Edtech Incubator); and supporting FE colleges and the skills sector with the digital agenda (Digital Colleges)
Influencing policy development at a national level including running Britain’s first Education Reform Summit, in partnership with the Department for Education & the Secretary of State for Education in July 2014; and our ongoing work on the shortage of school places feeding directly into the Mayor of London Schools Inquiry
Writing and launching a series of major reports on the future of the UK education system (Education Britain: the journey to education reform); the way technology and social media can be a tool for teaching and learning (The Facebook Guide for Educators); the strategic development of technology in schools and tackling key barriers across the system for learning (Technology and Education: a system view); the digital transformation of the further education and skills sector (Digital Colleges: the journey ahead) and leadership lessons between the US and UK (Building a Lattice for School Leadership)
Hosting and delivering 50+ Education Foundation policy events, conferences, summits and roundtables on a diverse range of policy issues in the UK and the USA with partners including: The Department for Education, Association of Colleges, Edge Foundation, UKIE NextGenSkills, Thomas B Fordham Institute, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, UKTI, Tech City UK, London and Partners, Labour Teachers, University Alliance and the British Consulate in Boston
Developing a Corporate Partners network of leading global and UK companies who work with The Education Foundation on joint projects, ventures and programmes of work to help drive reform and innovation in the education system – including Facebook, IBM, Pearson, HP, Randstad Education, Cambridge University Press, McKinsey, Skype, Sony, Google and Samsung.
Undertaking commissioned research including the Facebook Guide for Educators – the first piece of research commissioned by the global technology company outside of the US; work on the future of leadership and new school models for the Powerlist Foundation, to help them shape their vision for a pioneering Sixth Form Leadership Academy in London; a collaborative research report on the lessons and learning from the UK school leadership system for US policy makers; and the Mayor of London/London Enterprise Panel’s Digital Skills research project to audit and map school, college and industry digital, computing and STEM provision across London to help shape a major Digital Skills Fund
Speaking at numerous education, technology and policy events and roundtables including: The Sunday Times Festival of Education, Campus Party Europe, Tech City Sessions, Economist Infrastructure Summit, TES & New Statesman roundtables, Guardian Innovation in Education Conference and the Innotech Summit.
