On 12 December CSE hosted two seminars on education and social justice: 

The ‘London Effect’ – has it survived the Covid-19 pandemic? An analysis and a reflection on one of the system responses? 

 Sean Hayes, Honorary Fellow, Department of Education, Durham University 

The presentation will examine whether the so-called ‘London effect’, in which London’s schools improved rapidly and outperformed the rest of England on key performance measures between 2003 and 2013, has persisted beyond the global Covid-19 pandemic. It will include a recap of why educational transformation was necessary in London and how the ‘London effect’ came about and the up-to-date research is based on a detailed analysis of educational attainment data at GCSE in 2023. The paper concludes with a reflection on a response made by a group of London headteachers and other educationalists to the potentially adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on London’s disadvantaged and vulnerable school children, through a group the heads created called Reconnect London. 

Consequences of academic selection for post-primary education in the United Kingdom: A systematic literature review 

Ian Cantley, Rebecca Loader, Joanne Hughes (Centre for Shared Education) 

Academic selection for post-primary education is an important feature of the educational landscape in some parts of the United Kingdom, most notably in Northern Ireland and some areas of England, in addition to several other global contexts. This work systematically reviewed studies in a United Kingdom context that investigated the consequences of academic selection. Thirty-two publications met the inclusion criteria and were included in the narrative review. The review results indicate that, when relevant student and school characteristics are controlled for, academic selection has a negligible overall effect on academic achievement relative to all-ability comprehensive post-primary education. The findings also indicate that there is negligible difference between the capacity of the two systems to promote intergenerational social mobility, but that academic selection potentially reinforces and further entrenches socioeconomic disparities in educational outcomes. Possible gaps in the evidence base are highlighted and implications for further research, policy and practice are elucidated.