In this short paper, part of our 'Bridge to the Future' series, Tim Oates CBE sets out the case for utilising evidence and the ways we should think about future policy reform to avoid walking straight into long-term trouble.

In this 'A Bridge to the Future' series paper, Dixons Academies Trust's Funmilola Stewart and Jenny Thompson argue that while the application and delivery of powerful knowledge within schools is recognised as a tool for social justice, for this to be truly consequential our focus must shift from a broad consideration of the disparities between the elite and the disadvantaged, and towards an acknowledgement of the intersectionality underpinning social disadvantage.

A key challenge for educational reform is how to leverage the best outcomes for children, in the most efficient way, while avoiding unintended consequences. This is often easier said than done because individual problems and proposed solutions don’t sit in isolation from each other or the many other constituent parts of education. This short 'A Bridge to the Future' series paper seeks to explore how coherence and systemness in particular might be applied to policy in this important area.