WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS)

Here, we provide a summary of key findings from our 11th survey (2022-23). Topics include trust in schools, pupil confidence, the Welsh language, school uniforms, climate concerns, pupil’s views on politics and the monarchy, recent strikes and protests, missing out on school trips, and pupils’ aspirations.                  …

A wealth of social science research expertise has helped Cardiff become the UK’s first UNICEF Child Friendly City (CFC). The prestigious status has been awarded to the city in recognition of the steps Cardiff Council and its partners, including Cardiff University, have taken over the past five years to advance the human rights of children…

Welsh language and identity 2022’s WISERD Multi-Cohort Study of secondary school children across Wales provides valuable insight into the attitudes of pupils towards the Welsh language. As we might expect, results vary according to school medium as to whether pupils consider the Welsh language to be a part of their Welsh identity. Pupils in English-medium…

At the end of the 2021-22 school year, we surveyed young people in Years 8, 10 and 12 about their experiences of returning to school. The pandemic has contributed to a high number of school absences and challenging behaviour in the classroom and we asked the pupils about issues relating to absences and how they…

Hundreds of working hours are wasted due to schoolteachers lacking a centrally shared language resource. Despite recent developments in use of the virtual learning platforms like Hwb (available to Welsh schools for free since 2012), teachers lacking Welsh-language resources for their classroom are unable to access translations of other resources. Under the current system, if…

To celebrate 20 years of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science, WISERD hosted two events at this year’s Festival, which aimed to highlight one of our ongoing education research projects and a useful data tool that helps us to better understand our towns and local areas. We began with a…

In October 2022, the Welsh Government announced that anti-racist professional learning would be mandatary for all school teachers in Wales as part of its Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan. Evidence from the latest sweep of the WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS) suggests that such universal and compulsory training is badly needed. In the summer of 2022,…

There is widespread and growing concern that the increasing cost of living will severely impact on the poorest families and communities this winter. Things were pretty bad last winter. A report by the Bevan Foundation revealed that nearly four in 10 Welsh households struggled to make ends meet. The Bevan Foundation’s Snapshot of Poverty this…

Latest data gathered as part of the WISERD Education Multi Cohort Study (WMCS) reveal the heightened levels of anxiety experienced by young people during lockdown and the ongoing effects of growing up in Wales post-pandemic. Nearly all (93%) of pupils felt the pandemic had affected their learning and over half (57%) think Covid will reduce…

The news often paints a rather grim future for Gen Z, the generation born between the late 1990s and early 2010s. There is low perceived job security, housing costs continue to rise relative to wages, and the 2012 tuition fee increase means that many now graduate with more debt than previous generations. The ongoing impacts…

On September 13th, the UK’s four chief medical officers concluded that children aged 12 and over can be offered one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination. There has been much debate about whether all children and younger teenagers should be offered vaccinations, with discussion about the safety of vaccines, consent from children and the need…

Like many European countries, Wales has an ageing population. If a younger workforce is not developed, the burden of health and social care will continue to rise, and economic development will stall. Limitations on freedom of movement due to Brexit and the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic add to the challenges for the Welsh…

Media coverage over the past few years has shown young people around the world come together to protest for Black Lives Matter, the climate emergency and exam results among other issues. Growing support for Welsh independence and membership of YesCymru is also anecdotally linked to support from the younger generations. While this suggests young people…

Professor Sally Power shares WISERD Education Multi Cohort Study findings in a BBC Wales Radio interview highlighting the impact of lockdown on young people’s learning. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000t6bz (From minute 37:16)

Cardiff University researcher Dr Catherine Foster (WISERD) said children from disadvantaged backgrounds more likely to have fallen behind while learning from home. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56423630

On an Wales Online interview, Dr Catherine Foster said life had “changed dramatically” for many young people who suffered from effects such as loneliness and loss of routine. She said: “Although some children have been able to continue going to school at least part of the time, most have lost the organization and structure that…

WISERD surveyed young people in Years 7-12 about their home learning experiences during summer 2020, what they missed and whether they should be allowed to see friends. In addition to asking about resources for schoolwork, time spent learning and going to school during lockdown, we asked young people about their worries, how they had been helping…

One of our key priorities at WISERD this year has been to understand the impact of COVID-19 on children and young people in Wales. This is especially important as infection rates continue to rise as we head into winter. In addition to our recent seminar and blogs on home learning during a pandemic, here we…

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on children is one of the most important issues researchers and policy-makers currently face. Through our pre-existing links with schools across Wales, we have been able to gather data from over 500 children about their experience of education through lockdown. The children told us about their attendance at school, the…

WalesOnline, 7th June 2020 Read the full article. Professor Chris Taylor is quoted in the article: “Much of the research on transitions says that it is the familiarisation with high school that is important – knowing where to go, who the teachers are, how work is organised, how much homework there will be, will they get…

WISERD Director, Professor Sally Power, has won the Learned Society of Wales’ Hugh Owen Medal 2020 for her outstanding educational research. Professor Power is a leading education researcher, with a broad focus on policy and inequality. She plays a significant role in supporting education research throughout Wales. The WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS), directed by…

Our recent event, Growing up in Wales: school students’ perspectives and experiences, explored the latest findings to come out of the WISERD Education Multi Cohort Study (WMCS) survey data.  Over the past seven years, the WMCS has made an important contribution to understanding the lives of young people in Wales, by conducting an annual survey…

Three WISERD researchers – Constantino Dumangane, Wil Chivers and Ian Thomas – have successfully secured places on the 2019 GW4 Crucible. The GW4 Crucible is a competitive annual programme that seeks to promote interdisciplinary collaboration between early career researchers from Cardiff, Bristol, Bath and Exeter universities. This year’s programme comprises three two-day residential labs. 30…

Over the past six years, the WISERD Education Multi Cohort Study (WMCS) has made an important contribution to understanding the lives of young people in Wales, by conducting an annual survey of over 1,000 young people, aged eight to 18-years-old. A key part of the data we’ve been gathering is around our young people’s educational…

A good sense of humour is more important in a friend than being good looking, fashionable or popular, WISERD research has revealed. The research, part of the WISERD Education multi-cohort study, asked young people to choose the most important qualities an ideal friend should possess, out of a potential 11 options (see figure 1). A…

Friendships made in school play a special part in young people’s development. They are more than just moral support, friends help them learn key social skills, and serve as a source of social support. Close school friends also help young people develop a sense of importance, trust, acceptance and belonging within their school. Young people…

From sharing our latest research findings and hosting expert panel discussions, to providing practical workshops and networking opportunities, WISERD ran four events as part of this year’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Sciences. We began the week by visiting a local secondary school and sharing some of the latest findings from…

For the past six years WISERD Education has been following the lives of children and young people in Wales. This has involved an annual survey of over 1,000 young people each year, following them all from the beginning of secondary school in Year 7 to when they leave school (from Years 11 to 13). The…

For the last six years, WISERD Education have been giving surveys about their lives to over a thousand children (8-18) across Wales every year. Here are some of our most interesting findings about children in Wales: 1. Girls are better than boys at school, but are less happy While girls tend to do better academically,…

WISERD Education Director, Professor Sally Power, explores the situation in this blog post. While there have been growing concerns about the permeation of business in education, relatively little attention has been paid to how schools are increasingly engaged in the “business” of fundraising for charities. At WISERD Education, we have been examining the increasingly close…

For the past 30 years there has been substantial focus in the UK on the issues related to the physical size and condition of schools, and how it may affect pupils’ academic progress, achievement and overall school experience. Young people’s perspectives of their environments are reflected through cultures and organisation, as well as physical structures…

Dr Dan Evans uses WISERD research to examine young people’s apathy with the Welsh political process This article was originally published on The Conversation. Click to read the original article. After 20 years of devolved politics, one would assume that Wales’s government and parliament would have solidified its place in the country, and the people of…

WISERD researchers presented our work on young people, education and politics, as part of this year’s exciting line-up at the 30th anniversary Hay Festival. ‘Mind the gap’ formed part of the Cardiff Series, presented by Dr Dan Evans, Dr Esther Muddiman, Dr Stuart Fox and Dr Sioned Pearce, which considered the striking divisions revealed between…

Two WISERD colleagues, Professor Sally Power and Professor Mike Woods, are among the newly elected fellows of The Learned Society of Wales. The Learned Society of Wales was established in 2010 in the absence of a national society of learning in Wales. Its aims are to contribute to advancing and promoting excellence in all scholarly…

Dr Rhian Barrance argued that many schoolchildren today believe climate change and poverty are just as much a threat as terrorism. A link to the article, published by The Conversation, can be found below. https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-poverty-are-as-much-of-a-threat-as-terrorism-for-many-young-people-74218

It will probably come as little surprise that recent surveys have found the majority of adults in Europe think that international terrorism is the most pressing threat to the continent.  Though this is valuable information about what adults think, little is known about what children and young people perceive as the greatest threats to life and democracy…

Brexit in Scotland and Wales A majority 64% of young people voted in the UK referendum on EU membership last June, but 70% of them were disappointed. Media coverage brought this disappointment home with wide coverage of the generational divide, depicting a young generation forced to live with the consequences of a decision made by…

The release of the WISERD Education’s report to HEFCW – Access to Higher Education in Wales received widespread media coverage.   The Times Higher Education –https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-access-wales-depends-school-attended-study-finds BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074hk3 Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/school-pupils-chances-getting-university-10121310?service=responsive Research Professional – http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/141953-catchment-22-school-and-local-authority-impact-university-chances

What would you do with £1 million if handed it today? Remarkably, half of young people would give at least a large part of it away, with a quarter saying they would keep none of it for themselves, a new study from WISERD Education has found. And while some pupils, perhaps predictably, dream of fast…

WISERD has secured a £1M investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERD EDUCATION. This Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded project has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…

WISERD has successfully secured a £1m investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERDEDUCATION. The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded programme has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…