News and Blog

In two weeks’ time, WISERD will be holding its Annual Conference in the Medrus Conference Centre at Aberystwyth University. This year’s theme is Civil Society and Participation. Delegates will have the opportunity to discuss cutting-edge, inter-disciplinary research from Wales and beyond, focusing on approaches to civil society and participation that have been adopted in a…

Sally Holland, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales and Dr Rhian Barrance, WISERD Research Associate, discuss how Wales has gone further than any other UK country in implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) by introducing the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure in 2011. This requires that ministers…

WISERD recently conducted a survey of almost 10,000 children aged between 7 and 18 years-old in Wales for the Children’s Commissioner for Wales. The aim of the survey was to identify the most significant issues facing children in Wales in order to guide the Commissioner’s 3 year workplan for children and young people. The 11-18…

Dr Rhian Barrance talks on BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Wales about new research findings from her work with the Children’s Commissioner for Wales on the impact of national tests on children in Wales. BBC Radio Cymru, ‘Post Cyntaf’, 8am, 09/05/19: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004rn5 BBC Radio Wales, ‘Good Evening Wales’, 5pm, 09/05/19: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_wales_fm

New data from over 10,000 children and young people in Wales reveal the impact pressures of modern life are placing on their mental health. WISERD Research Associate, Dr Rhian Barrance carried out the Beth Nawr, 2019 survey for the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, which collected data to help shape the Commissioner’s new three-year work plan….

Dr Nigel Newton writes about new research which suggests the new curriculum in Wales, although more holistic, may mean students miss out on subject knowledge.            

Since 2015, ‘pioneer’ schools across Wales have been contributing to the development of a new national curriculum based on Professor Graham Donaldson’s (2015) report, Successful Futures. As part of a Welsh government-funded research project being conducted through the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD),*  over 30 teachers involved in this…

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…

    WISERD Co-Director, Professor Chris Taylor and Dr Nigel Newton presented at an education event sponsored by WISERD and the Learned Society of Wales this week, where a new report by the Institute of Welsh Affairs on implications of curriculum reform was launched. Following a review undertaken by Professor Graham Donaldson in 2015, the…

WISERD researcher, Dr David Dallimore, from the School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at Bangor University has been awarded a Fellowship at the National Assembly for Wales. During 2019 he will be working with the Assembly Research Service to provide information about early childhood education and care (ECEC). Policy in this area has developed…