News and Blog

Civil Society through the Lifecourse

This book focuses on how people’s engagement with civil society changes over the lifecourse. There has been growing concern in recent decades about the health of civil society. A lot of evidence points to an overall decline in civic participation – and in particular a lack of engagement by young people. It is generally the…

Crafting civil society during COVID-19

On 10th August 2020 a group of women volunteers gathered at Lark craft studio at Cardiff MADE to make re-useable face-masks for members of the local community on low incomes. The initial idea for this event came from Sarah May, who posted an appeal on her local Mutual Aid Group, and was joined by local…

The impact of COVID-19 on children’s learning in Wales

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…

Qualifications and assessment

The Welsh Government was forced to backtrack on the grading method agreed with regulator Qualifications Wales after an outcry over students being downgraded led to a u-turn in Scotland and changes in England. An 11th hour review took place to ensure that students didn’t lose out in Wales after England and Scotland announced major concessions….

Children’s Worlds

Children in Wales have some of the lowest levels of well-being amongst children across 35 countries, a team of WISERD researchers has found. Survey of 128,000 children across 35 countries raises questions about levels of well-being experienced across different areas of children’s lives in Wales. Read the coverage for this research study: Children in Wales…

A recent report from WISERD Education Data Lab analyses the impact of Hafan Cymru’s Spectrum Project

The Spectrum Project is a specialist awareness-raising, preventative and bilingual educational programme, delivering sessions on all aspects of Healthy Relationships and VAWDASV (Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence) to pupils and staff in schools across Wales. It links with the priorities of Prevention, Protection and Support outlined in the Violence Against Women, Domestic…

Research demonstrates the importance of Careers Wales in Welsh schools

A new ADR-UK Data Insight report by WISERD Co-Director, Rhys Davis, reveals the important role played by Careers Wales in supporting those children most in need of careers guidance within Welsh Schools. Following the withdrawal of funding for the Connexions Network in 2010 – a dedicated careers guidance service for young people – concerns have…

Attainment gap “Experts warn of ‘long term damage’ to education due to school closures”

Director of WISERD Education, Sally Power, has been interviewed and quoted on ITV Wales in relation to the long term effects that COVID-19 measures in Schools might incur to pupils. “Professor Sally Power from Cardiff University has warned that the attainment gap between pupils will have widened as a result of the pandemic”. See full article: https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2020-09-24/experts-warn-of-long-term-damage-to-education-due-to-school-closures…

COVID-19 lockdown and the needs of garment workers in Bangalore, India

Since October 2018, researchers from WISERD and Cardiff Business School have been working in partnership with NGO, Cividep-India. We have been analysing data on whether and how garment workers in Bangalore are able to gain access to remedy (that is, the steps that are taken to prevent, investigate, punish and redress business-related human rights abuses)…