Breaktimes are ubiquitous in English schools. Research suggests they have social value for children, but school staff often have a range of concerns about breaktimes and tend to undervalue them. However, there is little understanding about these times, not least because data are not collected about their organisation and characteristics. This…

School life in England (and beyond) is temporally structured, with learning planned as a time-limited activity, both within lessons and across units of work. Discourses of performativity and measurement pervade school life in many societies and, what we call "regulated time" controls school-based learning. In particular, primary…

It is recognised personal tutors play a role in supporting university students to complete their studies. However, approaches to tutoring differ widely across higher education, resulting in a paucity of reliable impact evidence. The college higher education provider in this research has weekly group tutorials for undergraduates. This mixed method…

This article discusses the relationship with time in early childhood practice and research. It is based on a 2-year study, Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child (2020-21). The study was underpinned by a concern about time pressures, testing, and measurement within the early childhood education and care sector and a desire to seek alternative…

A national curriculum for the study of computing became compulsory in English secondary schools in September 2014, replacing the study of information and communications technology with computer science (CS). This posed difficulties for teachers and students who did not have knowledge or experience of programming. This study was designed to…

We study teachers' choices about how to allocate class time across different instructional activities, for example, lecturing, open discussion, or individual practice. Our data come from secondary schools in England, specifically classes preceding GCSE exams. Students score higher in math when their teacher devotes more class time to individual…

This article discusses how the introduction of technology has led to a fundamental shift in the relationship between education and time. As a means of analysing the extent of such changes on pupils from different backgrounds, I use Bernstein's "conditions for democracy" as a framework for evaluating the impact new understandings of time…

Interventions designed to improve communication environments and the quality of adult-child interactions in early years (EY) settings are an important part of facilitating children's communication skills both for children with identified Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) and children without SLCN. One such intervention devised and…

The overall purpose of this study was to examine children's physical activity (PA) during primary physical education (PE). This was achieved through the following two research objectives: (1) to measure children's PA, lesson context and teacher promotion of PA during PE lessons; and (2) to explore teachers' and children's perspectives on PA levels…

Recently, creativity has begun to be talked about as a twenty-first-century competency [UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). 2006. "The World Conference on Arts Education: Building Creative Capacities for the 21st Century: Working Document", Lisbon, Portugal, 6-9 March 2006". Lisbon: UNESCO].…

The present article aims to focus on the perception and expression of emotions by Polish immigrants to England and Ireland. The informants of the study were 72 Polish-English bilinguals living in England and Ireland from 1 to 324 months. Data analysis discussed emotional expression in the L2 as well as perception of such emotional statement as I…

This study examines the role of school food education and school food culture in England and their potential to support pupils' capabilities to adopt health protecting and promoting behaviours. Drawing on Amartya Sen's capability approach, and Susan Michie's COM-B model, the research was conducted for the "Food Education Learning…

Schools across the UK were mostly closed from March to July 2020 due to COVID-19. Therefore, parents and children found themselves thrust into a prolonged period of home-schooling. In this study, parents (N = 2,122) reported on their children's (N = 3,230) home-schooling experiences and its impacts on their children's academic progress. Parental…

Staff and student perceptions of what constitutes good academic writing in both further and higher education often differ. This is reflected in written assignments which frequently fall below the expected standard. In seeking to develop the writing skills of students and propose potential solutions to writing difficulties, a study was conducted in…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…