Taking stock
On Friday 9 October, Commissioners gathered at The Economist in London for our second full meeting. Over four hours, chaired by Sam Freedman, we took stock of everything we have learned since the summer and began to agree on the direction of our report.
As our Chair put it at the start, a good diagnosis matters, but it is the recommendations that will make the difference. Commissioners agreed the report should be realistic and pragmatic, while still being ambitious for young people.
What the evidence is telling us
Over the summer, teams at The Economist Educational Foundation and ImpactEd built a substantial evidence base: a national survey of schools, a series of roundtables, and focus groups with students and teachers that are running throughout the autumn term. We recapped the survey findings and shared early messages from our first school visits in Derbyshire and Yorkshire and the Humber, where we spoke with students and teachers.
A few things stood out.
- The news is finding young people, whether or not school talks about it. Some students hear about the world with their parents; many meet it on YouTube; others pick it up on the playground. Algorithms, family and rumour all play a part. Students told us they see school as the place to balance that out and help them make sense of it.
- The topics students most want to discuss are the ones most often avoided. Subjects like war, crime and violence are hard, and staff understandably worry about sharing opinions or receiving complaints. But these are exactly the conversations young people are asking for.
- Structures, not goodwill, make it work. At one Yorkshire primary, pupils have a protected half hour every week from Year 2. By Years 5 and 6, every student we spoke to felt confident talking about any topic. Elsewhere, provision can vary from one classroom to the next.
- Young people know more than we think. One Year 6 pupil explained inflation by noticing that the price of a can of Dr Pepper had gone up, and classmates quickly added examples of their own, such as petrol prices. Teachers were struck by how much base knowledge students already had on topics they had assumed were out of reach.
The wider data added further layers. Differences between schools within the same trust can be larger than differences between trusts, which suggests that how a school approaches current affairs really matters. And usage of existing free resources is heavily concentrated in the South East, a reminder that where a child grows up still shapes what they are offered.
Emerging themes
The discussion turned to defining and scaling good practice, as well as capitalising on the upcoming national curriculum and assessment reviews:
- Addressing infrastructure realities: A fixed curriculum agreed a year in advance struggles to respond to live news events. Current affairs needs to be brought down to topics young people already care about, provided through accessible, high-quality frameworks that teachers can pick up with confidence.
- Building confidence around controversial topics: Up to 70% of teachers may be hesitant or scared to teach controversial issues. Panellists noted that a top-down message giving permission to embrace debate, disagreement and constructive friction in the classroom is essential.
- Capitalising on incidental moments: Key conversations often happen reactively – such as a pupil bringing up an online conspiracy theory during science or PE. Every teacher needs the training and confidence to navigate these teachable moments.
- Unlocking existing subjects & GCSE frameworks: Rather than waiting years for new subject specifications, current affairs can serve as an immediate vehicle to enhance critical thinking within existing subjects. For example, embedding non-fiction newspaper analysis into GCSE English Language papers or using live election data in maths offers a practical short-term solution.
- Dedicated time yields measurable impact: Evidence shows that structured, regular space (such as 60-minute, oracy-based discussions) leads to dramatic growth in critical thinking and communication skills.
What happens next
The meeting closed with a strong sense of consensus about the shape our report should take. Focus groups continue until half term, and drafting is now under way with the Chair. Young people will review the draft too, so they can help shape our final recommendations.
We will publish the report on 2 December. We see it as the start of a conversation rather than the end of one, and we look forward to sharing more in the weeks ahead.