Education Question Time - Pupil Panel

Jeremy Vine hosted a pupil panel discussion on education, which preceded an evening adult panel in the Bacon Theatre. 2 pupils from each of the Cheltenham Education Partnership schools spoke about how their schols had prepared them for their future careers and lives, and how they felt there were gaps in the UK education curriculum. The themes which emerged were fed by Jeremy Vine into the evening session. 

Aims

The creation of a Question Time Event on 'How well are today's pupils are being prepared for tomorrow's world?' gave the opportunity for a preceding pupil discussion on how they felt about the current eduction system. This was the first collaborative event for the Cheltenham Education Partnership, in which all the member schools took part. It introduced oracy as a key area of development amongst the pupils of Cheltenham and the pupil panel and evening debate were attended by hundreds of Cheltenham parents and others.

Background

The Cheltenham Partnership was launched in October 2019 and this gave an opportunity for a first high profile event. Emma Taylor, Warden of Dean Close, arranged the Education Question Time and David Evans, Director of External Relations, organised the Pupil Panel discussion. The CEP came into formal existence after about two years of discussions.

Resources

Dean Close provided the venue (the Bacon Theatre) and each school prepared the pupils who spoke. Each CEP school has a partnership 'champion', most of whom attended this event.

Impact

Pupils were asked to give feedback on how they found the experience, and the CEP Steering Group (the executive body) were unanimous in their view of its success. It provided an early success of the CEP to give great momentum to this new partnership.

Pupil Involvement

2 Sixth Formers took part in the pupil panel and attended the evening Education Question Time.

Frequency

This was a one-off event but forms part of the first year pilot programme for CEP