The University of Southampton’s Education School founded the Education Research Practice Network (ERPN) in Summer 2024, building on its long history of working with schools.  In our training and development of teachers, and in researching school-based issues, we continue to help schools and colleges to improve the quality of their education and to act as a catalyst for innovation within them. Whilst these partnerships and collaborations with our local schools remain strong and highly valued, we constantly engage with school teachers and leadership teams to look at where, together, we can work more productively together in meeting the dynamic challenges and needs of the children and young people in our areas. Â
We noticed a lack of shared spaces for researchers and teachers to work together to collaborate, share and create knowledge. As such, ERPN goes beyond the simple brokering of research knowledge for schools and facilitates a two way knowledge exchange with genuine opportunities for collaboration and co-construction of research informed, practice based knowledge.
AT ERPN, our work is responsive to the identified needs of schools and we are always keen to hear about new opportunities to work in new areas.Â
Who is the ERPN open to?
As part of a Civic University, we have a particular focus on the schools and colleges, and their communities, in our local region but we are also keen to develop relationships with schools more widely, across the UK and internationally, where these complement our activities. We welcome staff in all of these schools to engage in our network and its activities, as appropriate, along with other parties to whom it is relevant, as follows:
- Teachers and leaders in our region’s schools and colleges (all, including local authority, MAT, independent, faith and special provision).
- Teachers and leaders in schools and colleges across the wider UK and overseas that have developed an interest in working with us.
- Staff in other establishments that support education and learning (such as museums and galleries).
- Local authority representatives and others engaged in educational administration, policy and management within our region.
- Individuals in wider bodies or organisations in roles that support education and learning.
- Colleagues from across the wider University in roles and activities where their engagement would be of mutual benefit.
All have a role to play in our active and dynamic network – welcome!