Enhancing Primary and Early Years Teaching: Close-to-Practice Research Insights

The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0 to 11 Years) (HHCP) and Primary Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) team at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) co-hosted the conference “Enhancing Primary and Early Years Teaching: Researching ‘Close to Practice’” on 11th June 2025. Teachers from partnership schools and colleagues from IOE came together in-person to explore research aimed at strengthening professional knowledge and improving teaching. The conference focused on fostering collaboration between classroom practitioners and university-based educators and researchers. Through keynote talks and a range of presentations participants discussed research and teaching. All respondents who completed the evaluation rated the conference as excellent, and qualitative feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Comments included: “It has been so, so good — I’m taking so much back with me,” and “So informative, inspiring and interesting.” What follows in this report summarises insights across five themes: teacher development, children’s agency, curriculum and assessment, wellbeing, and social justice.