It’s been another busy year at Mime! In 2024, we’ve welcomed three new colleagues to the team, published new research, and even been to Parliament to discuss findings from our research!
Check out some of the highlights of our year below
1. Inclusion of young people with SEND in London schools
Our focus on SEND has continued this year with the publication of our report on inclusion in London schools. The report defines inclusion, outlines the picture across London, highlights the benefits of inclusion, and makes recommendations for stakeholders across the capital. We took a mixed-methods approach to this research, combining insights from quantitative data analysis using the National Pupil Database (NPD), with the voices of young people with SEND and their families. We’ve seen a positive media response to the report, with reports in the BBC and London Standard, and joined the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for London to discuss the findings. You can learn more about the research and read our key findings and the full report here.
2. Wandsworth Mime SEND Projection Model
We have continued to develop our SEND Projections Modelling Tool, which is now being used by local authorities across England. As well as supporting more robust provision sufficiency planning, the tool now allows local authorities to understand the implications of the cohort projections on placement funding costs, and informs better capital investment decisions.
3. Updates for Little Wandle members including a direct connector to synchronise children in schools
This year, we have worked with Little Wandle on important updates to better support their members. This includes rolling out our intuitive new data collection process to all schools, and building insightful new analysis to help members identify and fill gaps their children may have. We’ve also partnered with Groupcall to use their Xporter service to synchronise children and classes from school MIS to the Assessment Tracker website.
Separately, we’ve worked together on an exciting pilot for a programme to identify and support children in key stage 3 (year 7) who may have gaps in their phonic knowledge.
4. Camden Learning school reports
Over the last year, we’ve had the privilege of working with Camden Learning on an innovative way to present information on schools. Developed in consultation with schools and parents, these school reports contain insights on all aspects of life at a school, from the facilities and extra-curricular activities available to how schools address bullying and ensure pupils are safe and happy. You can find out more on our blog and read the report from the BBC Education team to learn how the reports are making a difference for parents and pupils. We’re really looking forward to seeing how this work progresses in 2025!
Highlights from the Mime blog
- We revisted our 2022 blog post on pupil absence to understand how pupil absence is evolving following the pandemic. We found that the overall absence rate across England is beginning to fall following consecutive post-pandemic increases but unauthorised absence continues to increase.
- As we do every year, we published tools to explore the 2024 GCSE and A level results. Both tools allow you to explore changes over time – both pre- and post-pandemic – and explore differences in results between subjects.
- Recently, we took a deep dive into the world of infographics at Mime. This blog helps explain why we use infographics, provides some previous examples and shares a little about the process we go through to make really impactful infographics.
Supporting our community and environment
This year, we’ve worked with Green Small Business to better understand and reduce our environmental impact, and we’re delighted to announce that we have now achieved formal certification in recognition of our environmental commitment and action plan. You can see our certification and find out more here.
In line with this commitment, we have made a donation on behalf of our team and partners to Trees for Cities. They work with urban communities to make their towns and cities greener, happier, and healthier places to live.
Coming in 2025
In 2025, we will be continuing our analysis and insights work in the public and third sectors and have some interesting pieces of social research due for publication. We are also hoping to work with organisations that have an environmental focus, reflecting our green commitments.
Some highlights to watch out for:
- Camden school reports will be launched for all parents to access, and we’ll be speaking to other local authorities who may be interested in doing similar work!
- Our process and impact evaluation of the Young Carers in Schools programme, due to be published in January
- We’ll be exploring the long term employment outcomes of those who studied in specialist creative education providers, for Creative PEC, DfE and DCMS, working in partnership with Ipsos and State of Life
- We have more exciting updates for Little Wandle members to look forward to, as well as working with the team to support multi-academy trusts with their data analysis and programme implementation.
- We are continuing to run our data training for councillors, on behalf of the Local Government Association, covering statistical explainers as well as how to use data in local authority performance management.
We look forward to continuing to work with you next year, and we wish you a restful festive period and a very happy new year!
Please do get in touch if you would like to hear more about any of these projects, products or services
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