As 2022 draws to a close we want to thank everyone who has supported our work, and share a few highlights from an incredibly busy and exciting year.
We have continued to build powerful partnerships and embraced new ones, launched national and global initiatives, refined our strategy and celebrated our 10th birthday. With young people firmly at the heart of our work, our mission as a catalyst to transform education and learning is stronger now than ever.
As we prepare to grow our impact in 2023 and beyond, we wish you all a very happy end to the year and we can’t wait to connect again.
Big love
The Big Change Team x
Identifying and supporting bold ideas in the UK
November saw the launch of our Big Education Challenge. This £1m prize fund builds on our 10 years of grantmaking and is set to support and reward young people and experienced innovators who have bold ideas with the potential to transform education and learning in the UK. We are thrilled that the Challenge has been featured in multiple publications, including Forbes, FE News and Charity Today, and is attracting participants from across the UK.
In 2023 we will identify up to 15 finalists who will receive financial and capacity-building support, then select winners at the end of the year. We can’t wait to share their ideas and stories. Find out more or register for the Big Education Challenge – deadline for submissions is February 22nd 2023!
Generating global insights to transform, not just improve, education systems
From Salzburg to Singapore, our global research on the three drivers for transforming education has connected with thought leaders, funders and changemakers across the world.
In May we partnered with the Salzburg Global Seminar on their Education Futures programme, which brought 50 leaders and pioneers from around the world together to explore how to shift purpose, power and practice to transform education. This led to the Salzburg Statement for Education Transformation.
In 2023, we hope to launch the annual Transforming Education Co-Action Summit with Salzburg Global Seminar. We will continue to grow our partnerships with the OECD and the Presencing Institute, and with our learning alliance of organisations who are catalysing transformation from Kenya to Canada. Read our New Education Story interactive report and additional resources
Empowering young people and the public to set a new direction for learning
Through Subject to Change we created a wealth of insights about the public demand for change in education, with a particular focus on young people and how their perspectives, ideas, and agency can be heard and supported. This year, we continued to support inclusive and intergenerational conversations about the purpose of education that can create a shared vision and ideas for the future.
In September 2022, we took the Big Education Conversation to a global stage with the Lego Foundation and the Brookings Institution at the UN Transforming Education Summit in New York, with over 500 youth leaders and activists, policymakers, civil society organisations and education ministers.
Big Education Conversation resources now exist in six languages and are being taken up by partners in 11 countries. Across England, conversations are being hosted and led by young people in Devon, Birmingham, and Manchester, and with partners including Right to Succeed and 100 young people at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom.
In 2023, we will be working with existing and new partners to use Big Education Conversations to shape education in their contexts, as well as working with IPPR to share national insights and data. Get involved, share your views on the purpose of education and find out how to host a Big Education Conversation of your own.
And, we are excited and proud to have …
- Worked with incredible young people through our Youth Advisory Group, Youth Associates and the Project Council for Subject to Change and the Big Education Conversation
- Announced new Big Change project partners in the London Interdisciplinary School, Place Matters and Rethinking Assessment
- Engaged an incredible community of people striving for Big Change byclimbing Mount Kenya, and taking part in the highest Big Education Conversation!
- Celebrated 10 years of Big Change with so many of you in November to highlight the impact we have achieved so far as well as looking to the future. Together, we have:
💙 Positively impacted the lives of nearly 8 million young people
🙌 Supported over 200K teachers, parents, carers and other adults working with young people
🏫 Worked with 45K schools and learning communities
🗝 Unlocked £60m in further funding to grow their impact
Imagine what we can do together in the next decade!