UCPS Research

This new book, in a brand new series, called Education Visions has been co-edited by previous UCPS headmaster, James Biddulph, and UoC academic and UCPS parent, Emily Shuckburgh. The book is intentionally eclectic and and features a series of educational manifestos addressing themes that address the future of children’s education, from how education can addres the climate crisis, to weaving hopeful futures, and suffrage and political equality for children. These manifestos are paired with responses from teachers and educational practitioners who have experience implementing these ideas.

The book is available to all under an open source license: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/thriving-sustainably-on-planet-earth/8069C7252063AB7F058F0F3FE46CAFCE

The book features chapters/manifestos from contributors across the UCPS community. Including:

Introduction: Problems and Possibilities

James Biddulph, Harry Pearse and Emily Shuckburgh

Manifesto 1: What Role Can Education Play in Addressing the Interlinked Climate and Environmental Crises?

Amy Munro-Faure, Emily Shuckburgh and Bhaskar Vira

Manifesto 2: Weaving a Hopeful Future – Voice, Agency and Practical Wisdom as Threads of Change

Julia Flutter

Manifesto 4: A (Post-Human) Transdisciplinary Manifesto for Future-Making Education

Pamela Burnard

Practitioners’ Response to Manifesto 4: Adopting a Transdisciplinary Approach

Liam Connolly, Aino Ukkonen and Constantinos Xenofontos

Last year, Grade 6 students at UCPS took part in a creative sound and listening project developed in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield. Through activities such as listening walks, sound recording, movement, discussion, and creative technology, students were encouraged to explore their school and surroundings in new and imaginative ways. As part of the project, students created recordings of the school grounds and developed “sound maps” that captured the different sounds, memories, and experiences connected to their learning environment. The activities focused on creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and helping students think about how we listen to and experience the world around us.

https://universityprimaryschool.org.uk/research-development/ucps-research/

Working closely with their teacher, Kirstin MacVicar, and drawing on the creative ideas and reflections shared by the students, we wrote a short article about the project and the impact it had in the classroom. The piece explores how listening and sound-based activities can support creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and confidence-building, and how these approaches may help inspire learning activities in other schools. You can read it here:

https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/innovating-listening-led-classroom-practice-in-primary-education-sounding-digital-playgrounds/

About Maria Sappho

Maria Sappho is a composer, artist, and educator who works with music, sound, listening, and creative technology. Her projects often involve working with young people and communities to explore creativity through sound, improvisation, movement, and interactive technologies. Alongside her artistic work, she teaches and researches new approaches to music and creative learning at the University of Huddersfield.

In July 2025 leaders of Japan’s (Lesson Study for) School as Learning Community approach attended an open house research lesson at UCPS as well as recording one of the school’s 10th Year Anniversary Podcasts.

In May, Rob Drane and Jeremy Hannay, Executive Headteacher of Three Bridges Primary in London, were invited to spend a week in Nagoya, Japan visiting two schools they have been working with over the past two terms in Komaki City, Nagoya. The aim of the project,  which has been supported by Nagoya University, Waseda University and Camtree (the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange), is to develop mutual understanding and professional learning about lesson study and curricular and pedagogic practices in SLC schools in Japan and Lesson Study active schools in England.

All four schools shared lesson studies with each other in the Autumn and Spring using video and the amazing translation features of Zoom.us to enable vibtrant professional discussions – and we hope – to sow the seeds of further joint learning and professional development. The lesson studies will also be submitted for publication in Camtree’s global digital library.

SEASON TWO ‘INCLUSION MATTERS’ is now available.

https://open.spotify.com/show/0PhFAsuwvccFdnZAPi1JOf

UCPS 10th Anniversary Podcast Series Season 2 ‘Inclusion Matters’ features 5 Episodes.

Episode 1 – Autism Unpacked with Sir Simon Baron-Cohen

In the opening episode of Season 2 of Inclusion Matters, Professor Pamela Burnard is joined by Simon Baron-Cohen following his visit to the University of Cambridge Primary School, where he spoke with children, teachers and staff about autism, neurodiversity and belonging.

Drawing on examples from lived experience, research and classroom practice, the conversation explores how schools can create environments in which autistic and neurodivergent children feel welcomed, understood and included. Topics include neurodiversity, mental health, diagnosis, belonging, special interests and the importance of creating school communities that support wellbeing alongside learning.

The episode also reflects on how children themselves think about difference, identity and inclusion, highlighting the thoughtful questions raised by pupils during the visit.

As throughout this season, the conversation connects research perspectives with the lived realities of schools, classrooms and inclusive practice.

Listeners interested in wider perspectives on inclusion may also wish to revisit Season 1 of the UCPS 10th Anniversary Podcast Series, including the episode featuring Alison Peacock discussing inclusion and learning without limits.

Episode 2 – Researching Neurodiversity with William Farr

In this episode of Inclusion Matters, Professor Pamela Burnard speaks with William Farr from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education about his research at the University of Cambridge Primary School into neurodiversity, executive function and inclusive classroom practice.

The conversation explores how research can help teachers move beyond general awareness of neurodiversity towards more practical, classroom-based strategies. William discusses the importance of understanding children’s individual learning profiles, supporting executive function, listening to children’s lived experiences and reconnecting education with creativity, joy and belonging.

The episode also considers the role of parents, carers, teacher education and research-informed practice in building stronger bridges between home, school, policy and the classroom.

As part of Season 2, this episode adds a research perspective to the practitioner voices across the series, asking how schools can translate theory into thoughtful, responsive and inclusive practice.

Episode 3 – Inclusion Practices with Charlotte Bray and Kat Bates

In this episode of Inclusion Matters, Professor Pamela Burnard speaks with Charlotte Bray, Assistant Head Teacher at the University of Cambridge Primary School, and Kat Bates, UCPS SENDCo leader, about how inclusion is lived and developed across the school community.

The conversation explores how inclusion goes beyond statutory compliance and is built through relationships, trust, belonging and a strong understanding of each child and family. Charlotte and Kat discuss transition into school, the role of learning coaches, professional development, collaboration with families, and the importance of building a network of trusted adults around children.

This practitioner-focused episode also reflects on the challenges of being a highly inclusive mainstream school, including work with the local authority, stretched resources and the need to move carefully when supporting children at risk of exclusion.

At its heart, the episode shows inclusion as ongoing, reflective work: child-focused, research-informed and rooted in daily practice.

Episode 4 – Learning Coaches and Inclusive Practice with Daniela Tonazzoli and Bryony Wooldridge

In this episode of Inclusion Matters, Professor Pamela Burnard speaks with UCPS learning coaches Daniela Tonazzoli and Bryony Wooldridge about the central role learning coaches play in inclusive practice at the University of Cambridge Primary School.

Daniela and Bryony discuss why UCPS uses the term “learning coach” rather than “teaching assistant”, and how this reflects a strong focus on the learner, the child and the relationships that make learning possible. They share how learning coaches work alongside teachers, support children with different needs, build trust and belonging, and contribute their own specialist expertise across the school.

The conversation highlights the importance of teamwork, professional development, lived experience, research-informed reflection and a shared commitment to seeing the child at the centre of every decision.

This practitioner-focused episode offers a powerful insight into the expertise of support staff and asks how schools might better recognise, value and professionalise the work they do.

Episode 5 – Living with Autism with Lauren Redgewell and Charlotte Bray

In the final episode of Season 2 of Inclusion Matters, Professor Pamela Burnard speaks with Lauren Redgewell and Charlotte Bray about lived experience, autism, masking, belonging and inclusive practice.

Lauren shares her experience of growing up as an autistic child without a diagnosis, including situational mutism, masking, anxiety and the importance of later finding the language to understand herself. She reflects on why she chose to work with children and how her own experiences shape the way she supports autistic and neurodivergent pupils today.

Charlotte discusses the impact Lauren has had on the school community, from supporting children and families to helping colleagues understand autism from a lived-experience perspective.

This powerful practitioner episode brings the season to a close by showing how inclusion is not only a policy or principle, but something lived through relationships, safety, representation, understanding and trust.

SEASON ONE: JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

Come tune in and celebrate our University of Cambridge Primary School 10^th Anniversary Two-Season Podcast Series, SEASON ONE. This is a 5-episode series whose speakers include UCPS leaders, teachers, children, friends and experts who form part of the schools national and international learning communities.

SPOTIFY LINK


https://open.spotify.com/show/0PhFAsuwvccFdnZAPi1JOf

APPLE LINK

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/university-of-cambridge-primary-school-10th/id1847892558

Following on from Mr Drane’s packed account of all the lesson study activity over the past year, I am going to provide some information about what’s to come in 2026.

Firstly, I will focus on the extension of the developing writing and writers through lesson study that Rob described in the last edition of this newsletter. I will then describe a collaborative Anglo – Japanese project the school is engaging in with two primary schools in Japan and a primary school in west London, which focuses on how lesson study in each country supports inclusive learning and teaching.

• Developing writing and writers through lesson study: year two.

As Mr Drane stated in his recent article, the 80/20 ratio of teacher enquiry to expert input worked well in last year’s lesson studies and this approach is being employed again more deeply to embed the school’s approach to developing writers – with a further focus on writing for pleasure across the school.

However, this time we aim to be more outward looking in terms of the lesson studies. At the public research lesson conducted in July a number of guests attended. Most were visiting lesson study for ‘learning community’ experts from Japan. But Rob did advertise the open-house lesson to local schools and at least one visitor from a local secondary school attended.

With Mrs Ridings back in school this year, the aim is to increase the profile UCPS has locally as a centre of school-based lesson study research that is also open to supporting local schools to experience and understand the approach themselves. A small number of literacy leads in local schools will be invited to attend certain of the school’s writing focused lesson studies. And again the school will invite a larger number to another open-house public research lesson towards the end of the summer term. It is anticipated that some will be interested in developing the approach themselves with UCPS as a local Lesson Study development hub

• What can we learn about how Japanese and UK approaches to lesson study support inclusion?

Inclusion has taken on new meanings in many countries across the world since the Covid pandemic of 2020-2021. Japan and England are no exceptions.

Both countries are also experiencing increasingly complex demands on inclusive practices, posed by factors such as falling birthrates and increasing numbers of children arriving sometimes as displaced people or for economic reasons.  Many have experienced trauma and / or are likely to be learning their subjects at school through Japanese or English as an additional language that they are also in the process of learning and acquiring at the same time.

Both countries have sophisticated – but in many ways very different – approaches to supporting the learning of all children through pedagogical and curricular means. So potentially, there is a lot of potential benefit to be gained for each through comparing these practices through shared lesson studies.

Three Bridges Primary School, Ealing and the University of Cambridge Primary School will pair up with Miyata Elementary School and Komaki-Minami elementary school – both located in Komaki City, a suburb of Nagoya, japan. The aim is to develop warm, informal relationships between leaders and following that hopefully mutual trust and understanding between a wider group. The headteachers will begin by meeting before Christmas. We will be using Zoom – and it’s remarkably effective translated subtitle-captions – as the means by which spontaneous dialogue is made possible.

Inclusion leads and lesson study group teachers will follow suit in January when the schools break into two pairs – sharing information about their schools, their communities, their curricula and their inclusion approaches and challenges. Hopefully also developing interests in each-others’ practices at the same time.

The plan in February is that the schools in each pairing will each share a research lesson with the other. The research lesson may well focus on a school development priority (e.g. writing at UCPS) but there will also be a focus on the ways teachers in each school support inclusion at the same time, and on what additional information the teachers gain from the lesson study processes that can help inclusive learning.

The project is being supported financially by Dr Kanako Kusanagi, Dr Nori Inoue, and in kind by Dr Gosia Marschall and myself.

Dr Kusanagi attended the UCPS open house lesson study in July. She is based at Nagoya University and is an expert in the Lesson Study for School as Learning Community approach. You can hear her and her colleague Professor Manabu Sato on a 10 Year anniversary UCPS podcast recently released.

Dr Inoue is based at Waseda University, Tokyo and visits Cambridge every year with his graduate education students. His expertise is in how lesson study can be used to support the development and resilience of the affective domain in learning – especially for vulnerable children and young people.

Dr Marschall is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education in Cambridge with a strong interest in how lesson study can support early career teacher professional learning, growth and mentorship. She is a mathematics specialist who, as well as teaching on Masters and Doctoral routes, is an active member of the Faculty’s PGCE team.

– Pete Dudley, 4th December 2025

In collaboration with University Cambridge Primary School, University of Huddersfield and University of Cambridge

Students in Grade 6 explored their environment through a new Sound Mapping app that turns everyday listening into a creative investigation where students became sound scientists and eco-explorers of their school grounds. Working in groups pupils recorded sounds around the school, captured photos, and used sonograms to see how sound appears visually. They learned how microphones and gain work, experimented with learning how capture a range of quiet, loud, repetitive, sustained, high, and low sounds, and practised ‘deep listening’ to heighten awareness of their surroundings. Back in the classroom, students shared what they discovered, compared the visual patterns of their recordings, and built a collective sound map showing how different parts of the school sound. The project encouraged curiosity, observation, and imagination while building early skills in science, technology, and musical thinking and composing with their environment.

The App can be freely accessed and used on any tablet, phone, or computer here: https://mariaguerrasappho.github.io/sound-explore/