Bencie’s Festschrift On 9th November we held a Festschrift symposium to celebrate the academic career of Prof. Bencie Woll, DCAL’s founding Director. Current and past colleagues discussed Bencie’s legacy across sociolinguistics, neuroscience and psychology, as well as her efforts to promote changes in public policy, public engagement and capacity building. Tributes celebrating her multidisciplinary long-lasting impact came from her collaborators from around the world, who joined in person and online. To honour Bencie’s scientific and social legacy, we have started a fundraiser for the ‘Bencie Woll Award’ for early career researchers in sign languages. You can contribute to this initiative. It was a wonderful day of celebration and togetherness! If you missed this event, a recording of the event will be available on our website soon. Congratulations Bencie on your amazing career and achievements which continue to amaze! At the moment Bencie is working with the producers of Sign 2 Win,

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12/2/2022

Some schools have made a name for themselves in performing 'against the odds', their pupils chalking up impressive achievements in national tests and exams. But still there remains a link between schools' circumstances and their performance, and some glaring geographical disparities. Breaking that link has been a focal point for education policy and many high profile organisations in education over the past two decades. There are occasional signs of progress, but they have often been modest and faltering. How far can we get with school-based interventions, and are there any such interventions, existing or hypothetical, that we should pursue with greater vigour? Come and debate sector leaders' views on which policies and interventions we should prioritise in order to cut through this problem once and for all, and what wider reforms would best help more schools in challenging circumstances. #IOEDebates

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12/6/2019