The Future of Education: Parents Reveal Their Opinions

Foreword – by Richard Nicholson, Warwick Independent Schools Foundation

MTM’s Managing Director, James Leggett, enjoyed presenting the findings of the survey at our inaugural FutureFwd conference, where we aimed to look at education afresh. What should we be doing in our schools to enable our young learners to make fulfilling contributions to their future workplaces and local communities? Leaders from industry, business, and cultural sectors, gathered in Warwick in July to debate these vital topics.

The voices of our young people were integral to the event, and I am delighted that through the expertise of one of the key conference partners, MTM, parents and families were represented too.

Introduction

The current education system has been under fire in recent years and people are calling for an overhaul of the system. The current curriculum has been in the firing line as the pace of life increases evermore, technology advances at astronomical rates and more and more uncertainties take place.

500 parents kindly completed our survey (a huge thank you to every one of you!). We had a great sample of participants from a whole range of profiles.

We had children with different methods of schooling to get a more accurate view of UK education overall:

• State-funded
• Fee-charging
• Home-schooled

Additionally, the children also had a range of different household incomes, and ages, with children from Nursery through to Sixth Form and beyond!

The questions

We asked the parents to rate how important they thought factors such as academic results to social skills were in education, as well as who they thought should be responsible for educating children in those areas too.

We questioned parents on what the next step is for their child after they finish school. This data can be used to get an idea of what future school leavers wish to pursue after school. Are as many pupils wanting to go to University as in recent years? Are apprenticeships becoming more popular? These answers and more can be extrapolated from our findings to predict future trends in school leavers.

We also asked a series of questions querying how well they think the current curriculum prepares children for an uncertain future, and how it could be improved to better prepare students.

To get a full look at the questions and see MTM’s expert analysis, sign up to receive the full report upon its release. Simply email office@mtmconsulting.co.uk expressing your interest.

A sneak-peek at The Future of Education Survey results

How well do you feel the current curriculum prepares children for an uncertain future?

When your child(ren) leave(s) school what do you expect as a next step?

Want more on the future of education?

Sign up to be one of the first to receive the full report by emailing office@mtmconsulting.co.uk expressing your interest.

Enjoyed this survey?

Click here to read about our previous survey The Confidence Index 2022.

Click here to read the Confidence Index 2022 Survey results.