I recently had the opportunity to speak to Professor Graham Donaldson as part of our Nesta talks to… series. We covered a wide range of topics including curriculum design, assessment and accountability, the changing role of teachers, what the attainment gap really is and, especially, the role of innovation in education.

We wanted to share the elements of this conversation that have stuck with us at Nesta, and reflections on what they can teach us for our fairer start mission in Wales and the role that innovation can play in improving outcomes for children.

The experiences that children and young people have – especially outside education settings – really matter. Is it fair to expect the education system – and early years services before – to solve all the problems caused by widespread inequities?

Nesta already works closely with schools and public services, but we’re also thinking hard about how we can work differently. We know the home learning environment is notoriously difficult to influence so we’re exploring ways of working with children and families outside conventional services. Through our design practice, for example, we’re working with families to understand their experiences, and using those as our starting point.

For many working in the early years, making sure that early education isn’t defined as preparation for school can feel like a battle. Sometimes the drive to move into more formal school-based skills can seem like a good idea, rushing ahead with reading and writing for example, but can mean children miss out on foundational developmental skills.

We know the early years are crucial for children. At Nesta, we’re also learning that we need to use terms such as school readiness with caution. Enriching experiences for children now matter.

Measurement in education is a thorny business, linked to questions of accountability and judgement. Measuring and targets tend to have a narrowing effect. They can help us focus, but can also mean we miss important things. We also know that exams, for example, can distort the learning that comes before.

At Nesta, we’ve set clear and measurable mission goals to drive us and assess our progress. But we know we need to be alert and make sure these goals help steer us to creative solutions and don’t narrow our thinking. As Professor Donaldson said, it’s the “what matters” that’s important in assessment, the “how” should follow.

Everyone needs to understand the why of education – especially early education, which can often be under-valued. The Royal Foundation’s Five Big Questions survey in 2020 taught us that most people don’t understand the specific importance of the early years.

We’re exploring the question: ‘can really change young children’s outcomes for the better unless there’s widespread understanding of what matters in the early years?’

To talk about the new curriculum in Wales is a misrepresentation: we’re engaging in whole-scale system change, not tweaking a syllabus. That’s difficult and requires bringing a whole range of different people along together for the long haul.

One of our goals at Nesta is to support systematic change, including creating conditions for innovation within systems. Our conversations with Professor Donaldson reinforced the message that systems-level work needs vision, trust, determination and sticking power. We’re hopeful that our commitment to working on our missions until 2030 will help us support sustainable – and, when needed, slow – change.

Innovation 101 tells us the ability to try things, get things wrong and learn from our mistakes is essential. But it’s hard when we’ve been brought up in a world that values success and correct answers.

We want children and young people to try new things, take risks and learn. We need to make this part of our culture and our own practice, whether we’re educators, leaders, inspectors or others involved in education and supporting children’s development.

We all need to be more comfortable with saying “we’re not perfect, but we’re getting there”. At Nesta, we hope our history of innovation and our independence as a foundation, can give us confidence to get it wrong in order to get it right.

We’re currently sharpening our plans for the next three years of our fairer start work in Wales. If these reflections have prompted any ideas for you, especially about working with us on our fairer start mission in Wales, we’d love to keep the conversation going. Reach us at [email protected] .