Francesca Cooney joined PET as Head of Policy in September. Here she tells us about the challenges facing prison education and her priorities over the coming months.
In a new Clinks Evidence Library review, PET CEO Jon Collins takes a look at the evidence on the impact of prison education.
Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) is recruiting a new Chair to lead our Board of Trustees at a pivotal time in our development.
Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) is recruiting a new Chair to lead our Board of Trustees at a pivotal time in our development.
Prisoners’ Education Trust is opening recruitment for a new Chair, with Elisabeth Davies stepping down after nearly five years in the role.
The new Available but not Accessible report looks at the barriers to purposeful activities in prison for Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers.
Our two new trustees include a trained counsellor and a corporate director with experience in the housing, care and support sector.
Our Head of Policy, Francesca Cooney examines the findings of the recent report on prison education from the Education Select Committee.
The annual report paints a grim picture of prisons struggling to manage and failing to provide much needed education and activities.
Find out why Jon started working for PET, what we’re doing to ensure we reach everyone in prison, and what he hopes we can achieve by 2026.
Prisoners’ Education Trust is calling for investment in digital technology for learners in response to the Education Select Committee report.
The new trustees include a former prison governor, a further education college vice principal, and the founder of a fundraising challenge.
PET’s Head of Fundraising and Communications takes a look back at everything we have achieved in 2021 thanks to the help of our supporters.
Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) is calling for urgent funding for education in response to the Prisons Strategy White Paper.
Prisoners’ Education Trust has launched its new strategy, setting out plans to make sure everyone in prison has access to education.
In the last of three blogs on how prisons are recovering from the pandemic and what this means for prison learners, PET’s Head of Policy Francesca Cooney reflects on the changes to in-cell study and the support that learners need to succeed.
In PET’s second blog about how prisons are recovering from the pandemic, we look at the changes we would like to see to the core day.
The first of three blogs about how prisons are recovering from the pandemic and what this means for prison learners.
The University of Edinburgh’s Life Beyond project inspires learners in prison to explore and produce designs of settlements beyond Earth.
Jon Collins talks the challenges prison education is facing, digital learning, and how people in prison can help shape the charity’s future.
After eight years as CEO, Rod Clark reflects on leaving Prisoners’ Education Trust and the positive future he foresees for the organisation.
In this blog, Angus Jackson talks about his experience as a university student participating in Learning Together module ‘Writing Together’.
Without immediate action to reinstate education in prisons, people will return to their communities “deskilled, disillusioned and discouraged”.
This is one of four Islamic Finance courses and it is recommended that this course should be the fourth and last to be studied. This course will help you gain understanding in a wide range of areas, starting with the reporting framework and standards of Islamic financial institutions, and the analysis and classification of Islamic funding and financing transactions. You will also learn how transactions adopting different contracts of financing are reported in Islamic financial statements, and find out about financial accountability and Sharia compliance of Islamic financial institutions.
The course consists of 12 chapters:
Entry Requirements: Level 2 English and Maths
Format of Course Materials: Paper-based
Assignments: None, but the course contains a study guide, exemplars, and practice questions.
Exams: One exam – 40 multiple choice questions, one hour long. (Funding not included – you will need to re-apply to PET for the exam fees).
Prison Support Requirements: Organize and invigilate exam
Tutor Support: Yes
What’s Next? There are a wide range of finance, business and management courses to consider.
Find Out More: You can read about the course provider here
The This Small Change project is asking museums and galleries to offer postcards to prisoners, to help alleviate the conditions they are facing during lockdown.
Charles Cockell, from Edinburgh University, discusses the successful Life Beyond project established through a partnership between Fife College and the Scottish Prison Service. Life Beyond challenges prisoners to think about science in a creative way.
PET’s Head of Policy outlines seven creative – and sometimes courageous – ways prisons can support education as they emerge from lockdown.
PET’s Chief Executive responds to the new report on the issue of separation of children in Young Offenders’ Institutions.
In this blog post, we hear about how the University of Southern Queensland in Australia brought has made its courses available to students in prison through in-cell digital technology.
In this blog post we hear from Sacha Darke, a senior lecturer at University of Westminster, who recently travelled to South America to visit existing and developing higher education prison initiatives.
At any one time, up to 1000 children can be in prisons or secure training centres. Francesca Cooney, our Head of Policy, reviews the recent report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) on children in custody and outlines what it tells us about access to education.
The Ofsted Annual Report paints a concerning picture of prison education, with many prisons still not showing enough signs of improvement. PET’s Head of Policy takes a look at what needs to change.
On 6th November, we held our second PLAN seminar in the current series, bringing practitioners and researchers together, from a range of disciplines, to build and strengthen the knowledge base around prison education
Prisoners’ Education Trust has appointed five new trustees, including a charity campaigner, a former Ministry of Justice senior official, and the 2019 FE Leader of the Year.
Pictures, postcards and inspiration from our 30th birthday party, as staff, trustees, former prisons learners, supporters and founders gathered to help us celebrate.
Our new site is clearer, quicker and more accessible – a hub for supporters, prison staff, and alumni alike.
Model: Learning Together
The first Learning Together course between Nottingham Trent University and HMP Lowdham Grange piloted in the 2016/17 academic year, and was themed around the theory, policy and practice of Criminology and Education Studies. The eight-week course is intended as a study of, an exploration, and discussion into the value of lifelong learning, and the benefits of education provision for all. Delivered by Nottingham Trent University academics, learning is facilitated by a combination of seminars and discussions. A Sociology course now runs in Lowdham Grange and in HMP Sudbury.
If you support people with mental health problems but are not necessarily a mental health professional, this course could meet your needs. You will learn more about mental health and how people with mental health problems can be best supported. You will also deepen your knowledge of the legal policy and service framework for mental health, as well as principles of duty of care, interventions, support planning and risk management.
The course consists of six units:
Unit 1 – Understand the legal, policy and service framework in mental health
Unit 2 – Principles for implementing duty of care in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
Unit 3 – Understand mental well-being and mental health promotion
Unit 4 – Understand mental health problems
Unit 5 – Understand mental health interventions
Unit 6 – Understand care and support planning and risk management in mental health
Entry Requirements: Level 2 English
Format of Course Materials: Paper-based
Assignments: Six written assignments
Exams: No
Prison Support Requirements: Support submission and completion of assignments
Tutor Support: Yes
What’s Next? Open University: Access Module Yo32: People, Work and Society
Find Out More: via NCC here
With this qualification, you’ll improve your understanding of human behaviour and interaction and explore issues around race, inequality and religion. You will get the opportunity to develop transferable skills like critical analysis, as well as independent thinking and research.
PET offers A-levels in two parts. Upon completing Part 1, you can choose either to take your AS exam (a qualification marking the first year of a full A-level) or continue on to Part 2 to build up to a full A-level.
The course consists of the following units:
Entry Requirements: Level 2 English and Maths
Assignments: Six written assignments. These do not contribute toward the final grade.
Exams: Two, each are 1 hour 30 minutes, and contribute 50% of the overall grade. (Funding not included – you will need to re-apply to PET for the exam fees).
Prison Support Requirements: Support completion and submission of assignments. Organize and facilitate exams.
Tutor Support: Yes
What’s Next? Sociology A-Level Part 2
Find Out More: From NEC here
Stephen Rogers teaches Functional Skills English teacher at high-security prison HMP Whitemoor. In March, he received the first Outstanding Prison Educator award from the Worshipful Company of Educators, having been named the ‘winner of winners’ out of last years’ Prisoner Learning Alliance award recipients.
In April, we’ll see the biggest changes in prison education for many years. As with all major change, this brings risks and challenges, but it also brings real opportunity.
The PUPiL widening participation event in November 2018 highlighted the positive effects that university-prison partnerships can have, with speakers from Unlock and the University of Westminster.
Elisabeth Davies, a specialist in public policy, has been named as the new Chair of Prisoners’ Education Trust, taking over the position from Alexandra Marks CBE.
Elisabeth Davies has been named as the new Chair of Prisoners’ Education Trust, taking over the position from Alexandra Marks CBE. In this interview, the new and outgoing Chairs discuss the successes of the last six years and what the future holds for the charity.
Women make up about 5% of England and Wales’ prison population. Do they have different needs or wants in terms of education? And are we catering to these needs enough? Head of Policy Francesca Cooney takes a look.
We talk to Linda Kennedy, the senior civil servant responsible for some of the most significant changes to come to prison learning in decades.
Rod Clark responds to government research showing PET funding is helping people find work – showing education is both high-impact and good value for money.
UCAS will no longer require people to disclose a past conviction when applying for most university courses, in a decision that was called for by PET, Unlock and the Longford Trust.
After Justice Secretary David Gauke announced the government’s new Education and Employment strategy, Nnamdi Efobi, who was released from the prison earlier this year, asked him about the role of technology in prison education.
As the Prisoner Learning Alliance (PLA) moves into an exciting new phase, opening up membership to organisations and individuals and electing a new steering committee, we are proud to announce the appointment of a new Chair, Professor Tom Schuller (MA, PGCE, DrPhil).
As the Prisoner Learning Alliance prepares to launch a new membership structure in 2018, we re-visit some of its key successes.
A policy response document re-emphasising several points made by the Criminal Justice Alliance and drawing on our expertise and prisoner feedback, raising further issues relating to the valuable role of learning in prison and after release towards rehabilitation and reducing re-offending.
© Prisoners' Education Trust 2024