Lighthouse Schools Partnership and the University of Bristol have been working together to develop the Lighthouse Research Community, situated in Lighthouse Schools Partnership, benefitting from the expertise and resources of Bristol’s School of Education, and working towards certification from the Chartered College of Teaching.

The Research Community aims to support teachers to plan and deliver a small-scale practitioner research project that focuses on their own teaching or leadership role.  The course will be facilitated by experience colleagues from within the Trust who have already been involved in research and by lecturers from the University of Bristol School of Education.

There will be three Research Community groups for 2025/26:

• Teachers – North (Portishead and Bristol hubs)
• Teachers – South (Backwell, Chew and Churchill hubs)
• Middle and Senior Leaders 

People can be a member of whichever group suits them based on their work or home address or job role.  There is no expectation that you will have done any research before.

What is the aim of Lighthouse Research Community?

We believe that educators can and do craft educational innovation through practice and so have the potential to be a powerful community for generating research evidence and insight, rather than simply the users of it.

The aims of the Lighthouse Research Community are to: 

• Promote practitioner research. 
• Support educators to work deeply with ideas and explore these ideas in practice. 
• Promote educator experiences and innovations as part of educational research evidence. 
• Blur and bridge the gaps between practice and theory. 
• Generate context critical research evidence. 
• Build a sustainable model for practitioner research as part of professional practice.

What is involved?

We will be using the Chartered College of Teaching’s Educational Research and Inquiry Certificates (ERIC) and there will be periodic meetings of our Research Communities when we can share our progress and receive and give feedback.  Every member of the community will have an allocated supervisor to support them.  The Educational Research and Inquiry Certificate is assessed by submission of a written report (3,500 - 5,500 words) and a research poster (750 words approx.).

All member costs, including membership of the Chartered College of Teaching and enrolment in the certificates will be funded by a grant obtained by the University of Bristol. In addition, time off will be granted to all members to attend a fully-funded Writing Retreat.

You can expect:

• Collaborative action research meetings across the year led by colleagues from the university including Prof Alf Coles, Dr Tracy Helliwell and Dr Jon James
• 1:1 supervision to help you hone your project and gain ethical permission for data collection
• Support for every stage: planning, inquiry, analysis, and presentation
• The chance to share your work at our June 2026 Practitioner Research Conference

What do previous participants say?

“I have LOVED doing this! It reignited something I had forgotten. Being part of this community has been wonderful and I’ll miss it”

“The biggest impact for me has been personal. I feel more enthused about my subject, my teaching, and the quality of classroom discussions. It has been enriching, and my students now feel far more confident writing essays”

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Find out more

If you would like to find out more, or to express your interest in joining Lighthouse Research Community, please get in touch.