Several figures sit at a table in a meeting, colouring in some diagrams of the human brain. Only their hands are visible.

At CRAE, we are committed to working with schools to better understand the educational experiences of autistic children and young people, identifying evidence-based ways to support pupils, parents and educators.

We are particularly keen to engage education professionals in research – supporting them to identify priorities for research and co-design research studies that positively impact on pupil outcomes and wellbeing.

If you are from a school and are interested in partnering with CRAE, please contact Laura Crane, who oversees our school-research partnerships.

Pan London Autism Schools Network – Research

PLASN-R is a network of senior leaders from autism specialist schools in London and surrounding areas, alongside autism researchers from a range of London-based universities. Together, our goal is to identify priorities for research, share best practices in educational and research settings, and co-design/co-produce research. This initiative is particularly important since the children and young people in PLASN-R schools are often excluded from research opportunities due to the nature of their support needs. The network is co-chaired by Laura Crane (CRAE) and Lucia Santi (Head Teacher of The Grove School). To find out more, click here.

You can also find out more about PLASN-R in this article: Parsons, S., Charman, T., Faulkner, R., Ragan, J., Wallace, S., Wittemeyer, K. (2013) Commentary – Bridging the research and practice gap in autism: The importance of creating research partnerships with schools.

Current PLASN-R schools, and information about our work, are detailed in our most recent newsletters:

Other ways to partner with us…

We are lucky to have many students at UCL Institute of Education who complete their dissertation research within our team at CRAE.  Many schools value this as an opportunity for their staff to develop their understanding of autism education, as well as to conduct high quality research projects that address a priority topic at their school, and/or are conducted within their school setting. With the support of CRAE staff, who ensure that the research is as rigorous and impactful as possible, many students go on to publish their work in leading academic journals.