Lily joined the Education Policy Institute as a researcher for the School Systems and Performance team. Prior to joining EPI, she graduated from LSE with a MSc in Applied Social Data Science and a BA in Education Studies from University College London.
Lily Wielar
Researcher, School System and Performance
About Lily
Recent Publications
Policy and Practice: Exploring the use of classroom removal and how it varies by school-level disadvantage
Introduction All pupils have a legal right to a continuous education, yet many pupils spend substantial amounts of time moving in and out of the mainstream classroom. In the 2024/25 academic year alone, 94,400 pupils missed the equivalent of more…
By Lily Wielar
An analysis of London Secondary schools’ use of internal exclusion
Background The Department for Education (DfE) recently announced in the schools’ white paper that they will provide increased guidance on how internal exclusion, also referred to as internal suspension, should be used by schools. This comes alongside the DfE’s positioning that external suspensions from school are ‘serious sanctions’ as ‘for some children being sent home could…
By Lily Wielar
Exploring multi-academy trust approaches to artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is already embedded across many of the tools used by educators and pupils, supporting lesson planning, resource creation, and the tailoring of learning materials to individual needs. It is also increasingly used to draft and update statutory forms…
By Lily Wielar and Jon Andrews
So Long, London – An analysis of London primary pupil movements
By the end of the decade there are expected to be 400,000 fewer pupils at schools in England than there are today, and the number of pupils in primary schools has already fallen by 150,000 since 2019. This is largely…
By Jon Andrews and Lily Wielar
Examining post-pandemic absences in England (5)
Since the pandemic, high levels of pupil absence have been one of the biggest challenges facing schools in England. Its impact has not been felt evenly, and it has contributed to the widening of the disadvantage gap. Last week, the…
By Emily Hunt and Lily Wielar
Absence Rates Fall, But Concerns Remain
Yesterday, DfE published new data on pupil absence in the first two terms of the 2023/24 school year. At a quick glance it appears like there was a drop in overall absence and persistent absence amongst pupils, compared with 2022/23. …
By Lily Wielar
Variation in pupil inclusion practices across schools: findings from the second wave of the DEEP survey
This blog examines the results from the second wave of the Decisions in Education in England Panel (DEEP) survey, which is part of a multi-year mixed methods project which aims to identify the most effective MATs and school groups (including…
By Lily Wielar