The Community Rail Education Network met on Wednesday 20 August, where attendees had the chance to share insights and experiences from visiting or partnering with Railway 200’s exhibition train, Inspiration. Guest speakers included representatives from Kent CRP, Community Rail Lancashire and Chiltern Railways. The recording and resources from the meeting can be found here: Railway 200 Exhibition Train – TrainEd.

The next session will be held on Wednesday 17 September, 10-11am, where there will be two main items on the agenda:

• Southeast Communities Rail Partnership (SCRP) recently achieved national recognition for its education service and was awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) Quality Badge, which you can learn more about here. Maddy Mills from SCRP will be a guest speaker, talking attendees through the partnership’s experiences of applying for the Quality Badge.
• On 15 July, the government launched an updated statutory PSHE curriculum, including rail safety. Schools have the option to start following this curriculum now, but it will be mandatory by September 2026. This change could provide opportunities for community rail, so there will be a discussion at the session about the new curriculum and how community rail partnerships and station groups can make it work for them.

All notes, resources and recordings from previous meetings are available to view on the Education Network website. 

The Education Network is open to anyone with an interest in railway education. If you would like to join the Network and attend any of the upcoming meetings, or if you have any education or youth engagement matters you would like to discuss, please contact Karen Bennett on karen@communityrail.org.uk.