Reducing truancy and exclusions levels are an important part
of Government social inclusion policy. Young people who attend
school regularly are more likely to get the most they can
out of their time at school, and therefore more likely to
achieve their potential, and less likely to take part in anti-social
or criminal behaviour. There is some evidence that poor literacy
is, in some cases, a causal factor. An early survey by the
Children's Society showed that the majority of those who are
permanently excluded are boys aged between 13 and 15, most
having started secondary school with a reading age behind
that of their peers. This is backed up by Ofsted who reported
that poor attendance was centred around pupils who were weak
readers (1).
Recommendations by the 1998 Social Exclusion Unit report include
dealing early with children's literacy and numeracy problems
so that they catch up, and providing extra-curricular activities
and experiences to improve motivation among those at risk
of becoming disaffected. Teenage girls who are excluded from
school should not be overlooked either, according to a Joseph
Rowntree Foundation report.
Strategies to address high rates of truancy and exclusions
are wide-ranging and sometimes, but not always, include a
literacy element. The Government introduced home school agreements
to encourage parents to take their responsibilities seriously,
along with fines and even prison for parents of persistent
truants. Electronic registers, swipe cards and truancy patrols
improve registration. More positive approaches to reduce disaffection
and improve motivation in young people include an alternative
(often work-based) school curriculum, reward schemes and celebrations
of 100% student attendance at high profile school events.
The Excellence in Cities programmes provide support for disaffected
students through school-based learning support units and learning
mentors. Other approaches include having school-based social
workers.
Current Government policy is for local education authorities
and schools to work together to reduce school exclusions and
either get young people back into school or else find suitable
alternative provision. There is an ongoing issue concerning
the exclusion of black boys who form a much higher proportion
of all excluded pupils than you would expect given their proportion
in the school population as a whole.
Targets
The Government's Public Service Agreement sets the target
for reduction of school absence at 8% by 2007/08. Local authorities
are responsible for agreeing specific truancy reduction targets,
in consultation with schools.
There are no longer targets to reduce school exclusions,
introduced after the rapid rise in exclusions following the
implementation of the national curriculum, league table pressures
and local management of schools. Targets were criticised by
schools because they distorted the enforcement of school behaviour
policies, while penalising schools for excluding students
hit hardest at those schools with the most challenging students
and therefore with the highest levels of exclusions.
Links:
Excellence in Cities
Girls and Exclusion from School (report
by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
For more information on government approaches visit www.dfes.gov.uk/behaviourandattendance
Reference:
(1) Access, achievement and attendance in secondary schools,
Ofsted, 1995.
Teenage girls who are excluded from school or who have stopped
attending because of disaffection, bullying or family difficulties
are an "underestimated minority" whose problems should be
urgently recognised and tackled, according to research by
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and published by the National
Children's Bureau. Its 2001 report, Not a Problem? Girls
and School Exclusion, suggests that the widespread view
that "girls are not a problem" is a myth that will be perpetuated
as long as schools and local education authorities base their
exclusion and behavioural policies on boys. The report blamed
the Government's emphasis on boys' achievement and disaffection
for leading some professionals to neglect the needs of girls,
who have a tendency to withdraw and/or truant rather than
displaying the kind of behaviour that teachers and authorities
feel they must respond to immediately.
The report brings together new research carried out by the
centre for citizenship studies in education at the University
of Leicester and The New Policy Institute, based on work with
focus groups and interviews with girls of secondary school
age. Researchers also spoke to parents, teachers and other
staff working in three local education authority areas.
Cathy Street, a co-author of the report, said: "Multi-agency
working is crucial if the more subtle difficulties presented
by girls are to be identified and addressed. Education and
child and adolescent mental health services need to work more
effectively together."
Department for Education and Skills statistics show that
girls represented just 18% of permanent exclusions from school
(around 1,720 in 2001-2). But many more girls are removed
from class informally or for fixed periods.
Links:
For a summary of the findings, entitled Girls and exclusion
from school, visit www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/112.asp.
Not a Problem? Girls and School Exclusion (2002) is
published by the National Children's Bureau and the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation at £11.95. To order a copy visit www.ncb.org.uk/publications/publication_view.asp?id=221.
Education and welfare agencies trying to prevent pupils being
excluded from school need to work across their professional
barriers more effectively if they are to be successful, a Scottish
research study published in September 2001 stated.
The report, Hanging On In There, also calls for joined-up
policies at national level. There are said to be tensions
between arrangements for pupils with behaviour problems and
those for children with special needs and how these relate
to exclusion. There are differences, too, in the way schools,
social welfare organisations and the juvenile justice system
deal with young people's right to participate in decisions.
The report is based on an investigation of inter-agency working
in six schools in three education authorities, backed by detailed
interviews with 22 young people aged between 12 and 15 who
had been excluded or were at risk of being excluded.
The authors, Gwynedd Lloyd and Joan Stead of Edinburgh University
and Professor Andrew Kendrick of Strathclyde University, found
that there were a range of strategies but that not all were
effective. They say that the best practice comes when professionals
combine "a warm, informal, non-judgmental style with clearly
structured aims and evaluation of programmes", and base their
support on the individual circumstances and views of the young
people.
Link:
Hanging On In There is published by the National
Children's Bureau and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation at £11.95.
For a summary of the findings, entitled Inter-agency working
to prevent school exclusion (2001), or to order a copy
of the full report, visit www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/961.asp
The report Prevention is better than cure, published
by Crisis in 1999, said that being thrown out of school is a
key 'trigger' leading to homelessness. Children who have been
excluded from school are 90 times more likely to tend up living
on the streets than those who stay on and pass exams. More than
a quarter of all those living rough had been excluded from school
and 62% had no educational qualifications.
Link:
For more details visit www.crisis.org.uk
call 0870 011 3335 or email enquiries@crisis.org.uk.
The winter 2002 edition of the Scottish Centre for Research
in Education's newsletter includes a literature review about
the causes and effects of truancy, and research articles about
a scheme for the reduction of exclusions, and single sex education
for girls.
Link:
www.scre.ac.uk/newsletters.html
Graham Vulliamy and Rosemary Webb, Oxford Review of Education,
Vol. 29, No. 1, 2003
Exclusions could be cut by a quarter by putting social workers
into schools, according to this Home Office study. A three-year
project found that employing home-school support workers reduced
permanent exclusions by 25%, and also cut truancy.
Five support staff - all trained social workers - were placed
in seven relatively disadvantaged schools in North East England
in 1996-1999. Each was given a caseload of up to 10 pupils
at a time, selected mostly because of their behaviour. The
support workers befriended the pupils, taught them to manage
their anger and tried to improve their self-esteem and relationships
with others. They also supported their families and stepped
in immediately to help with crises in school that could lead
to exclusion.
Over the three years they helped 208 challenging pupils,
nearly two-thirds of them boys. Half were in Years 9 and 10.
Senior managers at the schools estimated that they saved 26
pupils from permanent exclusion, representing a 25% reduction
in the exclusion rate over the three-year period.
However, the fall in truancy made fixed-term exclusions rise
in some cases because truants returning to school found it
hard to adjust to discipline.
The report argues that teacher social workers are helpful
in alleviating the conflict between the government's Standards
agenda and its Inclusion agenda.
Link:
To read the report in full visit www.standards.dfes.gov.uk
A picture of neglected children desperate for personal attention
emerges from this report on pupils excluded from school, produced
by The Prince's Trust. Often in and out of foster care or moving
between parents, they frequently change schools, are unable
to catch up or make friends and start to truant, usually because
they dislike a teacher. They find the transition from primary
to secondary school especially difficult. They believe that
secondary classes are larger, when they are in fact smaller,
and say teachers are “less friendly”. But they are
enthusiastic about pupil-referral units (PRUs) once they get
there. Most recognise that school is not a waste of time, but
are unsure of the qualifications they need to gain the jobs
they want.
The report shows that excluded children are much more likely
than others to come from single-parent families. Only one
in four lives with both parents, compared with three in five
of their non-excluded peers. Most excluded children say their
parents show little interest in homework and rarely attend
parent-teacher evenings. Only half recall being praised by
their parents, compared with two-thirds of their non-excluded
peers. Excluded children were twice as likely to say they
had never been disciplined at home. A quarter had a statement
of special educational needs and a further quarter were being
assessed for one. Excluded pupils have a striking lack of
role models. Many said they did not have one and none named
their parents among their top three.
The Prince's Trust also talked to careleavers and found over
half had been both temporarily and permanently excluded from
school. A third felt inadequately equipped to live independently,
with their main difficulties being managing their finances
and coping with loneliness. Of those assessed, 77% had basic
skills needs, and 29% were unemployed. However, they were
generally positive about their lives when they had a place
to call their own, and they also valued the support and advice
of mentors.
The Way It Is – School’s Out is based on
interviews in autumn 2001 with 136 teenagers aged 13 –
16 who had been permanently excluded from school. One hundred
16 to 19-year-olds who had never been excluded were used for
comparison.
The Prince’s Trust wants to see more classroom assistants
to counterbalance large class sizes, older pupils as mentors,
and after-school homework clubs. It says the 14-16 curriculum
should be more flexible and schools should have a unified
anger-management policy.
Links:
The Way It Is – School’s Out (2002) is
available as a pdf file. Email info@princes-trust.org.uk or call The Prince’s Trust on 020 7543 1234. A research summary can be downloaded from www.princes-trust.org.uk
(this link goes straight to the relevant page).
The Social Exclusion Unit in its first report on truancy
and exclusion (May 1998) showed the tangled web of problems
that lie in the background when young people are excluded
from school, or exclude themselves by truancy. Low aspirations,
poor literacy and a peer or family culture that doesn't value
education are common culprits. The report also pointed to
a study by the Metropolitan Police that showed the link between
missing school and becoming involved in crime, and showed
particular concern for children in public care and for the
high proportion of Afro-Caribbean children who are excluded.
It highlighted some features that work in preventing truancy,
such dealing early with children's literacy and numeracy problems
so that they catch up academically, and offering an alternative
curriculum to those unlikely to achieve at GCSE. It mentioned
that children at risk of becoming disaffected can be motivated
by extra-curricular activities like after-school clubs, study
support, work experience and links between education, business
and the community.
The report made a number of recommendations, setting targets
of cuts in both truancy and exclusions (both fixed-term and
permanent) of one third by 2002. The report also stated that
by 2002 all children excluded from school for more than three
weeks should be provided with alternative full-time and appropriate
education. The Unit planned to investigate the 'joined-up
government' issues surrounding truancy and exclusions, such
as the fact that many different services might be dealing
with the same young person.
Link:
For more details of this report visit www.socialexclusion.gov.uk
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