What happens to pupils permanently excluded from special schools and pupil referral units in England?

There is widespread consensus in the research and policy‐related literature over the last decade that young people who have been permanently excluded from school are at a far greater risk of a variety of negative outcomes than young people who have not had this experience. These negative outcomes include prolonged periods out of education and/or employment; poor mental and physical health; involvement in crime; and homelessness. This article presents evidence from a small‐scale qualitative study of destinations and outcomes post‐exclusion for a group of young people considered to be at particular risk of such negative outcomes: namely, those who have been permanently excluded from special schools or Pupil Referral Units (now known as short‐stay schools). The specific focus of this paper is on the 24 young people's educational trajectories pre‐ and post‐exclusion; the reasons for their exclusion from school; and on what forms of alternative provision were available to them after their permanent exclusion.     

Choosing a faith school in Leicester: admissions criteria,diversity and choice

ABSTRACT

Religion in Britain is in overall decline and ‘no religion’ is growing, but one-third of schools in the State sector in England and Wales are ‘schools with a religious designation’ (‘faith schools’). Historically, these were Protestant and Catholic Church schools, but new faith schools have been established by Churches and other faiths. Governments of all parties have encouraged this development, chiefly on the grounds of increased parental choice and improved quality.

The research presented here provides evidence about the operation of faith schools in the English city of Leicester in 2016, particularly from the perspective of those choosing a school. The main objectives are (1) to indicate the diversity of faith schools, (2) to show how they present themselves to those looking for a school: their admission requirements and level of educational attainment and (3) to reflect on the claim that faith schooling offers more and better choice and quality. Leicester is selected for its size and diversity; it is small enough to study with the resources available to us and is one of the most multi-ethnic and multifaith urban areas in England. Research was carried out between February and July 2016 and offers a snapshot from that year.     

‘The perfect pupil’: changing aims and changing measures of success in school RE

In England and Wales, religious education (RE) in non-faith schools has gradually changed from Christian education to the study of many religions and philosophies. However, the core values of RE have continued to be related to concerns about social cohesion and the building of shared values. The article briefly discusses changes in RE since 1944 and then considers attitudes to RE among a group of year 11 pupils (age 15–16) in one large multicultural comprehensive school, collected through questionnaires and group discussions. The subject name had been changed from RE to Religious Studies (RS) in 2004. The focus here is on pupils’ ideas of ‘the perfect RS pupil’; used as a means to access their understandings of the subject’s aims and their teachers’ expectations. The most popular responses were that the ideal pupil would be knowledgeable about religions and be tolerant and empathetic. This is in accord with the current social and political agenda for RE but lays it open to criticism that tolerance becomes an end in itself encouraging indifference to religions rather than a critical, evaluative perspective.     

‘I'm just there to ease the burden’: the parent support adviser role in English schools and the question of emotional labour

In 2005, the Department for Education and Skills announced a £40 million investment in a new school support worker role, the parent support adviser (PSA), for 20 English local authorities. A pilot project ran from 2006–2008 and resulted in the establishment of 717 PSAs in 1167 schools. The national evaluation of the project forms the evidential basis of this paper, with interviews conducted with 69 PSAs, 85 PSA line managers and 105 parents and a database recording casework with nearly 21,000 parents. This paper focuses on the nature of the PSA role as the first centrally funded parent support role in English schools. The theoretical framework provided by the concept of ‘emotional labour’ and the development of the concept represented by the 4Ps typology provides the conceptual structure. This paper argues that although the characteristics of the PSA role appear to place it within the category of work requiring emotional labour, PSAs and parents regard that aspect of the role in a positive light. For the PSAs there was little evidence that emotional labour necessary for the role of PSA led to dissonance between role and worker or alienation from the product of PSA labour.     

Teaching strategies to improve students’ vocabulary and text comprehension

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Good readers use various comprehension strategies to understand texts. However, many students lack knowledge on how to purposefully and effectively use...     

Vocabulary and text comprehension levels: what should be considered in assessments?

Abstract

Text comprehension comprises processes that work interactively to create a situation model of a text. Three hundred and one students from 12 Estonian schools were assessed to examine the relations between vocabulary and different text comprehension levels and to detect students’ individual profiles in these skills. Both variable- and person-oriented approaches were used to analyse overall patterns in the data as well as to make inferences regarding students’ individual differences. Vocabulary was found to have the strongest influence on inferential and literal comprehension, whereas evaluative comprehension was slightly less related to vocabulary. Person-oriented approaches revealed different patterns in students’ vocabulary and comprehension skills. Individual differences in vocabulary and comprehension levels emphasise the need to assess students’ comprehension with multidimensional tests aimed at determining the shortcomings in comprehension components and tracking students’ developmental changes.     

LEA support services for special educational needs provision and management

The National Foundation for Educational Research recently undertook research on the impact of delegation on local authority support services for special educational needs. This paper presents data on the provision offered by these services and the way in which they are managed. In particular, it examines how support is targeted, the extent and profile of service staff, mechanisms for the referral of pupils for support from the services, management structure, staff deployment and the professional development of service staff, and service monitoring, review and evaluation. Ways in which support services have developed in the 1990s, and their challenges for the next decade in the light of developments in the governance of education and the local policy context, are discussed.     

The Parenting Early Intervention Programme in England, 2006–2011; a classed experience?

Family policy was a key component of the ‘New’ Labour government's family, social and education policy, and a wide range of family focused initiatives and interventions designed to ‘support’ families and improve individual, family and social outcomes were introduced. The post‐May 2010 coalition government's family policy exhibits key elements of policy continuity. There have been strong, class‐based critiques of this approach to social policy, which have argued that policies were informed by a project to recreate the working class. A key English family policy initiative, the Parenting Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) ran from September 2006–March 2011. The national evaluation of the PEIP was a large scale combined methods study of the implementation of parenting programmes in all local authorities in England, and forms the evidential base of this article which was built upon the completion, by participating parents, of three standardised pre and post parenting course questionnaires (N = 4446). A sample of 133 participating parents was also interviewed using semi‐structured interview schedules. The evidence from the PEIP evaluation showed the heterogeneous class nature of the PEIP cohorts, which over the roll‐out of the initiative, incorporated a larger number of middle class parents. In addition, the qualitative data indicated that parents had strongly positive participant perceptions of PEIP courses, characterised by ‘mutual reach’, and did not experience the courses in classed terms.The evidence from the quantitative and qualitative data collected for the national evaluation suggests that it is difficult to conceptualise the PEIP, as an example of the Labour government's family policy, in class terms—such an approach requires, at the least, major qualification.     

The role of the Connexions service in supporting the transition from school to post-16 education, employment training and work for young people with a history of specific speech and language difficulties or learning difficulties

The transition from school to the world of post-compulsory education is a major landmark in the lives of young people with special educational needs (SEN). In England the Connexions service set up to support young people during transition was planned to provide both a universal service and one that provided special support to vulnerable young people, particularly those at risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET). The present paper reports the findings of a study of 46 Connexions personal advisers (PAs) who were supporting young people with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) or general learning difficulties, as part of a longitudinal study of these young people's development. Interviews were held with the PAs to identify patterns of organisation, the nature of services delivered to these young people and the factors that influenced successful support. The findings highlight the diversity among Connexions services, the limited expertise with young people with SEN and the structural barriers that may limit effectiveness. In addition, the Assessment, Planning, Implementation and Review Framework was not consistently used. The Connexions service has the potential to provide important support to young people with SEN at this key transition point but our study indicates the need for modifications to its operation.