Keeping Young People in School - Alternatives to Exclusion

Keeping Young People in School - Alternatives to Exclusion

Selwyn College, University of Cambridge

26-27th March, 2015

Is school exclusion meeting the needs of young people, teachers, society?
Do any young people benefit from school exclusion?
Are current school disciplinary policies marginalising the already marginalised?
What are the alternatives to school exclusion?
What would we need to implement alternative strategies that benefit young people?

This conference took place in Cambridge on 26-27th of March.

Conference Aim

The aim of the conference was to situate exclusionary policies in a broader context of available policies to deal with "problem" children, for the benefit of teachers, parents, policy makers and wider society. Excluded children and young people face greater problems in later life which not only makes their lives difficult, but is also costly for society in terms of social and financial costs.

Conference Background

This conference was part of a collaborative research project conducted by the Violence Research Centre (VRC) at the University of Cambridge, the charity Catch22 and the Greater London Authority. The research project, the London Education and Inclusion Project (LEIP), is a cluster randomised controlled trial of a 12-week-long intervention. It evaluates the Engage in Education – London (EiE-L) programme, delivered by Catch22. EiE-L is a shortened version of Engage in Education (EiE) that was adapted for the purposes of this study. The intervention works with young people in years 9 and 10 of secondary school who are most at risk of school exclusion. It targets their communication and broader social-behavioural skills with the goal to reduce problem behaviours. LEIP highlighted the need for further rigorous research in the UK context with the aim to better support practitioners in understanding and managing issues of pupils' problem behaviours in schools.

LEIP is financially supported by grants from the European Commission and the Education Endowment Foundation. The trial was registered in the ISRCTN register (International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number): ISRCTN23244695.

Conference Speakers and Programme

Experts from across the UK, other European countries, and the US were invited to contextualise UK policy and discuss ways to better deal with disciplinary issues at schools. Please click here for a full list of speakers. The findings from the London Education and Inclusion Project (LEIP) will also be presented during this conference.

The conference took place over one and a half days at Selwyn College, Cambridge. The format incorporated presentations from key speakers throughout the first day, followed by smaller group discussions which fed back into a larger discussion amongst the full group of attendees on the final day. Please click here for the full conference programme.

Conference Registration

Academics, practitioners, policy makers, third sector agencies and anybody else who has an interest in school disciplinary policy and its consequences attended this conference. This conference aimed to build bridges by bringing scholars and practitioners together to discuss the practice of school exclusion.

Registration is now closed. For any questions regarding your registration, please contact the conference organisers.