Mainstream schools haven’t been set up to meet the needs of the most challenging students, but change is coming, says Terry Grego
I met Z when he was in year 10. I was deputy head of the pupil referral unit (PRU) he was referred to for persistent disruptive behaviour.
He is likeable, funny and quick-witted. He has developed good relationships with staff, but he has oppositional defiant disorder, so he is frequently stubborn, hostile and prone to losing his temper.
He has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and is medicated for ADHD. He is under the care of child and adolescent mental health services and is living with extended family members in the care system.
He is highly vulnerable to child criminal exploitation, is already involved with police, and unsafe in neighbouring postcodes. No education health and care plan application has been started at the point of writing.
If you’ve worked in schools, PRUs, alternative provisions or other specialist settings, you’ve probably met young people like Z.
He’s one of the many existing on the fringe of the education system, facing multiple learning, wellbeing and safeguarding needs, all competing for priority, and all impacting his ability to engage with school.
Needs escalate
At the PRU, I only met young people like Z after their needs escalated to the point that they couldn’t stay in mainstream education.
At Football Beyond Borders I saw young people on the other side of that divide. Pupils facing multiple intersecting needs that impact their ability to learn, but still in mainstream school, some only just.
The team at FBB works tirelessly to keep these young people thriving in mainstream schools.
But while PRUs, APs and other specialist settings are built around inclusion, many overstretched secondaries (and primaries) are not designed or given the resources they need to intervene early and meet pupils’ challenges.
So what would it take to change that?
When Z arrived at the PRU, it was clear his needs had been escalating under the surface for some time.
But there are lots of reasons why mainstream schools like his are not set up to meet those needs, at least not yet.
The government has stated its commitment to making schools places where young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are four times more likely to be suspended and five times more likely to be permanently excluded, feel like they belong.
In the past, this might have been seen as prioritising the needs of the few over those of the many.
But with fewer than half of young people on free school meals achieving a standard pass in GCSEs English and maths, plus tens of thousands excluded every year, it’s difficult to see them as the “few”.
It is these young people who hear that they don’t belong in school, and so subsequently don’t matter to their schools and communities, which often leads them to question whether they matter at all.
Best interests
Fortunately for Z, the PRU invests in a programme of trauma-informed and attachment-aware training, an in-depth continuous professional development programme of best SEND practice for all staff, and a named trusted adult who Z knows has his best interests at heart.
There is a larger pastoral staff, higher staff-to-student ratio and specialist expertise from speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, occupational therapists and additional one-to-one support.
That doesn’t mean the suspensions and exclusion were without cost. Z is statistically more vulnerable now than he was before his suspensions started, with suspended pupils facing worse outcomes across education, employment and youth justice.
Headteachers, regardless of whether they’re at a mainstream school or PRU, want young people to succeed. They want them to be able to access the right support at the right time.
Perverse incentives and accountability measures have tied schools’ hands.
No headteacher ever got their teaching certificate to exclude, either literally or figuratively.
But despite the structural barriers, many trusts, headteachers, local authorities and third-sector organisations are already beating the odds to embed inclusion and build belonging.
They are challenging received wisdom that pits high standards against inclusion and are building a movement.
Their numbers are growing, and reform is coming – and I am looking forward to a future where all young people can achieve and thrive in a school where they know they belong.
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