‘When pupils feel like they belong, they want to stay’

Sophie Tales is deputy headteacher of an inner-city mainstream primary school. She has lived, professional and academic knowledge of Adverse Childhood Experience, shown throughout her work both as a senior school leader and as author of Creating Adversity-Aware Schools: Trauma-Informed Tools and Strategies from Educators with Lived Experience. Sophie is passionate in her work with staff and schools in developing their understanding of behaviour as communication, to see adversity in all its forms and develop strategic relationship-focused school systems to better support disadvantaged families.

Dr Leanne Cort is a qualified primary school teacher. She is now a Senior Educational Psychologist having practised in this role for 20 years. She has a first-class honours degree in Social Psychology and a Post Graduate Certificate of Education, as well as a Masters and Doctorate in Educational Psychology. She has completed research into the impact of domestic violence on children and families, and has experience of working with children with special educational needs from 0-25 years of age. She has worked in a range of settings from preschool, primary and secondary schools, to a broad range of specialist provisions including those for children and young people with SEMH needs and Pupil Referral Units. She has worked for a number of Local Authorities and now works independently as co-director of a company, Partners in Psychology. This includes offering EP support to a range of local academy trusts and joint working with the community paediatric team within the NHS. She has experience of working with children with a range of needs from learning difficulties, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, medical or sensory needs and social, emotional and mental health needs. 

Leanne met Sophie whilst working for an inner-city academy Trust. They both worked with colleagues as part of a complex needs panel, aimed at preventing exclusion within the Trust. 

Here, they take a school and Educational Psychologist perspective on exclusion, considering the vantage points and pressures on both sides.

The school perspective, with Sophie Tales

Belonging

Belonging is such a huge part of school identity. The feeling of acceptance that pupils have within their school community directly links to the behaviours that are presented in daily interactions between pupils and their peers and pupils and staff members. That's perhaps particularly the case if they don't feel as if they belong in their home environment. 

There is a huge shift in what belonging looks like from primary to secondary. With primary schools being significantly smaller than most secondary schools, a pupil may have more of an individual identify as part of a smaller collective, with less variety in staff interactions throughout the school day. It's easier to know one's place and feel a sense of belonging in one classroom with one main teacher and the same 30 peers around you five days a week, with maybe two whole school assemblies and break times where you see yourself as part of the wider school. 

Within a secondary school, the variety of group dynamics experienced in one day provides significantly more opportunities for a sense of belonging to be fractured, unless there is a strong sense of belonging to the whole school values and ethos. If a student feels there is no place for them, the sense of rejection from the school will naturally present in behaviours that react to this rejection and serve as a means to emotionally protect themselves. 

This is where values and ethos are so important – do students know what the school stands for, and how they connect themselves to those values? It is also why conflict resolution is so important in managing the relationships throughout a school, including between staff and students, as well as students and their peers. There must be opportunities for staff and students to sit down with one another to model healthy relationship development and conflict resolution, rather than allowing resentments to grow and lead to that disconnect and lack of belonging.

Thresholds

The data shows us the huge impact that exclusion has on a young person's life trajectory, and therefore such a decision cannot be taken lightly. Equally, school leaders need to consider the safety and wellbeing of the school community, including staff retention and the school experience of other students. We live in a society of law and consequence and to not provide consequences and barriers for children and young people is to not prepare them adequately for the wider world. It's important for a school to reflect and consider what their threshold for behaviour is at any given time, and in comparison to other schools in the locality. Is that threshold too strict or too lax? Could more support be put in place within school, or is that support best placed elsewhere? How do you know when you have done everything you can? How do you know when your limit has been reached? 

Strong senior leadership teams consider these questions on a case-by-case basis as a group, never in isolation, and the answers will change dependent on factors across the school community. These reflections for senior leaders are not easy – it's part of leading a school community.

Money

Ultimately the biggest issue within the education sector is money. Services across the whole of the public sector lack funding. More and more schools are being expected to consolidate parts of other publicly funded services that are no longer able to run into their school offer. For instance, early help services led by social care are now being run through school pastoral teams; attendance home visits and paperwork once led by educational welfare officers are now being run by school administrative teams; children with EHCPs who need special school places are being supported by teachers, teaching assistants and SENDCos within mainstream schools; mental health support once looked after by CAMHS and medical nurses is now being supported across school pastoral teams and family support workers. Schools once focused purely on the education of children now have a whole community offer, incorporating social care, medical support, attendance issues and beyond.

Therefore the ability to signpost a family or young person on to other services for additional support is significantly reduced, as many of those services now have high thresholds before they will become involved. School is completing the work below that service's threshold offer – absorbing the challenges of so many public sector areas, with significantly less training. 

So, when a school is faced with a young person in crisis, they are attempting to manage that behaviour as best as they can with as much support as they can get from outside agencies. Often the behaviour escalates more quickly than other services can get involved. It is therefore of no surprise to me that there are increasing numbers of exclusion nationally. A school must always be reflective of what their support offer is, and consider their thresholds, but the national picture also needs consideration.

The Educational Psychologist perspective, with Dr Leanne Cort

Relationships

One of the key psychological factors when we think about school exclusion is relationships. Staff need time to read and attune to the emotional needs of young people. For those at risk of exclusion, this could affect their sense of belonging and connectedness. People need to feel valued, to be 'kept in mind'. Without this they may seek that sense elsewhere, or experience social isolation impacting on their behaviours. This could perpetuate or feed a cycle of rejection. 

Within school there seems to be a variation in the skills of staff in relation to attunement. Building trusting relationships with young people can take time, skills and energy, which can be hard in busy educational settings. Developmentally, young people through adolescence may seek to connect with their peer group more, take increased risks and seek novelty experiences affecting their presentation and behaviours in school.  

Environmental factors

I think sometimes it is difficult for school staff to have all the information relating to a child's life which can impact on the child's behaviours. Trying to maintain close links with the family and exploring the young person's perspective can help. Finding out about life events can support the formulation of ideas and theories as to why they are presenting in the way they are in school, giving ideas and clues about how to support them. 

Sometimes a young person's behaviour is an understandable reaction to an event, sometimes it is a reaction to events which have happened previously. Without this knowledge and understanding, behaviour can be misconstrued or misunderstood which can lead to exclusion. We need to support staff to understand what healthy reactions to trauma and life crisis can look like in childhood and adolescence, and support adaptations and adjustments for this where possible and reasonable. I think knowledge, understanding and skills can increase a school's confidence and flexibility in their response to a young person's SEMH needs.  

Emotional regulation

Supporting the individual needs of children and young people, taking into account social communication difficulties, learning needs and social, emotional and mental health needs is key to preventing exclusion. It's about seeing a young person holistically. A child's behavioural presentation may be the 'tip of the iceberg' or represent their way of coping with underlying difficulties. 

For many children at risk of exclusion, emotional regulation is so important. They may find it hard to identify, communicate and regulate their emotional and sensory needs, so opportunities to do this in school can prevent behaviours escalating. This increases the need for schools to be creative and flexible in the way they support the development of a child's emotional needs. It can be difficult to incorporate emotional regulation into school life, particularly within large secondary settings. Perhaps this could be included as an integral part of relational, behaviour policies in settings. Yes, schools are educators, but many are also developing excellent skills in how they adjust, adapt and support the emotional needs of young people. Where they are able to do this, exclusions can be reduced and children can engage in the curriculum more, at their own pace. 

As an EP I like to be involved early where possible, in order to prevent exclusions, through supporting staff wellbeing, identifying student needs, working with the people who can build the relationships with students and the systems in school to help facilitate flexible adjustments. 

Staff wellbeing

It is not only the needs of children and young people we need to think about in relation to exclusion. It is also the wellbeing of the adults working and supporting those children. Schools are complex institutions with a high level of social interactive factors which can increase the potential for fatigue and stress or 'burnout' in practitioners. It is important for staff to feel emotionally supported and regulated in order to attune and contain the emotions of young people. In other profession, supervision is an integral part of practice. This is just beginning to emerge as a consideration in education, and perhaps more supervision for senior leaders and pastoral staff could be helpful. 

Inclusion

At the heart of much of this is having an inclusive ethos within education. This is relevant at different levels – systemically within schools and within and between different social circles relevant to the young person in school. Inclusive values and beliefs at a senior management level can help to promote inclusion, preventing exclusion. This can filter through to resources, use of external professionals, multi-agency working, the links between policy and practice and all the layers in between. Passionate, inspirational leaders in the wider community and education system can make things feel realistic, achievable and possible. 

Resilience

Children and young people are an inspiration and show how resilient they can be. Many children succeed despite adversity, and we can learn from them and the research on resilience. When schools recognise and champion strengths, they promote resilience, self-confidence and self-esteem. Extra-curricular experiences and a rich diverse curriculum can engage young people in a positive way supporting them to follow their interests and strengths, developing realistic and achievable goals and enhancing their cultural and individual identity. There is something about being solution focused, in our interactions with young people and families, developing a strengths-based curriculum, enabling children to flourish. When you feel some success, autonomy and confidence in yourself as a person, you can accept feedback and critique, recover and repair. Your internal dialogue and narrative about your own sense of self as a learner is positive, influencing your identity and your interactions with others. When you feel positive about yourself in the social context it helps. When you feel like you belong, you want to stay. 

There is a hopeful optimism. Educational settings can be protective for children, help them to identify their strengths and be their 'cheerleaders'. We just have to look after the staff in school to ensure that they can continue to do this, have the time and availability to do this, and continue to develop their skills in preventing exclusion.