“They won’t let me back”. The perceptions of students with SEBD across Primary and Secondary Alternative Provision

Students with social, emotional and behavioural/social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEBD/SEMH respectively) remain one of the most difficult populations to include in mainstream education.

Many have negative school experiences leading to poor attainment and life outcomes. In turn, the consequences of such difficulties often result in students being excluded or moved from mainstream schooling to alternative provision.

A systematic review was carried out to examine the educational experiences of this population in mainstream education and alternative provision, from their perspective.

The findings of this review indicated that students typically experience negative educational experiences within mainstream education and positive experiences at alternative provision.

In addition, a number of key factors were found to determine these experiences including relationships with peers and teachers, perceived treatment, perceptions of behaviour and views towards education.

A number of methodological limitations were discussed with recommendations for practice and suggestions for further research made.

The empirical paper sought to address the lack of research exploring the perceptions of students within Primary alternative provision as well as the limited research regarding reintegration.

In comparing perceptions with Secondary students (attending alternative provision), the study investigated whether student views change across education.

A qualitative study was undertaken in which 13 participants from 3 Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) took part in semi-structured interviews, the data from which was analysed using phenomenological data analysis.

The findings conclude that student perceptions generally remain stable across Primary to Secondary education in terms of how they attribute their behaviour and identify support.

However, students appear to differ in their views regarding mainstream education and reintegration which relates to their sense of school connectedness and understanding about their behaviour.

For the majority of Secondary students, this was characterised by feelings of low self-worth and perceived inadequacy.