Understanding young people’s experiences of a managed move

School exclusion often leads pupils towards a path of social exclusion, with educational disengagement resulting in negative long-term consequences.

Managed moves were introduced as an alternative to permanent exclusion, whereby a school can transfer a pupil to another school with the agreement of everyone involved, aiming to encourage increased collaboration between the school, parents and pupil.

This thesis explored the experiences of five Key Stage 4 pupils undergoing the managed move process

 Interviews occurred as the move unfolded, taking place at multiple time points along their journeys.

Within the researched local authority (LA), pupils attended the pupil referral unit (PRU) as part of their managed move process.

Five staff members involved in the move process were also interviewed to provide additional contextual information.

Findings outlined six overlapping phases involved in pupils managed move journeys including: school life before the move, heading towards the move, transition into the PRU, period of re-establishment, the decision to reintegrate and working towards a different future.

Main features of pupils' managed moves were also identified, namely: adults' conceptualisations of behaviour, variation or inconsistency, the need for enabling environments, respectful relationships with adults and by-products of change.

Conclusions focus on the individual nature of pupil's move outcomes, with consideration given to the temporality of their experiences.

Within the research the collaborative nature of manage moves was not found to be sufficiently embedded in the process, highlighting the need for a greater understanding of the premise of a managed move.

The findings hold significant implications for understanding how pupils experience the managed move process, resulting in implications for EPs, schools, LAs and policy makers in considering how a managed move may be better operationalised, and in many ways, reinvented to be used as the positive initiative it was once set up to be.