Mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
On 4th March, WISERD researchers Jemma Bridgeman and Chris Taylor led a webinar for practitioners on the Excluded Lives project, for Cardiff Council. The Excluded Lives project examined school exclusion across the UK and uncovered informal practices, systemic challenges, and school staff trying to support pupils with complex needs. The data showed a picture of a system struggling to balance discipline with support and rules with empathy.
We began the webinar by explaining that school exclusion is a bigger issue than the official figures. The research revealed that beyond the official statistics, there were numerous unofficial practices: “cooling-off periods,” “internal reflection rooms,” reduced timetables, and students being “sent next door.” These informal exclusions go unrecorded, and parents are denied the right to challenge these unlawful exclusions.
A pupil might be “sent home to cool off” or spend the day in an internal reflection room. While these measures fall short of a formal exclusion, they represent lost learning time as learners are not in a mainstream classroom and can signal the beginning of a pupil’s disengagement from school.
Next, delegates explored two case studies from the project that demonstrate the complexity of the school exclusion process. Firstly, Jack. A Year 8 student whose mother believed he had autism. School staff identified Jack as having behavioural issues that eventually led to his permanent exclusion. By the time he received his statement for behavioural, emotional, and social difficulties, it was too late. Jack had already been permanently excluded from school. The support he needed—one-to-one assistance—might have prevented his exclusion entirely.
Perhaps the most troubling finding is how exclusion has become, perversely, a gateway to support. School staff often find themselves in an impossible position: they know exclusion will harm a student, yet it might be the only way to access the resources that student desperately needs.
Helena’s case illustrates this paradox. Despite arriving at her new school with promises of improved behaviour, she struggled with attendance and displayed what staff described as challenging behaviour. But beneath the surface lay deeper issues—previous suicide attempts and a fundamental lack of trust in adults. School staff found themselves at an impasse, feeling that permanent exclusion might be the only way to secure the support Helena clearly needed.
Delegates discussed the language that school staff had used in the case studies. They felt that the very language used to describe struggling pupils could shape their futures; Workshop delegates noted that describing a student as “attention-seeking” or “manipulative” fails to recognise that these behaviours often signal unmet needs or trauma responses. A student who “seeks attention” might actually be seeking connection; disruptive behaviour might be a cry for help.
School staff told us that learners had increasing support needs following the COVID-19 pandemic. They explained that because of the increased need for social services, child and adolescent and mental health services (CAMHS) were overstretched. In the case of social services, school staff felt that the criteria for support were now too high, meaning that some families were not getting the support they needed, which could contribute to their children having behavioural challenges in school. School staff also identified families as a critical factor in preventing exclusion. Where parents and carers worked with them, they were more likely to prevent an exclusion.
The webinar concluded with a discussion on exclusion policy and practice. Delegates suggested that we might be asking the wrong questions about exclusion, suggesting that we should be asking questions more systematically: How can we design schools and multi-agency support systems that meet the needs of our communities? How can we encourage greater collaboration between parents and schools?
One of the findings of the Excluded Lives project was that school staff were dealing with increasingly complex pressures and challenges. We need to rethink how education works with support services to create an inclusive trauma-informed education service that meets the needs of learners at risk of exclusion in Wales.