Title: Why do girls get ‘excluded’ from school? A small scale qualitative investigation of the educational experiences of KS3 and KS4 girls who are ‘at risk of exclusion’. Background: Levels of both fixed term and permanent exclusion from school, have caused widespread concern over the past 20 years. Most recent figures record permanent exclusion at approximately 6,500 pupils in England in the year 2008/2009 (DCSF, 2010). However, in comparison to research interest received by their male counterparts, the needs of girls appear to have been largely overlooked. Rationale/aims: In response to a lack of research nationally, and priorities within my Local Authority, I have carried out an exploratory study, which investigates the phenomenon of KS3/KS4 girls who are judged to be ‘at risk’ of permanent exclusion. Methodology: The substantive element of the current research used semistructured interviews with a small number girls (n=2), their parents (n=2), associated school staff professionals (n=2) and external professionals involved in this area (n=4). Analysis of interview data was carried out using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework (i.e. Smith et al 2009). Findings: Following a macro-analysis of interview data, findings are discussed from a Bio-ecological Systems Theory (Process-Person-Context-Time model) perspective of development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). Conclusions: The research concludes with a discussion of findings in the context of my employing Local Authority, offering implications for practice and future research in the area of girls and school exclusion.

This study describes and evaluates an approach to supporting children at risk of failure to succeed as they transfer to secondary school. The Year 7 intervention project was based on knowledge and evidence from previous research into approaches and concerns regarding secondary school transfer and the historical use of nurture groups in schools. Secondary school transfer has long been identified as a time of risk for vulnerable children in the education system. In 1969 Nisbett and Entwistle concluded from a five year study that over 50% of students presented with identifiable problems in adjusting to secondary school, and in 2006 Atkinson was able to obtain children’s perspectives of the difficulties they faced at transfer. A project was negotiated to provide a support mechanism, based upon a nurture group model, for transfer within one maintained secondary school. This aimed to enable children identified as vulnerable by their primary schools, to access a small group setting for part of their time in Year 7 within which were opportunities for a range of experiences based upon nurture principles, in addition to support for the mainstream-based curriculum. The intervention was evaluated using both academic progress and analysis of subjective accounts of the children and involved school staff and parents, to provide evidence of the impact of this provision upon ten students participating in this intervention. Findings indicated that all involved staff, students and parents considered the intervention worthwhile and beneficial. Most students made progress throughout Year 7, not demonstrating the statistical ‘dip’ that has previously, consistently been evidenced nationally. Whilst the results were promising, this was a small scale study based in one school and there was not a control group against which to compare student progress within the school. There is also the possibility of confirmation bias due to the expectations of staff, and of the “Hawthorne effect” of the novelty of the intervention.

This thesis presents a study of the motivation of UK school pupils to learn a modern foreign language. The study involved 345 year 7 pupils learning either French or German in a large inner-city school based in an urban area in central England. Anecdotal evidence and personal experience suggested a widespread decrease in motivation for modern language learning during the course of year 7. The purpose of the study was to seek evidence substantiating or refuting the hypothesis of a motivational dip and to investigate factors that might affect any perceived changes in motivation. The research design was inspired by elements of the Dynamic Systems Approach (DSA), particularly the idea of attractors and repellers. This study attempted to incorporate elements of DSA through the design of two questionnaires, which were used to collect the data in the autumn of 2007 and spring/summer 2008. The data were analysed employing both quantitative and qualitative methodology and the findings suggested that there was indeed evidence of a motivational dip occurring within the time span under investigation. Contrary to discussions in the literature and wider society the drop in motivation could not be explained through the impact of individual factors, such as the teacher, nor did any combination of factors seem to suggest predictable outcomes. However, the findings did appear to confirm characteristics of a complex dynamic system present in the construct of motivation as suggested by DSA and provided evidence that particular factors may act as strong attractors and repellers. Further to this, the importance for motivation of feelings of belonging and emotional well-being in the classroom situation was strongly implied in the pupils’ responses, suggesting that current teacher training strategies and educational policies may need to be re-focused if this is confirmed in future research.

This thesis represents an assessed requirement of the Applied Educational and Child Psychology Doctoral course at the University of Birmingham. The thesis consists of two volumes. Volume One explores the role of schools in mental health work. A literature review considers perspectives on mental health, ways in which the mental health of children and young people can be promoted or demoted, and the role that schools have in this area. Transfer from primary to secondary school has been identified as a vulnerable time for pupils. Consequently, an empirical research study was designed to explore the views of Year 7 pupils at one secondary school to identify how their school does, and could further, support their emotional health and well-being during, and following, transfer from primary school. Volume Two consists of five Professional Practice Reports that each explore different aspects of the role of the educational psychologist. Papers relate to working with teaching assistants, supporting pupils experiencing difficulties with peer relationships in school, supporting pupils who have a parent who has a mental health difficulty, supporting pupils in the early years’ who have speech, language and communication difficulties, and conducting research with children and young people.

King Edward's Birmingham, an independent school, provides wholly free places to some 10% of its annual intake of 120 boys. This research investigates how such boys fare academically at school and how their schooling could affect their subsequent lives. Because they have passed the fierce entrance examination without the benefits middle class children might have received through attending feeder prep schools with perhaps additional coaching, the meritocratic thesis suggests they should excel in the school and achieve impressive qualifications. Conversely, the work of Bourdieu and Bernstein indicates that dissonance between home and school environments could create social difficulties and cause these boys to underperform significantly. The results show that most free-place boys achieved results similar to their fee-paying counterparts although few really excelled and a noticeable minority struggled throughout school and gained disappointing final grades. On leaving education, those from the working class prove less likely to enter the elite professions and those who do so advance less than their middle class peers. These differences could be attributed to lower amounts of cultural and social capital. A change in the focus of extra-curricular activities at King Edward's to target the building of these forms of capital could prove beneficial.

This thesis is a practitioner based enquiry exploring the effects of teaching Religious Education through a thinking skills approach. Two main areas were focused upon in a mixed methods design: student perceptions of being taught through thinking skills; and whether a significant development occurred within the type of cognition underpinning religious thought (called Religious Judgement). The research lasted just under seven months and was conducted in an independent day school for girls; involving 32 participants drawn from two Year 8 Religious Education classes. The research found that the pupils felt a thinking skills approach to Religious Education was a positive way of learning, as they believed this made the lessons more enjoyable and easier. They particularly liked opportunities to work as a community of enquiry, because they believed it enabled them to be more actively engaged in their learning. The Religious Judgement scores of the group developed slightly faster than would be expected and this was particularly significant for six pupils. In addition, the views of these six students also demonstrated greater cognitive awareness than the other participants. Thus, overall this research suggests that a Thinking Skills approach could be highly effective in motivating learners and developing their cognitive abilities.

This study explored how and why some young people are considered “at-risk” of school exclusion, focusing on the implications for a cohort in the latter stages of compulsory education in two large urban secondary schools in the Midlands. Interviews, undertaken with students at four points during one academic year and with staff, alongside detailed data from records and files, were analysed with the interpretivist techniques of Constructivism and Document Analysis to identify the characteristics that influenced the students’ status, their schools’ provision and policy response processes and their experiences in the school environment and wider. A review of existing literature showed that whilst those “at-risk” share common characteristics, especially low socioeconomic status, the combination, extent and even timing of their influence is difficult to assess, such that response and intervention panaceas are unlikely to be found. This research showed that whilst the cohort completed their compulsory schooling, they were, perhaps, less successful in core academic outcomes and were also subject to variability and inconsistency in school responses and interventions, related to the influences of interpretation and dispositions on staff roles and policy implementation. The study concludes that deeper understanding of needs, staff training, a more relevant curriculum and greater involvement of young people “at-risk” and their parents/carers, in school life and decisions directly affecting them, could improve outcomes. The ramifications are potentially significant, suggesting that schools and policymakers can and should do more to avoid marginalising young people, with improvements that need not involve structural change, new schools, or extensive costs. The suggestions also implicitly challenge the mantra of recent national policy and developments in secondary education, that raising young peoples’ aspirations and diversifying provision are preconditions for improved social mobility.

This research explored the role of Muslim faith-based schools in the culturally and religiously diverse city of Birmingham in meeting the religious, cultural and educational needs of Muslim children and the expectations of their parents. The economy- focus post- Second World War mass migration to Europe has acted as the key catalyst for the modern Muslim presence in the UK and wider Europe. While Muslim communities came from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, Islam has defined their collective identities. With the joining of their families, the first generation of British Muslims have began to realise the challenges of maintaining Islamic values and identities among their offspring who were growing up within an overall secular and multicultural society. This has marked the establishment of Mosques, community centres and most crucially faith-based Islamic school in the UK. The relevance and desirability of faith-based schooling in general and Muslim schooling in particular has come under a close security in the UK. This study focused on the case of Muslim schooling within the context of multi-faith and multicultural city of Birmingham. The study explored parental motives behind the choice of Islamic schools, their distinctive educational ethos and how they address the challenge of helping Muslim children integrate into the wider multicultural British society. The study adopted an empirical research methodology through utilising a mixed-methods research design to investigate its key questions. The main data collection tools were survey, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The study sample included 133 parents, 36 students who graduated from schools and 33 teachers and governors running Muslim schools. The quantitative data was analysed using the SPSS software and the interview and focus group discussion were analysed by adopting qualitative data analysis procedures. The overall research findings suggested that parents held positive views of the Muslim schools but at the same time had high expectations about their general academic achievement as well as the Islamic Education provision. Most of the parents shared the view that Muslim schools needed to adopt a more integrated approach to the curriculum striking the balance between Islamic and secular subjects. Parents overwhelmingly thought that the Muslim schools did contribute to the social and cultural of integration of Muslim children into the wider multicultural and multi-faith British society. However, one of the significant findings of the survey analysis was the fact that parents appeared to be ambiguous about the overall achievement of schools in adequately meeting the academic and Islamic religious, moral and spiritual needs of their children. The conclusion chapter summarised the key findings of the study and discussed the implications of the findings for improving the quality of Islamic faith-based schooling within the context of secular and multicultural British society.

Purpose: To explore how much democratic agency Academy Leaders have in practice in the field of education to work democratically in the public interest with those within their own academies and others within wider educational networks, and from this understanding inform the United Kingdom government’s education reform agenda Design: This qualitative research involves semi-structured interviews with 10 Academy Leaders who are directly involved in leadership in academies. Findings: At a conjuncture that is characterised by uncertainty and precariousness, Academy Leaders take up different positions on a spectrum of possible positions in the field of education in response to what is interpreted as the United Kingdom’s neo-liberal education reform agenda. The findings highlight that Academy Leaders who have a high commitment to neo-liberal responsibilisation of self feel they have agency to input into the government’s education reform agenda but Academy Leaders who oppose neo-liberalism, show a low commitment to neo-liberal responsibilisation of self and instead show a high commitment to democracy or public values, feel that they are given very little, if any, democratic agency. Contribution: This thesis makes a contribution to the existing body of knowledge in education by building on the work of Gunter (Gunter, 2001, Woods et al., 2007, Gunter et al., 2008, Gunter, 2011, Gunter, 2016) and Courtney (2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2015c and 2017), and using Bourdieu’s thinking tools to analyse Academy leaders’ habitus and the agency that they feel they have in practice in the field of education, to create new understanding of the emerging issues of democratic agency and neo-liberal responsibilisation of self, as discussed by Keddie (2015,2018), from the perspective of Academy Leaders at a particular conjuncture in the formation of academy schools in England. It does this by encouraging Academy Leaders to articulate how they respond to the United Kingdom government’s education reform agenda and the way that they carry out their work and analyses this in terms of: types of response to change and the extent to which Academy Leaders have a Commitment to Democracy or Public Values and/or a Commitment to Responsibilisation of self.

This thesis is a qualitative study of the implications of the resit policy of A levels for student learning in sixth-form education in England. In contrast to many other high-stakes examinations which test students only at the end of a course, A levels use a modular format where students are allowed to resit past units within the two-year sixth-form course with no limit or penalty. Since resits were introduced extensively to A levels ten years ago, the A-level results have been improving steadily. Every year, without fail, there are reports of another 'best-ever' A levels. Yet, instead of national elation, there is mistrust, suspicion and doubt about rising standards amid allegations of grade inflation; resits are seen as the key reason for the big increases in A-level results. The research adopts an interpretivistic approach, based on the accounts of students and academic staff from three sixth-form educational institutions and university admissions tutors at two universities in England. It explores the practice of resits in sixth-form education, including how students make resit decisions, how they improve in the resit, how resits affect student learning, what impact resits have on the certification and selection roles of A levels, and how students of differing learner identity approach the resit challenge. It contends that, due to a lack of appreciation of the rationale behind the resit policy, no control of resits and the highly competitive nature of selection by universities, the A levels' resit policy has resulted in some educationally undesirable practices in sixth-form education. Only those who adopt a positive approach to resits, have help from their teachers and work hard to improve their learning and skills gain from the system and these conditions are differentially available to students. For the others, the resit system has resulted in an over-emphasis on A levels in sixth-form education, which involves taking examinations early through rushed teaching, elaborate resit strategies, dubious revision tactics and reliance on second chances. All these contribute to warping students' understanding of what counts as valid knowledge or what it means to learn. The resit system has accentuated the examination-oriented culture in sixth-form education and has resulted in an increased focus on extrinsic rewards, performance goals and a surface approach to learning, which may ill-equip students for success at university or for life-long learning. The research aims to demonstrate how a well-intentioned policy for a high-stakes examination can have unintended consequences when it comes to actual practice in the classroom. It concludes that in developing educational and assessment policies, due consideration needs to be given to their implications for student learning and their impact on education as a whole.