Permanente xclusion from school can have far-reachingc onsequencesfo r pupils, families and society. In 1999 the government introduced Pastoral Support Programmes (PSPs) to help pupils at risk of exclusion to "manage their behavioue' better (WEE 1999b). A PSP involves a series of three meetings, over about sixteen weeks, where the pupil, parents, school staff and an LEA representative collaborate on targets and preventative strategies to help the pupil to remain in school. This naturalistic and dialogical study aims to develop an insight into this underresearched area of policy from the perspectives of the participants. Using narrative inquiry, it focuses on three Year 10 pupils at one city comprehensive school. The initial PSP meetings were observed and all the participants were interviewed afterwards. A thematicc ontenta nalysiso f the interviewss howedt hat mostp upils andp arents viewedt hem eetingsp ositivelya sa way to work togethert o avoid exclusion.A lthough most felt ratheru npreparedth, ey all consideredth at their viewsw erel istenedt o. The professionalws ereg enerallyv ery supportiveb, ut felt morep ositivea ndu nderstanding towardst he pupils andp arentsw homt heyp erceivedto act respectfullya nd reasonably. The pupils were followed up throughout their PSPs, at the end of which they had all improved their behaviour enough to remain in school. They felt that they had been helped by the supportivcncss of the school staff in, for instance, valuing and encouraging them and offering practical help. Perhaps more surprisingly, they also felt helped by the pressure they experienced: the threat of exclusion and the close monitoring and supervision from parents and staff whilst on their PSPs. When the right balance is found between support and pressure, PSPs can be extremely powerful and effective in helping young people to improve their behaviour and attitude to school.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:432719 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Carrington, Gill |
| Publisher | University of Bristol |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1983/c924d222-b368-49f4-b615-222a596d9e34 |
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