Some pupils have zero chance in mainstream schools. Alternative provision schools can give them a chance

This is not to say these children are not capable of achieving great things. As anyone working in an alternative provision school will tell you, their pupils are equally capable as their mainstream peers. But they’ve all had additional challenges to contend with, writes Cath Murray

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Excluded children don’t get as good results as those who stay in mainstream schools.

A new report by the Centre for Social Justice has revealed that in 13 local authority areas, not a single pupil excluded from state secondary schools passed their GCSE maths and English over the last three years. And one in 50 excluded pupils in the North East achieves a basic GCSE pass in maths and English, compared to one in 12 in outer London.

This is where the crucial need for alternative provision (AP) schools come in. They educate pupils who, for one reason or another, need additional support. They may have complex home circumstances or special educational needs that have not been identified because parents or teachers were less able to perceive this need and proactively push for a diagnosis and official recognition.

This is not to say these children are not capable of achieving great things. As anyone working in an alternative provision school will tell you, their pupils are equally capable as their mainstream peers. But they’ve all – pretty much without exception – had additional challenges to contend with. They have often missed school and may have big gaps in their education.

The job of these schools is multiple and complex: they must diagnose need; advocate to local authorities for specialist support; build relationships with the children and their families; assess the child’s prior learning – often with limited information from previous schools; liaise with mental health services and social workers; build a bespoke plan that allows the child to gain qualifications and prepare for a transition into school, college or an apprenticeship.

These children can catch up with their peers, but they may not do so by the time they sit their GCSEs, which is when funding for these children stops.

So rather than expecting AP schools to post the same kind of results on government league tables as mainstream schools, what we should be expecting is this: Every single child educated in alternative provision should get better outcomes than that same child would have got in their mainstream school. Every child should be supported to move onto the next phase of their education, training or employment with a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and knowing how to access the support that they will need to succeed.

There are some outstanding AP schools that are doing just this.

Chessbrook Education Support Centre in Watford has flipped its model to focus on supporting the families of children at risk of exclusion in mainstream schools, through therapeutic and remedial work, to keep the number of permanent exclusions low.

Hackney Boxing Academy uses professional sports coaching techniques and strong personal relationships to instil pride and discipline in students, which translates into high attendance and engagement with their education.

Everton Free School has partnered with Liverpool John Moores to offer a sports development and coaching degree for students to continue in education after their GCSEs, and continues to support every student for two years after they leave.

AP schools are funded from the same budget as special schools and that funding is under pressure. Last year, four in five local authorities reported an overspend. Special needs spending is protected but AP spend is not. This means that as the high needs’ budget is squeezed, many AP schools doing amazing work with this vulnerable cohort are having to cut essential services. Children excluded from school often also have complex overlapping needs but are less likely to have these recognised.

Covid-19 has made everyone stop and think about what really matters. It’s been a time to reflect and re-evaluate how we treat our most vulnerable, as a society. Schools of all kinds have shown themselves to be essential to the communities they serve, delivering meals and workbooks to children and acting as a lifeline to families.

We all want to live in a society where the accidents of life don’t condemn a child to educational failure.

There should be clear quality benchmarks that demonstrate what good practice for excluded children looks like. And we need a national, fair funding formula for AP schools, which identifies the actual cost of good provision and guarantees that support for pupils.

Now is the time to put in place more support for excluded children, not less.

Cath Murray is head of alternative provision at the Centre for Social Justice