Understanding school mobility and mobile pupils in England

Thomas Perry,Clara Rübner Jørgensen

doi:10.1002/berj.3718

Thomas Perry, Clara Rübner Jørgensen

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3718

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Abstract

A significant proportion of pupils move school during their school career for reasons other than standard structural moves between educational stages. Little is known about the underlying causes of these moves and the characteristics and experiences of mobile pupils are challenging to research. There is currently a large disconnect between the macro level of system structures, data and policy and the individual experiences and journeys of mobile pupils. This article brings together international literature around school mobility and mobile pupils, with analyses of the English National Pupil Database (NPD), tracking a cohort from age 5 to 16, to better understand when school moves occur and the characteristics of mobile pupils. Findings reveal a sizable underlying rate of moves in England of about 1.5–2% per term and identify differences in mobility related to disadvantage, school phase, ethnic group and SEND status. The predictive power of the data, however, is low, highlighting the need for more research, policy and practice in this area to better understand individual mobility circumstances. By bringing together the literature and the data, the article concludes with a discussion of what is known about school mobility and recommends further areas for research into the characteristics, experiences and outcomes of mobile school pupils.

Highlights

Pupil school mobility is a complex phenomenon, which affects a significant proportion of the school population in England and internationally
We present descriptive analyses of the English National Pupil Database (NPD), combined with termly school census data in which we track a cohort of pupils (n = 525,396) from the second (Spring) term of Year 1 to the end of Key Stage 4, when pupils complete their national General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations
To provide a current analysis of pupil school mobility in England, the present study explored the links between student characteristics and mobility and the impact of mobility on the achievement of different groups of pupils

Summary

Introduction

Pupil school mobility is a complex phenomenon, which affects a significant proportion of the school population in England and internationally. Pupil school mobility refers to children changing schools within or between academic years (i.e. non-structural moves for reasons other than promotion; Scherrer, 2013). High levels of pupil school mobility have been highlighted as an issue for the individual children as well as for schools and remaining non-mobile children (Rumberger, 2003; Gibbons & Telhaj, 2011; Whitesell et al, 2016). In England, the current Ofsted school inspections handbook (Ofsted, 2019) includes pupil mobility as part of the risk assessment of schools, illustrating that mobility is most often conceived of as a problem (Bull & Gilbert, 2007). Academic studies have to a larger degree focused on the individual child level, where the picture may be more varied. Rumberger (2003) and

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