What are the views of pastoral staff regarding exclusion from secondary school

Abstract

The detrimental outcomes of school exclusion are well documented within research literature. Literature in this area has primarily focused on ascertaining the perspectives of children and young people (CYP) who have been excluded from school. However, very little research has included the perspectives of school pastoral staff, even less has focused solely on their views. This thesis aims to contribute to this identified gap in research by exploring the perspectives of pastoral staff on exclusion from secondary school. Eight pastoral staff, from eight secondary schools within a large county in the East of England participated in the research. Using a qualitative research design, participants’ perspectives were sought through the medium of semi-structured interviews. The dataset was analysed using an inductive approach to thematic analysis and three main themes were identified. These themes encapsulated the attributions made by pastoral staff around the ecosystemic factors underpinning school exclusion; the types of internal and external support that the school accessed and what more could be done to support CYP who are at risk of exclusion. The ecosystemic factors underpinning school exclusion are difficult to disentangle. It is proposed that an ecological systems approach to tackling school exclusion is taken with a particular focus on early intervention to lessen some of the negative outcomes for both the individual and the wider society.