Exclusionary practices

This blog is about school exclusions. But not just the permanent type known as PX or permanent exclusion.

There is far more to exclusions than the final, permanent type. When a child is permanently excluded, it is often only the final step in a sequence of downward steps that occurred before.

When we talk about exclusion, we are talking about all the different forms of consequences, sanctions and punishment used when children do not meet the school standards and requirements set out for them.

So, instead of only thinking of the word or act of ‘exclusion’, think of any type of ‘exclusionary practice’ that is put in place as a punishment for children in schools.

That means any situation in school, where a child is taken from being with the rest of their peers, be that class or learning group, and placed in a space because of a standard they failed to reach or maintain.

Exclusionary practices or spaces in schools can be called detention, isolation, reflection, suspension or any other name.

They generally all serve similar purposes and while we acknowledge that schools have an obligation to create and maintain safe, calm and well-ordered environments for children to learn, exclusionary practices can create a snowball effect where the issues they are trying to address increase rather than decrease.

However, to be clear, the problem isn't just the fact that children are being asked to take responsibility for their actions. That’s part of growing up and they need to know that we live in a world of consequences.

Children need to understand that if/when push boundaries or break laws, something will happen as a result. It's called cause and effect, and we can't get away from those realities.

So, we aren’t saying that schools are terrible and trying to target or discredit them.

What we are saying instead is that exclusionary practices tend to be poorly delivered and do not help or teach children what they need to learn and know. Furthermore, many children get caught in exclusionary practices a bit like being stuck in a revolving door. They go round and around in the system until they expect to fail and be punished.

It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy where children continuously miss out on learning, social experiences and being with their friends.

We call it being “stuck in the familiar cycle”.

We know that children can find it hard to deal with their feelings and actions. Even adults struggle with their emotions at times!

We work with children who are hitting walls and breaking things out of frustration and anger, and we need to help them to learn about their emotional lives and get things back under control

This is the part that we, including schools don't do so well.

It's the message that doesn’t quite get through when children don’t meet the standards that schools set and are subjected to the exclusionary practices that we mentioned above.

As a result, it can feel like they are being punished instead of helped to change their behaviour.

Thats where we come in. We want to help.

We give them a chance to open about their feelings, past and reinforce the message that he/she will get through this period.