Sheffield Secondary Headteachers’ collaborative agreement on the reintegration of excluded students

Summary - This case study illustrates how schools working together can tackle a major issue, that of the reintgration of excluded pupils when there just aren't enough places to go round. 

Secondary headteachers in Sheffield formed a collaborative agreement on the reintegration of excluded students.   All 27 secondary schools in the LEA are involved in the agreement of which two are Voluntary Aided Catholic comprehensive schools. 

All headteachers have agreed to a set of Diversity Principles which expresses two clear aspirations:

• that each school will develop in diverse ways determined by its governors, managers and community
• that each school will develop in ways which also support the wider aspirations of neighbouring schools and of the city’s learners as a whole.  The agreement provided the context for solving the problem of reintegrating excluded pupils. 

Prior arrangements meant that permanently excluded pupils at Key Stage 3 attended the Inclusion Centre (Pupil Referral Unit) and they would approach schools that had available places to request integration.  Schools with available places were very limited – at one stage only two of the 27 schools had places meaning there was a danger of a small number of schools being approached to reintegrate excluded pupils.  This led to excluded students accumulating within the inclusion centre.        

The issue was presented to headteachers and a trial was put in place for one year where schools identified at least one place (with a maximum set to four) places for the excluded students.  The number of places allocated related to the school size and the level of disadvantage within the school.  Headteachers also agreed to the creation of a Reintegration and Placement Panel (RAP) represented on a rota basis that would oversee the issue of reintegration of excluded students at Key Stage 3.   
  
Sixty-eight places were created through the agreement.  The role of the LEA was to broker the agreement between heads and provide mechanisms and administration for overseeing the agreement.  LEA officers involved include SEN representatives, educational psychologists, head of the inclusion centre & attendance service and a senior manager from the Access and Inclusion team.  The agreement was represented by a protocol.     

The costs relating to the agreement have been absorbed into LEA and school budgets. 

The RAP panel has met since the agreement was put in place and 6 pupils have been successfully reintegrated.  If the agreement is judged successful then headteachers have expressed an interest in developing a protocol to encompass the managed moves of students identified as being on the verge of permanent exclusion.  

Feedback

Teacher - Key Stage 3 Inclusion Centre: ‘After working at the Pupil Referral Unit for 18 years I think it is great that we are at last seeing kids going back into the mainstream in a regular basis and with some success. This has not happened before.’ 

Student: ‘I really enjoyed my time at the Key Stage 3 Inclusion Centre but I am really liking my new school. I had some support from the Learning Mentor and the Teaching Assistant to begin with but I don’t need it now’