This post is my response the 2020 open access article by Tejarina-Arreal et al. ‘Child and adolescent mental health trajectories in relation to exclusion from school from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children‘1 which appeared in the journal Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
I argue that it is time to take the lessons of children excluded twenty years ago and adapt our education system to better allow children to cope with everyday school life and reduce their risk of exclusion.
Tejarina-Arreal et al.’s article opened my eyes to the ongoing Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) which recruited around fourteen and half thousand pregnant women in 1990/1991 and tracked their children through their school years and is continuing to track them in adulthood. The ALSPAC data set has been used to inform over 2000 research papers to date.
As part of the ALSPAC study, exclusion data was collected at the age of 8 and 16 years. Data on mental health was also collected at seven points in childhood using a strength and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) at the ages of 3,6,8,9,11,13 and 16 years. This data set was used by the article authors in an attempt to ‘disentangle the effect of mental health and exclusion on each other’ (Tejarina-Arrear et al., 2020: 218) and concluded that ‘that exclusion from school has a bidirectional relationship with childhood psychiatric disorder (Tejarina-Arreal, 2020: 220). Mental health has an impact on the likelihood of exclusion and exclusion has an impact on mental health.
A Family Adversity Index (FAI) was also used to focus on factors within the first two years of each child’s life. It included 18 items about ‘age of the mother at pregnancy, housing, mother’s education, financial diffculties, partner relationship status, support and cruelty, family size and care, social network, parent affective disorder, drug’s addiction and crime’ (Tejerina-Arrear et al., 2020: 218).
As the headteacher of a alternative provision for excluded primary school children, my interest was drawn to the data relating to the 53 children (40 boys and 13 girls) in the ALSPAC data reportedly excluded by the age of 8 years old. My initial response is that as these children were born in 1991/92 and that this data represents exclusions that happened over twenty years ago. I am sceptical (as are the authors) of how the finding relate to the present day.
The findings show that the main factors associated with exclusion within this group of children excluded in around the year 2000 included ‘male gender, lower socioeconomic status, maternal psychopathology, social communication difficulties, language difficulties, antisocial activities, bullying/being bullied, lower parental engagement with education, poor relationship with teacher, low educational attainment and special educational needs’ (Paget et al., cited in Arrear, 2020: 218).
To rejuvenate your love life and regain lost youthfulness, stamina, energy levels and strength, you need to consume Shilajit check availability viagra sans prescription ES capsules. The accumulation of blood in the cheapest cialis lungs attributable to bacteria. Seventh, better cost viagra cialis erection can be attained if the dose of the medication for enhanced effects; it may lead to permanent erection problems. However, premature ejaculation india cheapest tadalafil or lack of libido can also lead to poor erection or erectile dysfunction. In excluded boys, the FAI conducted in the first two years of their life was a strong predictor of them entering school with weaker mental health than their peers. Their mental health diverged from their peers with peak divergence in the latter years at primary school.
Despite the passing of twenty years, my experience of children entering our centre following exclusion from school allies with the findings from the study. It may not be a surprise to see that the majority of excluded pupils are boys from families with low socioeconomic status. Maternal psychopathology is also a factor. In our setting, involvement in anti-social behaviour is not common but is a factor for some children. Many of the children enter our centre having been involved in bullying (commonly as the vicim).
What stands out, however, is that language difficulties, social communication difficulties, low academic attainment and SEN were related to exclusion twenty years ago. In our experience, this remains the case. There seems to be an implicit assumption that excluded children have low academic attainment due to their behaviour disrupting their education. It is possible, however that children with low academic ability find the academic environment in an English primary school difficult to cope with, this impacts on their behavioural presentation and they end up excluded. I am wary of making assumptions. I raise it as it flies in the face of the prevailing discourse. I have found it difficult to find research that considers the impact of a highly academic curriculum on a child with low academic ability. We simply have a correlation between children with low academic ability and their increased likelihood of exclusion and it is difficult to disentangle the causal direction. It is worthy of further exploration.
My belief is that is the factors contributing the exclusion are the same as twenty years ago, now is the time to respond to that. As a country, we are still excluding children from mainstream education with language or social communication difficulties. We are still excluding children with SEND needs or low academic ability. If these ‘externalising disorders often impair children’s ability to cope with school (Parker et al. cited in Arrear 2020: 218) then our education system needs to change in order that they experience an environment in which they can cope.
Tejarina-Arreal et al. finish by suggesting that school staff are trained in positive reinforcement strategies. I would echo that. I work with trainee teachers on such strategies, however it is only part of the picture. I believe that school staff also need the training and crucially the permission, to differentiate for SEMH children by helping them cope with daily school life by modulating the level of challenge they face on a moment by moment basis. This is what differentiation for SEMH pupils means.
