Now is the time to include pupils, not exclude them

Matt Writtle
Maureen McKenna21 September 2020

The Evening Standard is again highlighting the importance of inclusion as opposed to exclusion. Its initiative Excluded, which is going to support eight secondary schools in London, is an exciting opportunity for these schools to change young people’s lives through the power of education.

Let’s not forget we are working in unprecedented times. In Scotland, our schools have been back for over a month now. Our children are enjoying being back at school but it is not the same — and it shouldn’t be the same.

We are all working under stress — a very different stress. It is to be expected that anxieties will surface in schools among staff and pupils.

This means that we need to be ultra-aware of the need to understand the complexities of behaviours which children and young people may display in school. School has a different feel to it. There are likely to be new “rules” for us all to understand: more hand-washing, one-way systems, sitting in rows.

This couldn’t be a more important time for school staff to reflect on when exclusion should or should not be used. As I have always said, there will always be a need for a child to be excluded, whether for their safety or the safety of others. However, given that children and young people have been out of school for so long, this is the time when we need to be more nurturing and more caring than we have ever been before.

In Glasgow, we haven’t had permanent exclusions for three years or temporary exclusions for over 10 years

For the last three years in Glasgow, we haven’t had permanent exclusions and over 10 years our temporary exclusions have plummeted. Our children and young people are making better decisions and are able to talk about their emotions and well-being.

As I said the last time I wrote for the Evening Standard, we aren’t perfect, we don’t have all the answers and our children still, at times, display difficult and challenging behaviour. The difference is that our staff have a deeper understanding of our children’s lives and experiences. They deploy an impressive range of strategies to meet children’s social and emotional needs — it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Their focus is on creating the right conditions to enable children to access learning.

So as we all grapple with the joys and challenges of pupils returning to school, I am delighted that London schools and the Evening Standard continue to be committed to changing children’s lives for the better.

Maureen McKenna is Director of Education for Glasgow