3 ways to avoid exclusions
Scotland has promised to stop excluding care experienced children and young people. When an exclusion is on the horizon, there are lots of things you can do.
Care experience and exclusion
Care experienced children and young people are almost 6 times more likely to be excluded. When exclusion is on the horizon, there are lots of things you can do.
1. Put things in context
Behaviours or incidents that lead to exclusion rarely happen in isolation. For care experienced children, we should consider:
- Do they have a ‘hidden’ support need which might affect their developmental stage or how they react to things? For example, see our video about Understanding FASD
- Do they have triggers? If so, could changes to their support help avoid these in the future?
- Do they maybe have things happening in their life right now which are affecting them at school?
It can be helpful to:
- Not jump to conclusions about why a child responded to something in a way you did not expect
- Check in with the child to help you understand their perspective – but only once they feel regulated, safe and supported.
2. Act early
Exclusion should be a last resort. There should be opportunities to intervene before an exclusion is needed.
It can be helpful to:
- Check in regularly with the child or young person, not just when they are distressed
- Learn from past incidents, and look for signs a child might be starting to struggle so you can respond before things escalate
- Review support plans as soon as things are not working.
3. Relationships, relationships, relationships
Getting to know a child can help you anticipate their needs. Building trust takes time, especially for care experienced children and young people, but it is so worthwhile.
It can be helpful to:
- Stay consistent and reliable – do what you say you are going to do
- Talk with them about their hobbies and interests
- Celebrate their successes, so you do not only chat when things go wrong.
Want to find out more?
▶️ Watch our short Navigate video about Exclusions + care experience
🔗 Check out our real life stories, like this one about how Emma is not a school person
🔗 Have a look at our myth buster page on Is it an exclusion?
