Excluded from School is Full-time!

Excluded from School is Full-time!

I have taken the decision to step back from employment to focus my efforts on growing Excluded from School as a not for profit organisation. Since I appeared on the radio, I have been unable to keep up with the demand of requests to speak, visit and train schools and other organisations. Emails have been in the hundreds and there have been many kind offers of support, many of which I am now able to explore. This is a daunting task, but one I think is necessary, fresh statistics released by the DoE show that 9376 children were permanently excluded from schools across England in 2022/23. Each one of those children will have a story which likely develop into a continuation of challenge, rather than an improvement. It is therefore important that education professionals know they are doing all they can for young people before they add to their burdens in this way. This is why I am developing several trainings with the help of education psychologists, to assess risk factors for school exclusion and help teachers engage with young people in a way that builds and maintains connection.

I notice that when I visit schools, particularly Alternative Provision, I am able to quickly build a trusting relationship with young people. Staff often tell me that they have never heard the young person open up so much. They also tell me how they need ‘role models’ like me. My question is, why not you?

Further to this, I hope to continue to tell my story and speak on issues of exclusion around the country. I have been invited to speak on BBC One, several conferences and a podcast. In addition, I am writing a book! Whether or not anyone will be interested in publishing it or not, I do not know, but I hope my experiences will illuminate something of what may be felt by those who have been excluded, suffered racism and found no support in their journey to improve their lives.

Since May I have visited some excellent schools and organisations, firstly, I want to shine a light on The Brandon Centre

Based in Islington, they are a group of therapists who provide holistic mental health support to young people who have been excluded from school as well as their teachers and guardians. I had a rich conversation with them and learnt much about how their insights are changing attitudes towards young people and improving their outcomes. I have been doing a lot of thinking about how despite their pressures and the fact they hold space in which the mental health of many children can be impacted, they receive no psychological supervision. When a teacher told me, at 11, that I would never amount to anything, she scoffed it at me with scorn and derision. I wonder what was happening for her in her own life and what was said to her about her career. Did she have support? Was she listened to at home? Who knows, but I think supervision for teaching staff is worth considering. Thoughts?

I also had the pleasure to be invited to speak to the good people at Pathways Care Farm

They are a wonderful community based in Lowestoft that help people develop skills and confidence to get back into work. Many find healing from traumatic events here and the farm engages local young people from a pupil referral unit, who attended to hear about my story. I also met Liz Kendall MP and Jess Asato MP there, who highlighted the governments commitment to helping local organisations such as these continue to deliver for local people. A standout moment for me, was when a young woman who’s daughter had been permanently excluded from school asked me if I had forgiven my mother for not doing more to prevent my exclusion. I told her that I had, because like me, she too was failed in her education, I just get to break the cycle.

I took my dogs, Whisper and Bentham along and they loved the animals! Whisper, the Lurcher, touched noses with a Donkey and developed a love for the goats, even whining to go back and visit them when I was giving my talk! A young person on the farm took him back to see them and he was satisfied then.

I don’t get pictures when I attend schools, mainly because I forget, but I wanted to share a couple of pictures of people I met as a product of my interview. Firstly, a man named Jason Clark, who has an incredible story himself. He emigrated here from Ireland in the 70s and faced a similar dual racism to me, in that he was half Irish and half English. He saw some horrific sights as a child and was kicked out of school at the age of 15. Later, he went to on do an apprenticeship in plumbing and now not only heads up the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, but runs the largest supplier for lift supplies in Europe! He invited me to his factory to meet a large group of young people from a local pupil referral unit who were touring the factory and considering an apprenticeship. I just have to share a remarkable exchange I heard on the factory floor. One young person asked Jason a question and before he could answer, another young person, having listened attentively, gave him the answer before Jason could speak. Surprised, one student asked him “why is it you listen on trips and never in class!?” I have lots of thoughts on why that may be, but I wonder what you think? What might be the difference? In my view, there aren’t nearly enough trips in the average school calendar.

Secondly, I would like to highlight another gentleman who met up with me to discuss how I might raise awareness for excluded children through a documentary. Richard Pendry is a documentary maker famous for Ross Kemp on Gangs and Bug Chasers, a documentary that followed individuals who seek out encounters with a risk of HIV. Getting the opportunity to meet such interesting and successful people is healing for me. I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had not been abused, excluded and if my intelligence as a child was supported. Perhaps I would have made films, I always enjoyed documentaries as a child. The first book I ever read was about Cholera in Victorian Britain and the second was on the escape at Alcatraz. Meetings like this, for me, go some way to making up for that sense of loss I have when I reflect on what might have been.

I wrote an article for Futurum which can be read here. They help young people think about careers, particularly in STEM. I have not studied science since year 6, before I was excluded from school. Admittedly, I was banned from science for setting fire to a pencil case with a Bunsen Burner, but nevertheless, I have always found it interesting and something I have a mind for, Another ‘what if’ perhaps!

The stories many of you sent me via email are incredibly moving and I am working on a way to share these stories in a sensitive format which gives them the power they deserve. Thoughts welcome. I am also working on a toolkit for parents who are facing issues with their children around exclusion. Unable to build a forum into the website, I have created the following group where people can share their stories with each other and perhaps support each other peer to peer, you can also post anonymously: https://www.facebook.com/groups/485211433689144

We Need Your Support

I do need support and welcome anyone with ideas to get in touch.

I also need someone with web sand digital skills to help me develop training resources and content, so fi that is you, please get in touch. I do not have a budget yet, so this would be voluntary.

If you know of any schools, conferences etc that may want me to come and speak, train or consult, please put me in touch.

Finally, I have joined something called ‘buy me a coffee’ which you can find here. This is essentially a small way that you can donate to help me work to improve the experience and outcomes of people excluded from school.

I hope the next newsletter will be far more exciting now I am doing this full-time! Some senior people have expressed a desire to speak with me and I am hopeful that these conversation will inspire some positive change!

See you then!

Tier