Northern Ireland: Charity conference looks at rising schoolexclusions

A conference, Not Included, was staged by Save the Children in Belfast last week to explore alternatives to mainstream education. Five hundred 14- to 16-year-olds are estimated to be excluded from Belfast schools.

Save the Children is keen to develop community-based alternatives similar to Education Other Than At School, the oversubscribed local authority service designed to reintegrate excluded pupils.

Marie Stubbs, the head teacher who transformed the school in London where head Philip Lawrence was stabbed to death, and Camila Batmanghelidjh, the director of Kids Company, an organisation in London that works with excluded young people, were among the speakers. Practitioners and policymakers from the voluntary, community and statutory sectors attended.