Where Next for Pupils Excluded from Special Schools and Pupil Referral Units?

What happens when a pupil is excluded from a pupil referral unit (PRU)? That's a difficult question. There's obviously guidance from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) on the exclusion process itself, but information on what happens to those pupils is hard to find. Some fascinating research on exclusions has been published in recent years, including a report by Anne Pirrie and others that was commissioned in response to concerns expressed about this issue in the 2005 Steer Report on school behaviour and discipline.

What is this research looking at? The routes, destinations and outcomes for pupils who have been permanently excluded from PRUs and special schools in England. Children and young people who have been permanently excluded are at greater risk of all sorts of poorer outcomes. Pirrie and her colleagues tracked 28 children and young people who were aged between nine and 14 at the time of their exclusion, and also interviewed their parents or carers and 13 service providers. Twenty-two of the children had been excluded from special schools and six from PRUs, and the vast majority (26 out of 28) were male. Most of the young people in the sample lived in challenging family circumstances, and many had been in and out of education.