Developing Inclusive Strategies For Eastfield Secondary School - Case Study And Solutions

The case study on Jay, Kate and Eastfield Secondary School can be found below – please read carefully – and read again, and again!

How might Eastfield Secondary School develop strategies that would be more ‘inclusive’ for both Jay and Kate?

Case Study

Eastfield Secondary School is located in a run-down area of a large urban town serving a post-war estate. The school has been recently refurbished after missing out on a whole school rebuild because of national austerity. The community which the school serves has a sizable Eastern European population. There are also a number of asylum seeking families who have come to the UK after fleeing conflict. The proportion of Children in Care at the school is higher than average because alongside other Children in Care there are a number of unaccompanied asylum seeking young people who attend the school. The previous head teacher only stayed for five terms and permanently excluded over 20 pupils during this time, considerably above the annual national average (under 1 per 1000). Recruitment and retention of teachers is a challenge – this is reflected by this being the third head in as many years. Despite this the new head is determined to make the new school more inclusive and has begun by holding meetings with staff and pupils to this end.

Your role is to provide advice as to what she should be doing to achieve this goal of a more inclusive school. You will need to reflect on the general position above and the specific circumstances of the young people outlined below.

The Importance of Education Systems and School

The basic definition of a school refers to it as an institution structured to provide pupils and students space and a conducive environment for learning under the direction of teachers. Different countries structure their education systems in different ways including formal education which in most cases is compulsory. One of the main characteristics of these education systems is the fact that learners go through a series of various levels of school mainly divided into two, namely the primary school for young children and secondary school meant for teenagers (Twenge & Donnelly 2016, p. 626).   Most education systems are designed that learners join colleges or universities after completion of secondary school, and this level of education is not compulsory I many countries.

The education systems exhibited in various countries have far-reaching benefits to the individual learners as well as the entire society; the various levels are significant in one way or the other. One of the main importance of education systems and school is that school enables learners to identify their majors which in turn become the foundation to their professional and career life. It should be noted that right from kindergarten, teachers have the tendency of asking learners what they would want to be in life and the profession they would like to pursue when they grow older (Berei, Karp, & Kauffman 2018, p. 300). The answers pupils and students give towards this question give an indication of the learners' interests and the professional direction they like.  As they transition through the various levels of education systems and structures, from elementary and secondary school, they start gravitating towards some set of specific disciplines; they choose among these disciplines when they finally make it to college or university.

School also prepares students for the real world by instilling basic life skills like time management, decision making, prioritizing, and stress management (Albritton et al. 2014, p. 690). When students are given homework to complete within some specific deadline, they are trained to manage time and make a priority on what to do at that time. Time management and decision making the learners learn at school help them in the real world at professional and personal levels.

School and other educational institutions help students develop and improve their social and networking skills (McCluskey et al. 2016, p. 535). In these institutions, students are in companies of various groups of people, mainly fellow students and teachers. With such population, students socialize and make friends among themselves in classrooms, hallways, bathrooms, and lunchrooms; the relationships made here help them achieve some events that would otherwise prove futile. It is believed that students will always learn something new every time they go to school, things that they would lack without attending such sessions (Ekbia 2016, p. 690). For instance, it is argued that a student who attends school sessions for five days a week has better grasp and retention of information than one who does not attend such sessions.

Another contribution of school is the fact that school sessions encourage students to have an interest in co-curricular activities.  By participating in such activities after classes, the students identify and nurture their talents in sports which may end up being their main profession just like professional sportspeople (Kirby, Walker, & Mazerolle 2018, p. 525). Based on the above illustrations, it is realized that going to school contributes a lot in an individual’s life as evidenced by their ability to manage time, stress, and their ability to make decisions and priorities. One will now acknowledge that it is true education is a major tool in life and contributes a lot for one to be successful.

Challenges Facing the Education Sector

Despite the important role education plays in the lives of individuals, there are challenges that face the sector and derail the good work the sector plays. Some of the main challenges facing the education sector include bullying and exclusion in educational institutions (Huang 2014, p. 1430). Most of the victims of exclusion in education institutions include immigrants, students with records like young offenders, students with disabilities, those experiencing behavioral challenges, children undergoing some special care, and those who experience discrimination because they exhibit differences skin color. It is worth noting that some of the reasons used for exclusion are beyond the control of the victims; for instance, the students excluded due to physical disabilities, skin color, and immigrants fleeing war or terrorism.

According to SU et al. (2017, p. 110), exclusion can either be a lawful exclusion or unlawful exclusion. The act of exclusion can be carried out by individuals, unlawful exclusion or done according to the policies set by the institution's system, lawful exclusion. An organization may formulate policies that exclude participants with some specific characteristics like behavioral challenges or children with some specific records like violence. Such institutional policies may totally exclude a victim or come up with terms and conditions to be met before the admission of such victims. Such kinds of policies are normally formulated in line with the various government directives based on the related provisions of the constitution. There are instances where an organization allows for a specific number or percentage of a given gender in their staff or students in the institution (Warner-Garcia 2016, p. 150). Based on this, some of the qualified people may miss the chance of joining the institution given that the required number has been met. An example of such institutions include some religious institutions that do not allow women to perform some duties in the organization, this rule excludes women even if they are qualified to perform such duties.

Internal exclusion is also a type of exclusion done by the organization’s policies and structures. It is an internal procedure used by schools and is applied with the aim of removing a pupil from the class for disciplinary reasons. Under this form of exclusion, a student can either be excluded from school for a fixed period or permanently excluded from the institution (Bussey 2017, 1195). Fixed-period exclusion occurs for a given period of time after which the student is allowed back into the institution.  For instance, a student with behavioral challenges and becomes disruptive during lunch time can be excluded from the school compound during lunchtime to help reduce the effects of his or her lunchtime disturbance. It should be noted that internal exclusion in schools is implemented on already admitted pupils or students for disciplinary reasons. For such exclusion process to be regarded lawful, it must be properly documented.

However, a student may be permanently expelled from a learning institution, making it a permanent exclusion. Such cases occur due to adverse disciplinary cases involving the student and the school policies do not allow that kind of student into the premises of the learning institution (Cornell et al. 2018, p. 190). According to government policies controlling this sector in line with the provisions of the constitution, a student can be excluded from the school permanently of on a fixed-period only by the head teacher of the school and the process needs proper documentation for it to be lawful. This argument means that any other kind of exclusion by anyone for whatever reason is unlawful.

Types of Exclusion in Schools

On the other hand, the act of exclusion may be implemented unlawfully by individuals who either do it willingly or without their knowledge. This type of exclusion is referred to as social exclusion. In a school environment, this type of exclusion involves manipulation of the victim’s social relations and status and is commonly referred to as bullying or relational aggression. Students report several forms of social exclusion experiences which include being deliberately evicted from a peer group, being called disrespectful names and baseless rumors spread about the victims (Jolley et al 2018, p. 2710). The victims sometimes undergo well-calculated embarrassment from their classmates which make them feel inferior. According to several research studies conducted in this area I the past, social exclusion is basically a lack of connection and participation among members of a given peer group. It is estimated that at least one out of six children experience social exclusion in their schools though this may be a lower estimate given the difficulties in measuring the vice. The measurements are made more difficult given that most of the perpetrators carry out their operations in a hidden manner.

A case study involving two learners from Eastside Secondary school shows exclusion in the school environment. This essay provides some of the recommendations for reviving the situation in the school concerning the two victims. “Eastfield is a secondary school located in a run-down area of a large urban town serving a post-war estate. The school has been recently refurbished after missing out on a whole school rebuild because of national austerity. The school serves a population of mostly Eastern European which include a good number of immigrants seeking asylum who entered United Kingdom escaping from war. Some of the immigrants are children without parents making ratio of children in care more than that recommended international standards. It is on record that the previous head teacher in the school placed over 20 students on permanent exclusion after a period of five months; which is far above the internationally recommended 1 out of 1000. The current head teacher being a third in a span of few years proves how challenging recruitment and retention of teachers is in the school. However, the current head teacher is determined to make the school more inclusive. He has started this commitment by holding meetings with various stakeholders to find the way forward in addressing this vice. The situation in the school illustrates how some students become victims of exclusion beyond their control. There are several victims of the exclusion in Eastside Secondary School, examples being Jay and Kate.

Jay is a 13 year old student who attends the school and stays in the opposite side of town. His mother is currently sick and recovering in a nearby hospital making; this makes Jay stay with his uncle. Even though he is currently fluent in English, he is migrant who moved in to the country recently in year six. Most of the teachers in school speak well of him owing to the fact that he is a calm boy, non disruptive, and works well in class.  However, Jay has a habit of flaring up in any altercation with anyone including staff and other pupils; the school management has a feeling that he is affiliated to some gang that may lead to exclusion from the school.

Another case includes a 15 years old Kate who recently started her year ten. There are fears that she is a victim of bullying a situation that the school has found it difficult to solve. Her main areas of interest include art and English writing but faces challenge in attending school sessions and the school has placed in the behaviour support unit to offer her safety during extracurricular activities like PE and Drama. The school has worked closely with her supportive mother to try solving the situation but so far in vain.

From the illustrations regarding the types of exclusion students go through in school, both Jay and Kate are victims of unlawful social exclusion (Dell’Anno & Amendola 2015, p. 300). This is the type of exclusion on goes through when bullied by other peer group members like fellow students and teachers. Additionally, Kate suffers from specific period exclusion when she has to be placed in a behaviour support unit to make her safe during extracurricular activities like drama and PE. Research studies indicate that such kind of exclusions Kate and Jay are exposed to have varying effects on children ranging from physical, emotional, to mental health (Poon, & Chen 2015, p. 520).  

It should be noted these students are just victims of the circumstances some of which are beyond their control. The effects of both the social and lawful exclusion can be evident in the children through the lowered immune system, reduction in the quality of sleep, difficulties in calming during times of distress, and lowered self-esteem. Other effects may include unnecessary anxiety, depression, and aggressive reaction as a defense mechanism when they feel threatened (LIANG, CHANG, & WANG 2017, p. 325). These effects of exclusion are far-reaching and in most cases affect even the life of students outside of the school and may affect them even when they become adults if not handled well at an early stage.

It should be noted that children, just like adults, have the need to be in places and environments where they feel loved, valued, and have security that the relationship is long-lasting. Based on this feeling, children right from young ages also feel the effects of rejection when excluded by their peer group members (Nwonka 2015, p. 80). With this knowledge in mind, the management in Eastfield secondary school needs to engage, talk to, and educate the students on the effects of excluding their classmates. This strategy would help the student have feeling for one another and always work for their wellbeing; the students would, therefore, develop and maintain positive and secure relationships with their classmates, family members as well as their peers (Holt, Bowlby, & Lea 2017, p. 1370). With strong, positive, and secure relationships among themselves, students would promote their ability to socialize and create strong networks that in turn improve their relations with other members of the society.

The new head teacher at Eastfield School needs to initiate the culture of being open, available, and approachable to students whenever a student needs to talk with them. Research studies among children indicate that children often fear to upset their seniors like parents and teachers due to the uncertainty of the consequences (Chilver-Stainer, Gasser, & Perrig-Chiello 2014, p. 240). This worry makes them avoid sharing some pressing and personal issues. Teachers in the school need to be more available and calm whenever a student approaches them for help, and show them that action is taken to assist the issue.  

By taking actions on reported exclusion cases, victims of such acts get motivated to report future experiences and at the same time discourage and scare the perpetrators of the vice. Teachers and other stakeholders in the Eastfield School need to affirm to students that they have the right to be safe and valued and that the school provides such environment and also talk to their parents and guardians to replicate the same at home (Hong & Sun 2018, p. 655). The school management needs to involve and listen to the version of the students and the course of action they would like to be taken. Involving the students in decision making process includes negotiating with them the process of addressing exclusion cases.  

Formulate easily understood and well-communicated policies regarding bullying and any other form of unlawful exclusion. Such policies need to explain what exclusion means, actions promoting the vice and the actions taken against the perpetrators (Harrison 2017, p.10). The school rules need to illustrate the structure used in addressing the vice and the channels of reporting such experience. The students should be assured that the application of these policies would be transparent and the same among all students; this action would improve the confidence among the students that their grievances would be addressed satisfactorily.

Educate the students on some self-servicing procedures on how to manage emotional distress (ZHOU, HUANG, & WEI 2017, p. 499). The school system needs to encourage networking among students and encourage group discussions on the like and dislikes among themselves and common misconceptions and misunderstandings that occur on a day to day events in school. Encourage students to be clearer in their communication so that they avoid misunderstanding and cause unnecessary anxiety.  Through this structure, students need to be encouraged to employ the high five principal whereby they identify at least five people they consider close friends with whom they can share their personal issues and tell when they face any kind of challenges (Theriot & Cuellar 2016, p. 370). These close people can be fellow students, teachers, or members of a support group. Students can use other sources like the internet to find ways of coping with various events in life such as stress management and how to react when someone wrongs them.

Conclusion:

From the above illustrations, it should be noted that trying to solve the problem of exclusion in Eastfield Secondary school involves various stages. These stages start from making the entire school family and other stakeholders understand what exclusion is and the various types and forms of the vice as well as how they are propagated (Pfundmair, Aydin, & Frey 2017, p. 187). Making all participants understand the consequences of exclusion within the school set up and the entire life of the victim. By understanding these facts, the perpetrators of the vice would see the sense of not excluding their peers.

These diplomatic methods coupled with the formulation of easily understood and well-communicated policies regarding bullying and any other form of unlawful exclusion would help reduce the prevalence of such actions in the Eastside Secondary School. Another factor that the head teacher of the school needs to consider is the inclusion of all stakeholders including the students in the process of addressing the challenge (Tongeren, Luna, & Witvliet 2015, p. 530). By including the students, they better understand the negative impacts of exclusion and how to avoid the vice either as a perpetrator or as a victim.

References:

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