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Background: Opportunities for children to be involved in the decisions made about them is a part of current statutory educational legislation. Person-centred planning (PCP) has been proposed as an appropriate method of meeting statutory requirements. However, there is a dearth of research into its application within education. Young people within alternative provisions (APs) may be prone to lacking opportunities of being heard. Methods/Participants: The first paper describes a systematic literature review of current research into PCP within education, pupils with SEMH and the associated outcomes. The second paper reports on an action research project with staff from an AP for children at risk of exclusion, who opted to trial the use of the PCP approach 'MAPs' (carried out virtually due to Covid-19 social restrictions). Evaluation of the MAPs trial involved two focus groups exploring the staff member's observations and views. Analysis/Findings: More rigorous research is needed into PCP and its effectiveness, including the use of standardised and observable outcome measures, more varied ranges of contexts and participants, and longitudinal and child-led designs. Findings from the action research indicate that (virtual) use of MAPs requires staff to carefully consider their setting's structure, needs, capacity and capabilities. Pre-meeting preparation and adapting the MAPs process with technology can improve engagement, access and provide alternative ways of working. The MAPs process provides a range of positive outcomes as a by-product of its implementation, e.g. improved relationships, increased information sharing. Conclusion/Implications: PCP appears to be an effective way of engaging children, young people and their families but research within education is currently limited and methodologically weak. A dissemination strategy for sharing the present findings with participants and the EP community is discussed.

Wave energy has the potential to be a major contributor to the global energy mix. It is estimated that commercial deployment of wave and tidal energy arrays could meet as much as 20% of the UK’s current electricity demand, with an installed capacity of 30-50 GW providing up to 16,000 jobs. However, the wave energy sector has not yet developed into a commercial industry due to several key challenges. One reason private investors have been reluctant to back the sector is that the uncertainty surrounding lifetime costs of wave energy arrays makes it difficult to obtain reliable estimates for overall cost of energy. In order to improve these estimates, a better understanding of the operations and maintenance (O&M) phase of wave energy arrays needs to be gained. This thesis presents an O&M simulation tool designed for wave energy arrays. The work presented uses the model to assess aspects of O&M strategies for two different types of wave energy converter. Uncertainty in the model inputs is also addressed by undertaking a series of sensitivity analyses. The methods and results presented in this thesis highlight the importance of using an O&M simulation tool to plan lifetime logistics for wave energy arrays and obtain realistic cost estimates. The work has also shown how an O&M tool can be used to identify critical components in wave energy converters, thereby helping to design the best device possible for the challenging marine environment. Understanding lifetime costs of wave energy arrays will drive the sector towards commercialisation, bringing wave energy a step closer to fulfilling its potential as a major contributor to global energy production.

The study is an exploratory and illuminative case study of a principal’s leadership of a cross section of his students. It is situated within an11-18, comprehensive school in a semi- rural, coastal town in the southwest of England. This predominantly white British school, with above national average levels of economic and social deprivation, has a recent historical context of rapid and sustained improvement in examination results at all levels over the period just before and during the study: two Ofsted inspections during this time judged the school to be good with outstanding features, following a previous judgement of ‘satisfactory’ just before the arrival of the principal. The study offers an insider perspective in the field of principal effectiveness, which is more usually dominated by research from the outside, as the principal in question is also the researcher. Equally unusually in this field, the study explores the principal’s leadership from a student’s perspective by operating at the level of student voice and collecting their personal stories and opinions using six student focus groups. The groups were constructed and facilitated by a co researcher with the purpose of protecting students’ identity, aiding reliability and adding a collaborative level of interpretation. A social constructionist approach is adopted for the study which is situated in an interpretivist methodological paradigm. The data were analysed thematically and viewed from a socio cultural perspective. The research suggests that students are able to describe and recognise the concept of the principal’s student leadership. Some, more than others, place a value on this in terms of it having an instrumental effect on their school experience and many view it from a relational perspective. These data support the findings of another piece of research from a similar perspective that suggests students value personal affirmative and affiliative qualities and traits in the leadership they experience from the headteacher (Moos et al 1998). From the socio cultural perspective of this study and the definition of social capital as being “relationships matter” (Puttnam 2000) then it may be suggested that a principal’s student leadership is likely to contribute, either positively or negatively, to students’ social capital. Although it is not possible to suggest generalisablity from these findings, due to the very limited scope of the case study and small number of participant students, practitioners may nevertheless find the study of some value. This detailed and illuminative interrogation of the principal /researcher’s specific context, may provide reflective colleagues with examples of good practice, that can be applied to their own context, when seeking ways to ensure that all students feel valued and empowered.