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Background: The research reported in this article was commissioned by a consortium of inner-city schools located in central England. It was commissioned in response to the consortium's concerns regarding increasing referrals of negative pupil behaviour amongst its secondary school pupils in Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14), resulting in temporary and permanent exclusions. The consortium also sought to explore the factors contributing to a perceived increase in incidents of serious misbehaviour by pupils in Year 8 (ages 12-13). Purpose: The research was designed to create a better understanding of the factors affecting school exclusion from the perspective of pupils and behaviour coordinators within the consortium's schools. Sample: Study participants were 49 pupils in Year 9 (ages 13-14), comprising 23 girls and 26 boys, and eight behaviour coordinators from seven secondary schools and two centres for alternative provision (AP) in an inner-city area of the West Midlands. Design and methods: The research was designed using an ethnographic approach and involved individual semi-structured interviews and qualitative data analysis. Interviews were conducted over a 12-month period in each of the participating schools and centres for AP. Results: A series of related themes emerged from the data analysis. Amongst those factors identified as having the greatest bearing on negative pupil behaviour was the issue of transition. While many pupils imagine the transition to Key Stage 4 (ages 15-16) as a positive departure from their previous behavioural histories to a world of qualification opportunities, personal commitment, future employment and adulthood, this is not matched by the perceptions of many of the teaching staff. In particular, the move from primary school to secondary school was seen by many respondents as a traumatic period of transition and an underlying cause for negative behaviour. Respondents report that, when left unchecked, difficulties associated with primary-secondary school transition were often amplified throughout the first three years of secondary schooling. Conclusions: The implications from this small scale, qualitative investigation are that positive attention to transition experiences, amongst other factors, is likely to contribute to improved management of behaviour referrals and exclusions.

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative inquiry into risk in the lives of children and young people. Conducted over a 12-month period in Birmingham and the Black Country in the United Kingdom, the study sought to elicit perceptions of risk from the perspective of children and young people in primary and secondary school settings. The research design employed focus groups to explore the perceptions of children and young people as they approached the end of primary-phase and secondary-phase schooling. A reference group was also established in a community-based centre to explore the views of young people who had recently left statutory-phase education. Involving seven primary schools, six secondary schools and the community-based centre, a total of 97 participants were involved in 14 separate focus groups. The findings from the study affirm risk as a multi-dimensional and at times complex field of encounter. Moreover, the research exposes a disjunction between the kinds of risks that children and young people see as significant in their lives and adult concerns that are typically expressed in the form of "moral panics". (Contains 2 notes.)

This article reports the findings of four separately commissioned evaluations of alternative provision (AP) undertaken in three local authorities in the UK. The evaluations were specifically predicated on the principles of children's rights and used a combination of qualitative research methods and documentary analysis to elicit the experiences of young people in conjunction with the viewpoints of key stakeholders. Data from each evaluation was gathered over a total period of 6 years. The sites and time scales for each evaluation varied from 6‐month authority‐wide strategic reviews to a 3‐year evaluation of an AP free school and an evaluation of pupil referrals in a large school partnership. The evaluations involved 200 participant children and young people, 30 managers and stakeholders, 8 parents of non‐attending pupils and local authority officers and school governors. The evaluations report the complexity of needs amongst children and young people; the continuing problem of unsuccessful transitions between key phases/stages of education and the profound consequences of this for young people; assumptions around mainstream reintegration and managed moves; and the curriculum challenges of vocationalism and academic emphasis. While the research data confirms the positive value of multi‐agency approaches in AP, it also shows a more recent troubling increase in the number of young people now being referred to AP as a consequence of their exposure to performative school cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]