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There is evidence that engagement with the arts can engender transformative effects on young people’s views of themselves and their futures, this can be particularly useful for children and young people in care. This paper draws on a case study of an arts-based programme delivered in Wales, UK. Field observations of the arts-based sessions were conducted, and the participant sample included young people in foster care (n=8), foster carers (n=7) and project facilitators (n=3). The study employed interviews, observations, reflexive diaries, and metaphor work to explore the subjective accounts of these different stakeholders. This provided an insight into their experience of being involved with the arts-based programme, the impacts of this involvement, and what steps they felt could be taken to improve the model. The paper argues that arts and cultural engagement can be transformative in improving the confidence and social connectedness of young people in foster care, but that attention needs to be given to how programmes are delivered. The paper documents the often overlooked mundane, yet important, aspects of planning arts-based programmes, exploring the involvement of foster carers, interpersonal relationships, and the provision of refreshments. It calls for investment in developing carefully designed extracurricular opportunities for young people in care, where they can experience ‘becoming more confident in being themselves’.

Background:\ud Dating and relationship violence (DRV) is under-researched in the UK, especially among Further Education (FE) students. This study examines the association between DRV victimization and socio-demographic characteristics, sexual identity and dating and relationship behaviours among 16–19 year olds FE students.\ud Methods:\ud Cross-sectional self-report data were collected from 1751 students aged 16–19 at six FE settings in England and Wales. Factor analysis examined the structure of DRV victimization by gender. Multilevel logistic regression examined the odds ratios of DRV victimization according to socio-demographics, sexual identity and dating behaviours.\ud Results:\ud DRV victimization clusters into two categories for females, and three for males. Among females, 46.1% experienced controlling behaviours and 31.6% threatening behaviours; 49.9% of males experienced controlling behaviours, 27.1% threatening behaviours and 5.8% online sexual violence. The odds of DRV victimization were 2–8 times greater for males and 2–4 times greater for females who had ever sent a sexually explicit image. No consistent association was found between DRV and age, spending money per week, educational attainment or meeting partners online.\ud Conclusions:\ud The high prevalence, absence of gender differences and social patterning, suggests DRV victimization may be becoming normalized and is of significant public health importance for young people in England and Wales.

Confidence in Care is a five-year funded programme by The Big Lottery. Led by The Fostering Network Wales, the programme will be delivered in partnership with Action for Children, Barnardo’s and The Adolescent and Children’s Trust. The programme will be independently evaluated by The Children’s Social Research and Development Centre at Cardiff University (CASCADE) and will work closely with Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru and Children in Wales. A strand of this programme aims to provide an experience for foster children that improves confidence, develops friendships, self-achievement, and trust and is engaging and fun; and involves their siblings and families in the process. In relation to this wider project, the Wales Millennium Centre ran an arts based programme which was funded and supported by the Confidence in Care Consortium led by The Fostering Network in Wales. The arts based programme was delivered between May and July 2018 and involved eight care-experienced young people and their foster families. The Wales Millennium Centre commissioned Cardiff University to conduct research with care-experienced young people and their foster carers, and facilitators involved with the delivery of the arts project. The research explored the views of facilitators, young people, and their carers about their experiences of being involved, the possible value and benefits of being engaged with the arts, and the potential barriers to participation with the arts and culture.

The research outlined in this thesis primarily focused on the isolation and characterization of representatives of the mariner family of transposable elements in the genome of the tephritid, Bactrocera tryoni (Queensland fruit fly). A preliminary investigation was also made of the mobility properties of constructs based on the mariner element Mos], following their transient introduction into the embryonic soma of B. tryoni. This involved the use of plasmid-based excision and transposition assays. These studies were partly undertaken to obtain an initial idea of the feasibility of developing a germline transformation system based on particular mariner elements for use with B. tryoni, and possibly other related tephritids. To investigate whether the B. tryoni genome contained endogenous mariner element copies, an initial PCR analysis was carried out using degenerate oligonucleotide primers that had previously been designed to stretches of conserved residues within transposases encoded by particular mariner elements. Using this approach, examples of at least five distinct types of mariner elements were detected in the genome of B. tryoni following the cloning and DNA sequencing of 20 unique amplified fragments. Phylogenetic analyses using the conceptual amino acid translations of these partial transposase gene regions indicated that the B. tryom‘ sequences represented three subfamilies of mariner elements. Using the same PCR-based approach, diverse mariner sequences were also isolated from Bactrocera neohumeralis, a sibling species of B. tryoni, and an additional tephritid, Bactrocera jarvisi.

This thesis explores how children imagine, narrate and navigate their transitions from primary to secondary school, and how difference is (re)produced within and between schools through the process of transition. I used a range of creative, qualitative methods with 17 children and their parents/carers in south Wales to explore the transition, its meaning, and how it was negotiated over time. This marks a departure from the tendency in school transitions research to focus on pre-determined notions of the ‘good’ transition, and view transition as a one-off event and/or a problem to be solved. Taking a child-led, exploratory approach, I framed the transition as a process of being-and-becoming a professional and/or social pupil, examining how children actively and agentically negotiated the new school, its institutional and peer worlds, and the available identities and subject-positions.\ud \ud This study generated significant insights into children's classed and gendered navigation of the transition, and how it might be possible to rethink current dominant notions of ‘success' in school transition. Throughout, children’s accounts centred on the social, but emphasised its connection with all other aspects of the transition. The requirements and possibilities of the peer and institutional worlds interacted in both supportive and challenging ways, and the experience of finding (or making) one’s place socially was inseparable from finding one’s place in the physical school. Children and parents’/carers’ accounts also illuminated how class and school ‘choice’ shaped imaginings of secondary school and negotiation of these. Class and gender were central to participants’ narratives, and the ways that different possibilities for being-and-becoming a professional and social pupil were constructed and regulated by the school, pupils, and their interactions. However, participants' accounts also highlighted their agency and space for resistance, and identified ways that recognition, belonging and spaces could be found or created by participants who were marginalised.

Across Wales, the United Kingdom and globally, children and young people who have experienced care generally achieve poorer educational outcomes compared to those who have not experienced care (Jackson and Cameron 2014; Mannay et al. 2015, 2017; O’Higgins et al. 2015; Sebba et al. 2015), with this discordancy in attainment attracting international concern (Berridge 2012; Jackson and Höjer 2013). Previous research demonstrates that care-experienced children and young people face significant educational disadvantages due to the adverse impacts of abuse and trauma (Bombèr 2007; O'Sullivan and Westerman 2007). Other barriers to educational attainment include unstable and disruptive environments, time spent out of school, poor additional educational support and a lack of understanding of their specific mental and emotional health needs (Social Exclusion Unit 2003; Harker et al. 2004), as well as, generally, the low socio-economic status of care-experienced children and young people’s birth families (Forrester et al. 2009; Rees and Holding 2014). Alongside the educational opportunities and outcomes for children and young people in care in Wales, Mannay et al. (2019) discuss the increased focus on and importance of their everyday experiences, development and wellbeing, adopting a relational approach to these aspects. Political interest in the arts, creative and cultural experiences of care-experienced children and young people has also increased exponentially over the last few decades. For example, the United Kingdom Government paper ‘Care Matters: Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care’ (Department for Education and Skills 2006) catalysed a shift in interest in terms of improving the arts and cultural experiences of children and young people in care settings. This green paper, part of the broader ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda, looked to create opportunities to improve the experiences of care-experienced children and young people. The ‘Care Matters’ policy paper also included the political promise that “children in care must have the chance to participate in sports, volunteering and the arts, and be supported to remain healthy and safe”. In relation to this emphasis on the benefits of the arts for care-experienced children and young people, the Wales Millennium Centre ran an arts-based programme which was funded and supported by the Confidence in Care Consortium led by The Fostering Network in Wales. The arts-based programme was delivered between May and July 2018 and involved eight care-experienced young people and their foster families. The Wales Millennium Centre commissioned Cardiff University to conduct research with care-experienced young people and their foster carers, and facilitators involved with the delivery of the arts project. The research aimed to assess the current knowledge base regarding care-experienced children’s and young people’s engagement with the arts, and to explore the views of facilitators, young people, and their carers involved in the arts-based programme at the Wales Millennium Centre.