FEATURE FOCUS: ALTERNATIVE PROVISION
the pupil-teacher ratio, and decreasing the levels of support individuals receive. Other unregulated settings provide questionable educational advantage to attendees.
It’s time to redress the balance, and AI can provide part of the solution. The first challenge for teachers in AP is to engage these children and young people back into learning. If the content of the curriculum used holds no relevance for a child already struggling to learn, the task becomes even more difficult. As adults we rarely engage with subjects that do not hold our interest – but often expect children to do so.
Using context that pupils recognise and relate to - making learning integral to the real world and more specifically, to their reality, provides a way in. A persuasive essay about school uniforms, may fire the debate for a successful learner, but it is probably not going to be a hot topic for a child struggling with a chaotic or dysfunctional home life. If that child is dealing with high levels of adversity – being a carer for a relative, keeping the household going, dealing with pressure to join local gangs, being coerced into couriering drugs and weapons around the neighbourhood – school uniform does not hold sway. It has little to do with their life.
Asking the group about the subjects they feel strongly about, or responding to local news stories from their neighbourhoods, and using these to create tasks, will provide a more enticing hook to pique their interest. After all, in many situations, the subject of a task is just the ‘hanger’ for the skills they need to learn – in this case, the elements of creating a persuasive piece, communicating perspectives and points of view. Using AI, teachers have the capacity to provide this individualised content and personalised instruction and feedback, supporting learners by addressing their needs and ‘scaffolding’ their learning through adaptive teaching. If the learner is having difficulty grasping a concept – especially an abstract one - AI can quickly produce several relevant analogies to help illustrate and explain. It can also be used to develop interactive learning modules, so the learner has more control and ownership over their learning. When engaged with their learning, pupils begin to build skills, increasing their confidence and commitment.
Identifying and discussing these skills and attitudes towards learning, with the pupil
January 2024
reflecting on how they learn and the ways they learn best, also gives them more agency and autonomy, thinking metacognitively. Gaps in learning are often the cause of confusion, misunderstandings and misconceptions. If a child has been absent from school they may miss crucial concepts that form the building blocks to more complex ideas later in their school career. Without providing the foundations by filling in these gaps and unravelling the misconceptions, new learning may literally be impossible for them to understand, increasing frustration and feelings of failure. AI can help identify those gaps and provide support with building understanding.
AI is by no means a replacement for teachers or teaching assistants. It is purely additional support, that, coupled with approaches that promote engagement with learning, can support these disadvantaged and often vulnerable children and young people, enabling them to access an education previously denied them. AI in AP settings can help make this a reality, rapidly developing bespoke curriculum with engaging content, tailored to individual needs to give these young learners the greatest chance of success. Pupils entering AP usually have a negative self-image of themselves. The inability to cope in mainstream settings and identifying with the labels - ‘disruptive’, ‘disrespectful’, ‘naughty’ or ‘boisterous’, consistently reaffirms their ‘failure’. Rebuilding their identity as a learner is challenging; successful AP needs to increase their confidence in their abilities, so they can begin to develop their skills and achieve successes. Personal reflection can be challenging, however identifying the strengths they have, can create the necessary foundations for growth. If they play football on Saturday, this shows commitment and teamwork. They may not have recognised the maths they have mastered while shopping and paying the bills as a carer, or as a stand-in for an absent parent. Highlighting these positives and changing their perception of themselves, from failing to finding success, and developing a positive self-image, is just as important as any academics.
We need to view a pupil attending AP through a different lens, a personal perspective and not one that compares them to others. For instance, if a pupil who has been a long-term absentee or excluded from school, manages to attend AP
for 20% of the time, when actually they only have the capacity to give 20%, then we need to view that as them having given 100%. We need the flexibility to view the world through their eyes, and take them from where they are at that moment.
One target of the SEND Review is to, ‘…create a three-tier alternative provision system, focusing on targeted early support within mainstream school, time-limited intensive placements in an alternative provision setting, and longer-term placements to support return to mainstream or a sustainable post-16 destination...’ AP should be like a semi-permeable membrane with some pupils passing from school to AP and back – support for those who need it, when they need it – and not as a last ditch attempt which probably signals they are coming to the end of their school career.
The stresses experienced by children and young people growing up now, have been exacerbated by the turmoil created during lockdown. Absence rates in 2021/2022 increased to 7.6%, up from 5% pre-pandemic, of which 2.1% were unauthorised. Persistent absence has doubled to 22.5%. The increase in absence echoes the increase in children experiencing issues with mental health and wellbeing.
We have to ask ourselves – are we providing an education that children and young people want to engage with, one which promotes life-long learning? Or is it a self-perpetuating, punitive system traditionally stacked against those who face the greatest challenges, one that accepts academic ‘failure’ as part of the equation. According to the Department for Education (DfE) ‘All children are entitled to receive a world- class education that allows them to reach their potential and live a fulfilled life, regardless of their background,’ but with ever increasing numbers of pupils suspended, and temporarily or permanently excluded, the onus is now on AP to try and make it happen. Let’s give these disadvantaged young people the real-life chances they deserve, a pathway towards educational and social equity.
1 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan (
publishing.service.gov.uk)
www.education-today.co.uk 37
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