Inclusion through Play

Inclusion through Play: The role of play-learning in supporting the wellbeing, socioemotional development and learning of adolescents who have been excluded from school.

Exclusion from school is a challenging and disruptive experience that significantly impacts the development of adolescents, often resulting in lost learning. School exclusions have now returned to pre-pandemic levels and suspensions, particularly for students in mid adolescence, are soaring again from last year's record breaking high numbers (DofE 2023). However, a central problem facing the Alternative Provision1 sector is that very little evidence exists for how we might engage and improve trajectories for excluded pupils nor a consensus over what 'success' looks like in AP (Gil et al. 2017). Without a clear road map, currently, not enough is done to mitigate the damage done to a child's development and opportunities following exclusion from school (Gil et al. There is strong evidence that play-learning and integrated pedagogies have a positive impact on attainment, wellbeing and socioemotional development with important application for students with multilayered experiences of vulnerability.

n the context of an adolescent mental health crisis, this thesis directly addresses priorities for future research identified in a recent review (Bone & Fancourt 2022), and responds to an earlier call in LEGO's white paper 'Learning through Play' for more robust research into "the impact of play-learning and integrated pedagogies in secondary [education]" (Zosh et al. 2017), particularly for students with Special Educational Needs in low-income contexts, in areas where the available evidence on holistic education is "generally weak" (Bungay & Vella-Burrows, 2013, p. 44).

1. Alternative provision (AP) is a catch-all term which describes all educational provision outside of mainstream and special needs schools. Some of this provision is state-maintained, which means the government is responsible for this provision.