Research to help children removed from school engage with their education

Highlighting the barriers to school attendance and informing policy around children who have been removed from their learning forms new research co-led by University of Northampton (UON).

The team wants to hear from parents and carers of children in England who have been removed from mainstream schooling about their experiences of the education system to understand how to help children better engage with their learning.

The research is part of the Educational Access: Barriers and Enablers (EABE) initiative and is co-led by UON’s Tereza Aidonopoulou and Dr Michelle Pyer, with partners from Not Fine in School and The Trauma Informed Social Worker.

Their survey – which will remain open until 30 September – takes about 20 minutes to complete and at the end, volunteers will have the opportunity to enter a prize draw for an Amazon voucher.

Part of the research team is UON Senior Lecturer in Education Tereza Aidonopoulou. She says: “We are a team of researchers, parents and other professionals who want to learn more about the barriers and enablers in education for children and young people. Many have personal experiences of this which is why it’s so important to us.

“We hope that this research will improve our understanding of the barriers and enablers to education for children and young people in England, underpinned by their families’ experiences and would like to hear as many of these thoughts and opinions as possible.”

The results of the survey will be in a final report with recommendations set to be published on/around February 2025.

Contact the research if you have any questions about the survey or the wider project: tereza.aidonopoulou@northampton.ac.uk and michelle.pyer@northampton.ac.uk

Take the survey here.