Hard to reach and hard to teach in Merseyside: The Everton free school

The Everton Free School is the first alternative provision school to be opened under the free schools programme (established under the Education Act 2011). It operates across three sites in Merseyside and has a number of distinctive features that mark out its alternative to the mainstream: A reduced academic timetable, small class sizes, therapeutic support, and high staff to student ratio within classes and a non-disciplinarian approach to disruptive classroom behaviour.

This project aimed to establish whether this approach was successful in re-engaging  students with a history of disrupted and problematic educational pathways. Data were collected over a three week period in February 2014 and included lesson observations, staff interviews (with school managers, teaching staff and support staff), student interviews and motivation and engagement profiles of students.

In this presentation Dave Putwain, Faculty of Education, Edge Hill University, will present a preliminary analysis of finding and try to ascertain which practices enabled and which hindered the engagement and progress of students.