Extract from: Consultation on Revised Behaviour in Schools Guidance
and Suspension and Permanent Exclusion Guidance: Response from the British Psychological Society, 2022.
The BPS is opposed to the use of isolation for a number of reasons.
Isolation as a form of internal exclusion is inconsistent with the
UNCRC (Tillson & Oxley, 2021). There are no limits on the number of
days children can spend in isolation which in practice often leads to
extended periods of time away from access to qualified teaching and
peers, and with no clear rationale for the use of such an
‘intervention’.
We note that in the Youth Justice system children are
not allowed to spend more than three hours in isolation. We question
why there are no limits at all on such a practice in schools.
In psychological terms “extrinsic controls [compliance driven
sanctions such as isolation] may negatively influence students’ sense
of belonging and school affect (L. H. Anderman & Anderman, 2003;
L. H. Anderman & Freeman,2004; Roeser, Midgley, & Urdan, 1996,
cited in Mansfield, 2007).
"Belonging is an essential aspect of
psychological functioning. Schools offer unique opportunities to
improve belonging for school-aged children” (Allen, Kern,
VellaBrodrick, Hattie, & Waters, 2018). Sense of belonging could be
defined as the feeling that a person is connected to and matters to
others in an organisation. There is a body of research (Cornwall,
2015; Dyson, 2018; EEF, 2019; Riley, Coates& Allen, 2020) which
suggests that a sense of belonging and feeling safe has been linked
with a number of positive outcomes for children and young people
including; increased student motivation, increased staff well-being,
motivation and retention, reductions in student absenteeism, positive
social outcomes (e.g. health and well-being), improved academic
achievement and a sense of empowerment ( a belief that children
can make a difference).
On the other hand, young people feeling that they don’t belong in
school is linked with higher level of exclusion. For example, children
from disadvantaged communities are twice as likely as their more
advantaged peers to feel they don’t belong and four times more likely
to be excluded (Riley, Coates & Allen, 2020). Literature has identified
various factors that influence school belonging including academic
motivation, emotional stability, personal characteristics, parent
support, peer support, teacher support, gender, race and ethnicity,
extracurricular activities and environmental/school safety (Allen et al.,
2018). However, teacher support and positive personal
characteristics were the strongest predictors of school belonging.
As noted above there are clear ethical and moral reasons to end the
practice of isolation. In addition there is no research evidence of
which we are aware to suggest that it is an effective practice and a
growing body of evidence to suggest that it exacerbates rather than
ameliorates the difficulties of children more likely to be placed in
isolation...