The number of families in England choosing to withdraw their children from school has grown significantly since 2016. In this manuscript, we present findings from action research with purposefully sampled home educating young people (n = 9), parents/carers (n = 16), staff from Career Connect (n = 4), staff from schools and colleges (n = 4), staff…

The right of parents to withdraw children from RE was conceived as a protection for the rights of religious minorities at a time when Religious Instruction in the community school was of a Christian confessional nature, this paper questions whether this provision is still coherent or necessary for contemporary multi-faith RE. Based on a survey of…

This article examines the relationship between a student's mental wellbeing and their financial circumstances. In England, successive governments have adopted a strategy of shifting the cost of university from the state to the individual as a means of increasing participation in higher education. In recent years, some have attributed the…

Previous research that evaluated first year students' transition into university found that the values of 'being, belonging and becoming' were important in particular within the first few months and within the first year of university. From our previous work, we reported that three things matter to students: the academic staff they work with, the…

Early withdrawal from higher education (HE) programmes can be detrimental for the students and institutions involved. Quantitative research has often concentrated on demographic and social antecedents (e.g. gender, prior education). Other factors may be more open to intervention e.g. students' academic experiences in HE. Using data from an…

Student withdrawal has received increased attention in the context of an expanding and more diverse Higher Education (HE) student population. Students leave University for interconnected, multiple reasons. Some explanations are internal to the University and may include support mechanisms, assessment feedback and quality of teaching and others are…

In England, one in three 11-16-year-olds is said to illustrate poor behaviour (Sodha and Guglielmi, 2009), while students at Key Stage 4 (14-16) who are not engaged in education are often identified as, or at risk of becoming, disaffected (McKendrick et al., 2007). This paper explores the impact of a vocational learning environment on disaffected…

This paper analyses the workplace learning experiences of young male retail employees. Deeming formal education highly unattractive, the pursuit of lifelong learning and continuous development for such people relies on workplace learning. Their experiences, however, over several years and across various retailers painted a grim reality.…

This article discusses the previous literature on student retention in the post-compulsory education sector and the "24+Advanced Learning Loan". Adult students participating in an Access to Higher Education course are at particularly high risk of non-completion. Literature indicates that whilst stakeholders may require factual statistics…

A substantial proportion of students doubt whether they should continue their studies, and are consequently more likely to withdraw. In the study described in this article, undergraduates who reported they doubted gave their reasons why they did, outlined support they received and stated why they ultimately decided to continue with their studies.…

This project aimed to better understand vocational student progression into higher education. Following an initial literature review a large dataset was purchased from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (covering the years 2002/3 to 2006/7 and 2007/8). This allowed for a quantitative analysis to take place which compared and contrasted the…

This paper uses Bourdieu's concept of field to analyse findings from an ethnographic study of Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in England. Entry to Employment is a work-based learning programme which aims to re-engage young people with "barriers to learning" inhibiting access to further education, training or employment. The paper…

This study reports on data from a larger-scale research project in one city in the West Midlands, England. The study was commissioned by the local education authority because of the rising incidence of parental withdrawal of Muslim girls from physical education. The aim was to provide evidence-based guidance to schools on improving the inclusion…

This article reports findings from a qualitative case study whose main focus was on how four 10-11-year-old dyslexic pupils coped with the demands of classroom reading during their final two years (Years 5-6) at a primary school in the north of England. Data were also collected on more general issues associated with the pupils' experiences of…

The education and training of teachers is an issue of national concern. In this paper we analyse the findings of an in-depth investigation, undertaken by means of semi structured interviews, of a group of minority ethnic teacher trainees who withdrew from Initial Teacher Training courses in England, and a smaller group of those who completed these…