Engaging The Disengaged Project

Engaging the Disengaged is a three-year project which aims to facilitate the re-engagement of young people who are excluded from school or at risk of exclusion with mainstream education using innovative participatory education methods incorporating a Global Dimension (GD).

The project is working with two clusters of schools (one within each partner Local Authority Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen) to develop and trial GD activities that engage pupils. Within each cluster the project will work intensively with teachers in two key pilot schools (one mainstream and one short stay school) to develop links. Working with Year 5 to 6 (primary) and Year 9 to 10 (secondary) pupils within mainstream schools and short stay schools, the ultimate aim is to embed the activities and methodologies into schemes of work. All the schools have varied interests and concerns as to how they wish to incorporate the GD into their curriculum and the project will be strongly informed by a participating teachers’ working group, which will meet on a regular basis throughout the project. There will be four complementary’ schools also involved in the project contributing in regard to consultation, assessment and future implementation of the activities and methodologies. Monitoring and evaluation is guided by a plan drawn up with the external evaluators, Edge Hill University. The project is guided by a steering group consisting of Local Education Authority Advisors, Edge Hill University staff and heads of participating schools.

The main objectives of the project are:

1. Develop GD activities that engage pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties

2. Develop GD activities to use in the re-engagement of pupils with mainstream education

3. Provide training and support for teachers in the GD and using it in the classroom

4. Embed GD activities into schemes of work of participating schools

5. Create forums for working with the Local Authority (LA) and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) institutions

6. Monitor and evaluate the impact of the project activities

7. Disseminate the learning of the project

This project is jointly funded by the Department for International Development (DfID), The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Christian Aid.