Engage in Education

Not evaluated for Primary social and emotional

Not evaluated for Secondary social and emotional

Intervention description

Engage in Education is a programme which offers schools and academies a specialist service designed to increase the attendance and attainment of pupils most at risk of fixed-term or permanent exclusion. The programme, which can run for up to a year, involves Catch22 working alongside a school to support pupils with low attainment, prior records of truancy and exclusion, and special educational needs. It seeks to improve pupils’ attainment by reducing challenging behaviour through group work in communication skills, and one-to-one support from a keyworker.

The one-to-one support is tailored to the needs of each young person, and can involve support with family issues, anger management sessions, or careers guidance, for example. Strategies are devised for re-engaging learners with their education and improving their academic performance, and professional development is provided so that teachers can replicate these strategies in the classroom. The programme was developed with two-year funding from the Department for Education alongside partners I CAN (the children’s communication charity), Dyslexia Action and Rathbone.

Professional development/training

Catch22 work alongside school staff

Evidence Summary

The Education Endowment Foundation are currently running a project investigating the effectiveness of Engage In Education.

Key research

The Education Endowment Foundation evaluation will look at the impact on attainment and a range of behavioural outcomes. An initial pilot of Engage in Education in 2011, funded by the DfE, worked with around 1,000 pupils and suggested promising improvements in attendance and attainment, and reductions in exclusion. However, the evaluation was mainly qualitative.

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/engage-in-education/

Intervention details