Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Helping Troubled Pupils

A lecture by Professor Chris Kyriacou, University of York

Thousands of pupils face adverse circumstances in their lives, and schools have an important role to play in helping pupils to cope with the difficult times they are experiencing. This lecture will consider major areas such as bullying, truancy, exclusion, stress, abuse, bereavement, and delinquency.

Member’s report

This, the first of three lectures on the theme ‘Educational research – making a difference’, looked at eight areas of concern for today’s schoolchildren: bullying, the traditional form and the newer cyber variety; truancy, together with ‘school refusal’ often caused by panic attacks; exclusion, as a penalty for misbehaviour (the ironic penalty for the truant’s own choice of absence); stress, caused by the pressure to attain targets and improve performance (and a political obsession with school league tables); abuse, including physical, emotional, sexual, and also sheer parental neglect; bereavement (and we might have included family break-up); all of which may easily lead to misbehaviour, and then to delinquency; and finally, the new problem of radicalisation. Although schools, more than ever, have policies and procedures in place to help troubled pupils cope, our speaker advocated ‘social pedagogy’, professional training in one-to-one mentoring care, to find better solutions, turn lives round, and produce happier children.

Bob Hale