Improving educational experiences
Contrary to what is sometimes reported, many looked after children do very well at school. However, official statistics show that there is still a stubbornly large gap between the educational outcome indicators of looked after children and all other children.
If you’re a looked after child in Scotland your attendance is likely to be lower than national averages, you’ll leave school sooner than the majority of your peers, with fewer qualifications, and be less likely to get a job or go to go to college or university. Even more alarming is that looked after children are 8 times more likely to be excluded from school.
The main objective of the CELCIS Education Team is to work alongside anyone interested in or involved in education to build an understanding of looked after children’s needs. We consolidate that understanding by working together to develop day-to-day tools and strategies that will help improve educational experiences and outcomes for those very children.
Always learning
We learn from you and you learn from us, and together we can begin to make improvements at every level of the education system for those who need it most.
We do this by working with a range of partners both local and national, including professionals and students from health, social work, education, and other critical partners delivering services across the children’s sector. These close working relationships allow us to develop specific training, support capacity-building, design and deliver consultancy work programmes to suit each partner’s individual needs and priorities.
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Get in touch if you'd like to find out more about our work in education.
Looked After and Learning
Our Looked After and Learning toolkit is one example of how we’ve used practitioner insight and wisdom.
It is combined with research evidence and policy to give schools a handy benchmarking guide which can be used to ask questions about what support is being offered to children who are looked after.