‘The world is out to get me, bruv’: life after school ‘exclusion’

Increasingly, punitive policies on ‘poblematic’ pupils are implemented in poor‐performing UK urban state schools. While some are permanently excluded and referred to local authority educational alternatives, others are unofficially ‘excluded’ and referred to other forms of off‐site educational centres, where pupils receive a significantly reduced timetable, undertake unchallenging courses and are unlikely to return to school. Based on an ethnographic research project with 20 excluded young people in one south London borough, this paper will discuss what happens to these young people after their ‘exclusion’ from school. I will suggest that this form of unofficial ‘exclusion’ has significant life implications for these young people, contributing not only to their social exclusion, but also to their increased exposure to crime and victimisation. Moreover, their life options are truncated despite the efforts that they may make otherwise.