Schooling and Looked after Children: Exploring Contexts and Outcomes in Standard Attainment Tests (SATS)

Abstract

Dolores Davey and Andrew Pithouse outline the findings from a longitudinal case study which ran from 2002 to 2006 and explored the educational achievement of all the young people looked after (in foster and residential care) in one local authority in South Wales. Among this group were 14 young people at a point one year before taking their Standard Attainment Tests (SATS), which are applied universally in UK schools. They were then followed up to the age at which they could complete any General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams. Hence, the young people's school history was tracked from the beginning of school Year 9 (sample age 13 years), at the end of which they took their SATS, through to the end of school Year 11 (sample age 15 years), at which point GCSEs are normally taken. This article focuses mainly on the outcome of the SATS and the looked after arrangements of the 14 young people in the year leading to these important tests. The authors' concluding comments refer briefly to their Year 11 outcomes in order to indicate continuities and changes in attainment. The SATs results are presented in a context of school attendance, the type and stability of care placements and education moves. Associations between schooling and separation are explored using an analysis of trajectories and outcomes that reveal how and why some young people clearly achieve while others do not. In doing so, the article seeks to add to studies and policy pronouncements in this field that too often represent looked after children by their collective statistical failure rather than by notable differences in educational outcomes and related circumstances.