I met Hal* during my second year working as a teacher at a Pupil Referral Unit. He had a propensity to walk out of lessons. Sometimes he would pace up and down the hallway of the small building, aimless and angry. Other times he would peer in through the glass panels of the classroom doors. On occasion Hal would just sit in the hallway on his own, quietly. All the staff were fond of Hal who was a tall, handsome, sociable, funny, smart Black boy in his mid-teens. Over time, he became known as ‘Hallway Hal’ – affectionately, we were told by the headteacher. Hal could not articulate why he preferred the hallway to the classroom and neither could we.
In England, Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) are ‘alternative provision’ schools for children and young people who have been excluded from mainstream education. Placements in these units cost the state, on average, over $18,300 more per pupil than mainstream schools.1 Yet, only one per cent of PRU students achieve the grades needed to progress to further education after the age of 16.2 Most children and young people in PRUs are boys (although the numbers of excluded girls are increasing), socio-economically disadvantaged and, disproportionately, racialized as Black.
