In this podcast, Francesca and Kirsty from Beyond Education (BE) talk to Kadeem, Lili, and Sophia of No More Exclusions (NME). NME is a grassroots coalition whose core focus is the abolition of school exclusions. Their work has been integral in highlighting the racial inequities in school exclusions, and they have released several influential guides for educators, politicians, and publics. Importantly, as part of their praxis they centre the voices of young people and those who have experienced exclusion at all levels of organisation, and it was BE’s privilege of chat to some of those members in this podcast.
In this podcast we focus on NME’s recent publication “What About the Other 29?” And other FAQs: Demystifying Abolition in the UK Education System. We explore themes of sexual violence, the abolition movement, non-hierarchical organising, secure schools and academies, and the importance of imagination.
Sophia has also kindly has listed a range of useful readings and other active organisations relevant to the podcast (see below – thanks Sophia!) We’d add that Sophia’s brilliant writing on a wide range of connected issues including secure schools, police in schools, and racism in schooling is well worth a read too!
Please do support or get involved NME and its sister collectives where you can!
Sister Collectives:
Abolitionist Futures
Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE)
Black Educators Alliance (BEA)
BodyCount
Coalition of Anti-Racist Educators (CARE)
Community Action on Prison Expansion (CAPE)
Cradle Community
Free Black University
Just Education Matters
Kids of Colour
Maslaha’s Schools with Roots project
Moore Education
No Police in Schools campaign
Northern Police Monitoring Project
Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School
Pupil Power
What’s The Big E
4Front Project
Recommended reading:
Cradle Community, Brick By Brick: https://www.hajarpress.com/books/brick-by-brick
Kids of Colour and the Northern Police Monitoring Project, Decriminalise the Classroom: https://nopoliceinschools.co.uk/resources/Decriminalise%20the%20Classroom%20-
%20A%20Community%20Response%20to%20Police%20in%20Greater%20Manchester%27
s%20Schools.pdf
BodyCount DfE guidance: https://www.docdroid.net/5J8ZD8N/bodycount-reclaimed-
guidance-pdf#page=15
Remi Joseph-Salisbury/Runnymede Trust, Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools: https://assets-global.website-files.com/61488f992b58e687f1108c7c/61bcc0cc2a023368396c03d4_Runnymede%20Second
ary%20Schools%20report%20FINAL.pdf
TJ Coati, Abolitionist Futures, What’s wrong with secure schools? https://abolitionistfutures.com/latest-news/whats-wrong-with-secure-schools
Bernard Coard, How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal in the British
School System (1971)
Sophia Purdy-Moore, The Canary, ‘Child Q’s experience shows we need to get police out of
schools’: https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2022/03/18/child-qs-experience-shows-we-need-to-get-
police-out-of-schools/
Zahra Bei, Helen Knowler and Jabeer Butt, “How do we progress racial justice in
education?” IPPR Progressive Review 28(1): 76–84: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/125892/newe.12242.pdf?sequence
=3
