Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) are an integral part of the UK education system, providing education for pupils who have been excluded from mainstream school. The dominant discourse around PRUs is an overwhelmingly negative one, focusing on their limitations and emphasising the bleak prospects for pupils who end up going to PRUs, ‘The general consensus is that PRUs offer second rate education …. If you’re a bright pupil who’s doing well and you go to a PRU, suddenly you’re just doing the basics, maybe three or four subjects.’ (BBC 2016) The view of PRUs as second-rate institutions was taken further by David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, ‘The relationship between pupil referral units and the criminal justice system has become symbiotic, and the rise of exclusions is creating a pipeline of young people into our prison system.’ (David Lammy MP, (Weale, 2017)) Lammy’s comments were in response to a study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) ’Making the
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