The second chance school

Abstract

Loughshore Educational Resource Centre is a religiously integrated, co‐educational, special needs and secondary school situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Loughshore works with a wide clientele of pupils across the spectrum of need and ability from the metropolitan area of Belfast. It plays a vital role as an educational base for a multiplicity of out‐of‐school children. The centre works in the backdrop of an emerging peace in the region as well as the significantly high levels of deprivation experienced across Northern Ireland’s capital. With places at the centre at a premium, a strict admission criterion exists. The centre aims to give a ‘second chance’ to its pupils, who are at risk of social exclusion, focusing on academic, personal and social development, providing skills which can be used to gain employment or continue to further education.

Keywords:

• inclusive education
• special education
• poverty and education

Notes

1. Walker and Walker (1997, 8) describe social exclusion as ‘being shut out, fully or partially, from any of the social, economic, political or cultural systems which determine the social integration of a person in society’.