Social exclusion of children in primary school

Every school is facing the phenomenon of social exclusion. Long-term social exclusion can have unpleasant consequences for students and impact their entire life. Some schools give more emphasis on solving this problem and others less, but in any case it is necessary to spot this phenomenon and properly react to it. The master’s thesis researches the phenomenon of social exclusion of children in primary schools. In the theoretical part, it explains the concept of social exclusion and the state of social exclusion in Slovenia. This is followed by the explanation of how social exclusion affects the child and its development. The thesis then presents some theoretical models in connection with the development of the child. The next part explains the significance of primary school for the child, particularly in terms of its healthy development and importance of good relationships with peers. The final part of the theoretical part describes children with emotional and behavioural disorders and their characteristics in connection with their disorder, the school and appropriate assistance. The empirical part is based on the conducted semi-structural interviews with fifteen male and female teachers and school counsellors from ten different Slovenian primary schools. The aim of the research was to find out how professional workers define the concept of social exclusion, which causes or types of social exclusion they recognize in students in their schools, whether they think that social exclusion is a problem and how the primary schools react to social exclusion of children. We also wanted to hear about some examples of good practices. The results show that professional workers recognize different types and causes of social exclusion and that the majority is aware about the negative impact of social exclusion on the healthy development of the child. Surprising is the fact that the majority of children are socially excluded due to extraordinary behaviour or special needs. Schools have very different ways of coping with social exclusion of children. Problem-solving mostly involves male and female teachers and schools counsellors. Schools are also active in the field of preventive measures in order to prevent the occurrence of social exclusion in the first place. In terms of social exclusion of students with an official order confirming the presence of emotional and behavioural disorders, professional workers are not spotting any significant specialities, at the same time, working with these students does not differ from working with other socially excluded students