Originally published in 1980, Absent with Cause, reissued here with a new preface, looks at the Bayswater Centre, which provided full-time education for young people who had stopped attending comprehensive schools, and for whom the alternative may well have been home tuition or residential provision in community homes or assessment centres. By describing what actually happened in a documented year with a whole intake of youngsters, the intention was to probe beneath the label of ‘failure’ to show that a meaningful full-time educational programme could be offered and accepted despite disastrous home backgrounds or a history of complete disenchantment with school. By pointing to the success of an ethos that redefined the three most important educational objectives as Responsibility, Articulation and Relevance, and which actually offered young people a real opportunity to participate in determining their own educational programme, and by reference to other units and schools working along similar lines, the intention was to discuss the implications for state provision. Today it can be read in its historical context.

This book is a re-issue originally published in 1980. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.

Rachel Marks has been a primary school teacher and mathematics coordinator in both inner-city and rural schools, teaching pupils across the primary age-range. Her research interests include equity issues and the social context of schooling and she has a PhD in Mathematics Education in which she explored the implications of ability practices in primary school mathematics. She now works as a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of Brighton where she teaches across a range of Initial Teacher Education and mathematics specialist courses and shares her research findings with teachers and educators across a variety of forums.

Ian Menter (AcSS) is Professor of Teacher Education and Director of Professional Programmes in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. He previously worked at the Universities of Glasgow, the West of Scotland, London Metropolitan, the West of England and Gloucestershire. Before that he was a primary school teacher in Bristol, England. His most recent publications include A Literature Review on Teacher Education for the 21st Century (Scottish Government) and A Guide to Practitioner Research in Education (Sage). His work has also been published in many academic journals.