By Dr Lucy Robinson, Cardiff University
During her tenure as education secretary, Bridget Phillipson was clear that her vision for mainstream inclusion involved children being “able to go to school with their friends, in their own community”. Embedded in that message is an assumption that children with SEND attending specialist settings somehow miss out on those friendships; an idea often repeated in policy debates, but rarely backed by evidence.
In reality, there is very little research examining friendships, play and peer relationships inside special schools. But new findings shed light on those social networks, challenging these political narratives. Dr Lucy Robinson shares a summary of a project undertaken by a team of researchers at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, recently published in the British Journal of Special Education. Evidence like this helps ensure that decisions about inclusion, mainstream expansion and parental preference are grounded in what children actually experience and the complexity of their social worlds.
If you discuss this article on social media, please remember to say you saw it on SNJ.
Friendships in special schools thrive just as much as in mainstream by Dr Lucy Robinson, Cardiff University
Most literature on the social connections of children with SEND suggests they have fewer friendships and more frequently experience bullying. But this data is usually collected from mainstream school settings, where children with SEND are the minority. To better understand the social connections of pupils with SEND in specialist school settings, the research team conducted a social network study in this educational context.
Why does this research matter?
Bullying is a public health risk, with World Health Organisation research from 40 countries showing that 37% of girls and 42% of boys report bullying. It’s even been suggested to impact up to 69% of all pupils with SEND.
Despite this, there are no evidence-based anti-bullying programmes specifically designed for use in special schools. This could be, in part, because there is no data on positive or negative pupil networks (interactions) in either classroom settings or across the whole school for special school pupils. Without this knowledge, it’s difficult to design and structure a suitable and effective anti-bullying programme.
Our research project, Pupil interactions and networks in special schools, set out to better understand positive interactions (friendship and play) and negative interactions (bullying and victimisation) between pupils who attend special schools in England.
How was the research conducted?
The team worked with 156 pupils (aged 10 -16 years) from three English special schools, each with a different specialism: Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH); Cognition and Learning (C&L); and autism.
The researchers collected positive and negative peer network data by asking pupils four questions:
“Think about all the children in your school:
- Who do you play with?
- Who are you friends with?
- Who is mean to you?
- Who are you mean to?”
For each question, pupils could nominate up to 10 peers in their school. The research team noted the names of those nominated in a pre-populated Excel spreadsheet. If a child nominated a pupil not participating in the study, that pupil’s name was not recorded. The team worked with as many pupils as possible. Some pupils chose not to participate.
The table below shows the number and proportion of pupils participating in each school.
| School | Primary specialism of school | Percentage of the total school population (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) | 63 |
| 2 | Cognition and Learning (C&L) | 87 |
| 3 | Autism | 95 |
The data were analysed, with visualisations of the networks and interactions between pupils created using advanced statistical software. An example of six of those network visualisations is shown below.
These network visualisations above are for the questions ‘Who are you friends with?’ and ‘Who is mean to you?’.
Each point represents a child. Squares represent girls and circles represent boys. The shade of the point represents age with the palest showing age 10, and the darkest denoting age 16. The lines joining points represent a pupil connection; arrows indicate the direction of the connection, from the perspective of the child. For example, an arrow pointing from a pale circle to a dark square shows that a younger boy named an older girl in their answer.
What are the key findings of the research?
Overall, the findings show that positive peer networks (friends and play companions) and negative peer networks (bullying and victimisation) largely mirror social networks in mainstream schools. Importantly, pupils in special schools had just as many friends as those without SEND in mainstream schools. This suggests that peer relationship difficulties may be less pronounced in these environments than might be expected based on previous research. It may be that children in these specialist settings felt more comfortable, seen, and understood in their needs and interactions, which enabled more friendships and less bullying, compared to when pupils with SEND are in a mainstream setting.
However, the team also identified important differences between the special school types. There were considerably more friendship and play connections, coupled with higher levels of reciprocity (nominations that were returned) overall, in the C&L and the autism schools compared to the SEMH school. Yet, at the same time, there were also higher levels of victimisation in the C&L and autism schools. Together, these findings suggest a more closely connected peer social environment in the C&L and autism schools. This may also be due to the SEMH school having higher levels of persistent absence and more instances of pupils requiring personalised timetables, resulting in less classroom—and playground-based—time with peers to form or sustain social connections.
It’s all friendship, wherever it takes place
Our findings show that, contrary to what much literature suggests, social networks in special schools largely mirror those in mainstream schools: children with SEND experience similar numbers of friendships as those without SEND when in a safe and understanding environment. They also experience similar patterns and rates of bullying involvement. However, we also identified key differences between special school types, with children in the SEMH school experiencing fewer social connections overall, both positive and negative, compared to those in the C&L and the autism schools.
This research opens the pathway for future longitudinal social network analyses of social relationships in special schools and their impacts on mental health, peer influence and the movement or stability of friendships. Understanding social networks in special schools also provides important information for researchers, teachers and practitioners designing social skills programmes, anti-bullying programmes, or personal, social and emotional development programmes for pupils in the special school context.
Author profiles
- Dr Julia Badger, Associate Professor of Child Development and Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford
Julia’s research is concerned with child development, primarily peer relationships, bullying and mental health. She works with primary, secondary and special education schools across the UK and with children aged 4-18. She is also an advocate for public and community engagement, especially with school staff and parents. - Dr Lucy Robinson, ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
Lucy is an early career researcher interested in research that improves the lives of children and young people. Her award-winning doctoral research involved working creatively with groups of service children to explore how military life shapes their identity and school experiences. - Kimberley Winardi, QTS & OCT certified Primary School Teacher
Kimberly completed her Master’s degree at the University of Oxford in Childhood Development and Education. She currently works as a primary school teacher in Canada. She is passionate about teaching students with SEND and is interested in learning ways to support the learning, development, and wellbeing of children with diverse needs. - Dr Ariel Lindorff, Professor of Equity in Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford
Ariel has led and contributed to numerous projects related to educational effectiveness, improvement, and equity. Her research spans pre-school, primary, and secondary education settings, and considers education at a variety of levels (system, school, class, and individual/family).
Dr Chloe Bracegirdle, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Psychology, University of Surrey
Chloe’s research examines how social networks shape individuals and societies, with a particular interest in outcomes regarding intergroup relations and wellbeing. Her past work has highlighted how friendship networks influence ethnic prejudice and perceptions of discrimination.
References
- Badger, J.R., Robinson, L., Winardi, K., Lindorff, A. & Bracegirdle, C. (2026) Social networks in special schools: Friendships, bullying and play among pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. British Journal of Special Education, 00, 1–14. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8578.70121
- Rose, C.A., Monda- Amaya, L.E. & Espelage, D.L. (2011) Bullying perpetration and victimization in special education: a review of the literature. Remedial and Special Education, 32, 114–130. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/0741932510361247
- World Health Organization. (2020) Youth violence. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/youth-violence
Disabled Children’s Rights are Under Attack.
We’re fighting, but we can’t do it alone: we need your help more than ever.
We’re volunteer-run, but costs are rising. To help us keep going, please consider a one-off or, if it’s possible, a regular donation.
Read more about being a regular donor here.
We use Zeffy to fundraise, which doesn’t charge us a fee, so 100% of your donation reaches us.
Key Content
Also read:
- The government must not ignore stark warnings about lack of mainstream SEND capacity reported by its own research
- What makes an autism assessment report genuinely useful to a school?
- Big ideas belong to everyone: Education, rights and lifelong learning for people with learning disabilities
- As The Guardian prints our joint campaign’s open letter, it’s clear people with lived experience don’t want to lose SEND rights
- How do you ensure pathways to education, health, and social care support, meet both diagnosis and needs?
- Researching flexi-schooling: How beneficial is it for children with SEND?
- Oops, we did it again… The Government must now listen to more than 100,000 people who do not want to lose SEND rights
- Experts at Hand: When is an occupational therapist also a SEND expert?
- Could using AI to filter Government consultation responses lead to “algorithmic silencing” of neurodivergent voices?
- A council’s “improvement journey”? How determined SEND parents catalogued the trail of their LA’s unlawful behaviour
- Research: Social networks in special schools. Friendships, bullying and play
- CrowdJustice SEND accountability: When the law says “must”, local authorities cannot treat it as “maybe”
- The government must not ignore stark warnings about lack of mainstream SEND capacity reported by its own research
- Researching flexi-schooling: How beneficial is it for children with SEND?
- Research: Social networks in special schools. Friendships, bullying and play
- Research: SEND case officers are LAs’ “human shield” gatekeepers. But parents shouldn’t have to be their own key workers
- Research finds the Government’s SEND National Conversation “performative”, lacking pathways for young people’s inclusion
- Research shows children in special schools report higher self-esteem than those with SEN in mainstream
- Research: Inclusion for neurodivergent pupils needs lived-experience trainers and getting the wider school environment right
- No inclusion without tackling the “serious fault-line” of exclusions, says children’s legal charity, launching a “roadmap for change”
- “Covid babies” and plans for SEND Reforms: Are We Creating a Forgotten Generation?
- Inclusion bases: Can they help solve the SEND crisis?
- Where will all the teaching assistants come from? The research exposing the reality gap in the government SEND plans
- The “enormous burden” of admin and monetary costs to SEND families, supporting a system that should be supporting them
- Evaluating SEND change: Promising prototypes, patchy proof
- “We are living on a knife-edge” SENDCo research sounds the alarm about the high cost of mainstream inclusion
- The complex SEND needs teacher training gap in mainstream schools and how to fix it
Don’t miss a thing!
Don’t miss any posts from SNJ – simply add your email address below. You must click the link in the confirmation email you’ll receive to activate your free subscription.
You can also keep up with us by following our
Want more? Be an SNJ regular donor!
SNJ is a non-profit and everyone who writes here does so voluntarily. We need your support to help us with costs by donating once or as a regular patron. Find out more here
- What makes an autism assessment report genuinely useful to a school? - October 14, 2026
- Big ideas belong to everyone: Education, rights and lifelong learning for people with learning disabilities - October 12, 2026
- As The Guardian prints our joint campaign’s open letter, it’s clear people with lived experience don’t want to lose SEND rights - October 9, 2026
Please share this article!
Discover more from Special Needs Jungle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
