From Exclusion to Oxford: Tier Blundell’s mission to reduce UK school exclusions

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In a recent episode of their podcast, the Nip in the Bud team sat down with Tier Blundell, the founder of Excluded from School.

Tier’s story is a powerful testament to resilience – and a stark reminder of how often the system fails the children who most need support. His journey from being permanently excluded in Year 7 to graduating from University of Oxford highlights the urgency of rethinking belonging in British schools, and how we respond when a pupil feels they never truly belonged in the first place.

The myth of not belonging

For Tier, the difficulties didn’t begin with “bad behaviour” – they began with misunderstanding. Growing up with unrecognised ADHD, he found that the traditional classroom wasn’t built for a brain like his. He describes the frustration of being expected to fit a rigid structure that made little room for neurodivergence.

That sense of displacement was compounded by the racism he experienced as a child of mixed ethnicity. In the playground and beyond, he faced racial abuse and was repeatedly made to feel like an “other”. When a child is told – explicitly or implicitly – that they don’t belong, they can start to internalise that message.

For Tier, this built into behaviours that he now understands as survival responses to a hostile environment. Ultimately, those behaviours were met with permanent exclusion in Year 7 – a pivotal moment that could have shaped the rest of his life.

The cycle of low expectations

Exclusion is rarely just a child needing to change school; it is often a catalyst for a decline in mental health as it further embeds the feeling that the child is not wanted, not worthy, not enough.

Following his exclusion, Tier was placed in Alternative Provision (AP). While AP is intended to support students, it is often under-resourced – lacking the funding, specialist expertise, and capacity required to help young people recover from the impact of exclusion and re-engage with learning.

Tier speaks candidly about how Black Caribbean pupils and pupils of mixed ethnicity are excluded at far higher rates than their white peers. He also highlights the increased risk of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem among excluded children – effects that can persist into adulthood and severely limit life chances.

He explains that, too often, the adults around a child – both educators and families – begin to hold lower expectations of what that young person can achieve. Those expectations act as a ceiling. When the system stops believing in a child’s potential, the child can stop believing in it too.

Redefining the Self

Tier’s turnaround didn’t happen overnight. As an adult, he began to reclaim his identity by understanding his ADHD not as a deficit, but as a different way of processing the world. That shift helped him re-evaluate the labels placed on him at twelve years old — and see himself in a new light.

His journey eventually led him to University of Oxford – a destination that would have felt impossible during his time in Alternative Provision. But Tier is clear that his story shouldn’t be treated as a one-in-a-million exception. Instead, he sees it as evidence of the untapped potential that exists in many young people who are excluded or at risk.

His experience acts as a driver to help look at how we can support children early in order to prevent them from travelling a similar path.

A New Vision

Tier founded Excluded from School to ensure other children don’t have to navigate this path alone. In his words, the organisation “exists to improve outcomes for young people excluded from school or at risk of school exclusion” and to reshape exclusion in Britain so that it no longer damages children and adults.

Its work focuses on empowering schools and families to understand the impact of exclusion and to put early intervention strategies in place – before problems escalate.

Ultimately, Tier’s mission is to move away from a system that “weeds out” children in difficulty, and towards one that asks why a child is struggling – building a culture of curiosity, support, and inclusion.

Reshaping the future

Tier Blundell’s story reminds us that an exclusion is a sign of a system under pressure, not a broken child. By recognising the intersection of neurodiversity, race, and mental health, we can move closer to schools where every child – regardless of background or how their brain works – truly belongs.

As Tier’s journey shows, when we raise expectations and provide the right support, there is no limit to what young people can achieve.

Author: Alis Rocca, Nip in the Bud