For children marginalised from mainstream school, attending alternative provisions (APs) can be positive and offer a different social space to learn in: less formal and hierarchical, more flexible and personalised, with strong relationships between students and staff. However, little is known about why these APs work in the way they do. Case study research was conducted into two small civil society APs established to fill a perceived gap in provision for vulnerable children in England. We found that leader-practitioners developed purposeful, pragmatic and reflexive approaches rooted in a care to re-engage these children in education. This involved engaging their uncertainty, taking an attentive stance and maintaining a persistent determination to find a way to make a difference to these children's learning and lives. We draw on and expand Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner's (2020) conceptualisation of 'social learning' and discuss the implications of our findings for learning across educational settings.
