Working with pupils who are on the edge of exclusion is not an easy job; in fact, it is more than just a job. This study investigates the emotional involvement of educators (teachers and mentors) working with pupils who have been permanently, or are at risk of being, excluded from mainstream education This article presents different forms of emotional learning that take place in educational practice. Specifically, it explores the emotional relationships that educators have with pupils and each other. It also draws on the concept of "emotional geography" (Hargreaves, 2001a, 2001b) to theorize the emotional interactions that the educators are expected to have with their pupils, because overcoming emotional distance is seen as a vitally important part of their work as educators of excluded pupils. The research shows that emotional learning is understood by educators as a dynamic process that they can play a part in shaping, rather than being a passive process in which they are silent actors, and that harmful experiences can have a constructive outcome.