Written by Paul Dix
When a student tells a teacher to "fuck off", you would assume a pretty universal response of sanctions and reports to senior management would follow.
There is a place, however, where that does not occur. Indeed, this is a place where a lot of the strategies that are assumed to be best practice in behaviour management do not occur. And rather than suffering for it, this place manages to teach children others claim are unteachable.
You're probably thinking you'd like to have a look at this place, to learn the secrets of its mysterious ways. Unfortunately, that would require a big shift in how schools look upon excluded children. It would require schools to follow those students that fall through the trapdoor of mainstream education and to trek with them through the bureaucratic minefield of government until at last they reach that distant and ignored outpost of education: the pupil referral unit (PRU).
It's a journey few schools ever make. When a child is excluded, they are generally forgotten, left to be someone else's problem. The schools don't follow up to see how PRUs deal with their sometime students, nor do they think to look at the strategies employed or consider whether these could benefit their own institution.
This should change. PRUs are a hive of excellent behaviour management that should be learned from. Here's five areas in particular where mainstream schools should pay attention.
1. Staff development
PRUs don't just want you to be a Maths teacher that can do a spot of PE to ease a timetable headache. They expect more.
The idea in a PRU is that the teachers provide skills that go beyond teaching and enter the realm of psychology, trauma management, social work and other support professions.
These skills can be brought in via recruitment - employing people that offer a background in support professions - or they can be developed through a commitment to training and supporting teachers to broaden their skillsets.
The benefit of this approach is that there is the expertise to offer advice and strategies on behaviour management constantly, rather than having to wait for an expert consultant on an inset day or to ask a member of staff that has to take a guess at an answer - which is what happens in many mainstream schools.
This is about empowering teachers not drowning them in extra work. Teachers in PRUs are not suddenly being asked to do additional jobs, just bring an extra dimension to their existing role, to speak with knowledge in the usual conversations of the staff room or in meetings and to know what to do themselves in situations rather than having to call on external expertise. The benefits to teachers are that they are more confident in their work, they are receiving the career development training they deserve and they are making themselves much more marketable as a professional.
2. Teacher behaviour
Adults set the tone for the culture of a successful PRU. No one shouts, no one believes that it is all the children's fault.
Teachers play the long game. They realize that when a child is screaming at you to "fuck off" it is not personal, it is not anything to do with you as a teacher. Instead it is simply the shrapnel from something going on in the life of the student and as such teachers deal with incidents in that context. This means not always reacting to every incident with shock and awe. When a child tells a PRU teacher to "fuck off", or when they throw a tantrum, the teacher may well sometimes admonish and punish, but they are as likely to take the child aside for a chat, or to tell them calmly to stop playing up and to get on with their work or any number of other non-sanction responses - it all depends on what the behaviour has been like at other times that day, or what the teacher knows is happening in that child's personal life.
There is no reason this approach should not work in a mainstream setting. Communication is key, as ensuring a full picture of the child's school behaviour and personal life is crucial. As is ensuring the student does not think he or she is getting away with misbheaviour. Admittedly keeping calm in some situations is difficult, but once you realize that the rage of the student is directed at life, not you personally, then you'll be surprised at how calm and how understanding you can be.
3. Consistency
In a PRU, there are no differences in behaviour management between teachers. Consistency is paramount. Every student knows that, regardless of the teacher taking the class, the standards and the consequences will be exactly the same.
This does not happen in mainstream schools. You have screamers, and talkers and jokers and those that favour silent treatment. You have those who will let a little high jinx pass and those who will punish any semblance of a smile. Is it any wonder a student's behaviour may be inconsistent given such inconsistencies from staff? In a PRU, the strategy is set from the headteacher down. An approach is agreed upon and everyone sticks to it, regardless as to whether they have issues with parts of it or not. It is strictly enforced and rigorously monitored. It is not a set of rules but a set of expectations, a sense of what is trying to be achieved and guidance as to how to get there. There is no reason why mainstream schools cannot create a similar environment of consistency.
4. Flexibility
In a PRU, teachers put a high value on being able to read the class. They make an effort to get to know the children as quickly as possible so that they can begin to recognise the class dynamic and mood and then react to that in terms of lesson content. This reaction can sometimes mean taking the lead and forcing the class in a certain direction - if they need distraction, giving them an involved task; if they are over stimulated and tired, giving them lighter tasks or fun activities. It can also mean letting the students lead, finding a platform on which they can engage with a topic in a way they wish that still hits your objectives, rather than dictating the methodology.
In the world of the PRU, a strict lesson plan can often find itself amended or ditched altogether. It does not mean the objectives are lost, it just means the route to those objectives may be different to the one planned as the class mood or dynamic has demanded a different approach. This sort of ad-hoc change strikes fear into mainstream education professionals, yet misbehaviour arises when you fail to consider how the class is feeling and what they need at that particular moment. You cannot force learning onto a class, so you have to find ways of reacting to ensure they learn willingly.
5. Adaptation to Home Life
In mainstream schools, many have low expectations of those with feckless parents. In PRUs, adults learn to work with the child even when that child's situation is not how it is "supposed to be". When it is clear there is an issue with the parents, PRUs tighten the mentoring programme, lay down a different set of reference points for behaviour management and place a more solid focus on the relationships that child forms within the school. They adapt their viewpoint of the child in reaction to the parents in a positive way. In a mainstream environment, too often the opposite occurs.
Many would argue that the number of children in larger schools and the budget restraints many schools are working under make these lessons impossible to replicate. That argument holds up only until you visit the few mainstream schools that have made it happen.
