I've long held the belief that exclusion is not a good route in the escalation of sanctions. Often trivial incidents end up with exclusions because force and compliance is the order of the day and resistance and aggressively defensive strategies are used by students. This all leads to a spiral of failure.
There really should only be a few incidents that could, not should, lead to exclusion. This decision would be at the discretion of the head teacher alone. But on a day to day basis in schools, it is entirely possible to manage serious behaviour issues without resorting to exclusions. It does require, however, that you have alternative provision.
In a number of schools, this is a punitive route, probably referred to as 'isolation' and is viewed by students and teachers alike as non-negotiable route to compliance, with exclusion as a final arbiter. Not a good selection of strategies, I think.
Far better to have a resource which is viewed positively by students and can be accessed in times of crisis by referral from the classroom or as a drop in for the students who have identified hot-spots in their day and come for help. These centres are expensive to set up and run, but ensure continued contact with challenging students throughout the day, better that sending them out of school, only to see them hanging by the gates at close of play.
Time out rooms, Green rooms, student support rooms, call them what you like, but I think they have a great role to play in helping our 'grey kids' get through the day.
So it makes good reading to see that four of my local Ashford schools have set up a no-exclusion policy.
Read more of the TES article here
First published 8 Sept 2010
There really should only be a few incidents that could, not should, lead to exclusion. This decision would be at the discretion of the head teacher alone. But on a day to day basis in schools, it is entirely possible to manage serious behaviour issues without resorting to exclusions. It does require, however, that you have alternative provision.
In a number of schools, this is a punitive route, probably referred to as 'isolation' and is viewed by students and teachers alike as non-negotiable route to compliance, with exclusion as a final arbiter. Not a good selection of strategies, I think.
Far better to have a resource which is viewed positively by students and can be accessed in times of crisis by referral from the classroom or as a drop in for the students who have identified hot-spots in their day and come for help. These centres are expensive to set up and run, but ensure continued contact with challenging students throughout the day, better that sending them out of school, only to see them hanging by the gates at close of play.
Time out rooms, Green rooms, student support rooms, call them what you like, but I think they have a great role to play in helping our 'grey kids' get through the day.
So it makes good reading to see that four of my local Ashford schools have set up a no-exclusion policy.
Read more of the TES article here
First published 8 Sept 2010