At the beginning, when setting up the green room programme, there will be a move towards proactive responses in advance of children’s difficulties. This can include setting up target cards, programming additional support -- extra reading, social skills, anger management, paired work in lower age classes in order to maximise the positive aspects of the student’s school day.
Ideally, a support room should be out of sight of the other students with a door that can't be banged on by passers by, so that there is little in the form of disruption and winding up by other students. It should also be staffed by a minimum of two staff so that students who are being re-entered to class can do so whilst others may still be working towards that goal. It is possible, but much less flexible and much more challenging for a single member of staff to undertake this role. It is also better to have two different personalities in the room so children can take their issues to who they choose to select.
The green room, initially, may be seen as a reactive programme which cares for the needs of students and classrooms in crisis but ideally should develop to include non-challenging students having access to the room either in similar groups or grouped with challenging students. In some ways, the support room can be used as a part-time, on demand nurture room, according to the nature of the children's difficulties.
This is an important aspect to develop as the perception of the room needs to be as a support programme to develop all aspects of all students, and not just as a room to cope with the difficult children. It is a clear message to get across to both parents and children otherwise it would seem that the 'badly behaved' children are getting a better deal.
On introducing its programme to staff, it may be useful to inform parents of the next steps as well as holding some circle time or tutorial time in classes for the children to talk through how the programme will affect them in the future. This partnership is important especially as there are a series of consequences to their behaviours.
It may be useful to staff to note responses from students who have a negative view point and for a member of SMT to discuss this with them at a different time.
It is also useful to record children's attendance in the green room and the reasons and time spent in there - this can be done on SIMS administration package or on a simple form This is useful for tracking individual students. I would suggest one sheet for each of the most challenging and frequent visitors and a simple attendance list book for the remainder. In this way, I would suggest that recording not only the student, but also keeping them in class groupings so on a weekly basis, SMT or support staff are able to scan down and see at a glance, the frequency of exits and reference this with staff and particular lessons