A shift in understanding

I’m now two and a half weeks into my new role as Lead Teacher at a Pupil Referral Unit. As I have quickly discovered, a week is a long time in alternative provision – so here is what I have learned so far.

Information overload

Not only have I moved jobs, I have also moved local authority. With it comes a whole new list of names and acronyms for external agencies and teams within the local authority structure. Particularly with regards to multi-agency working I have found myself bewildered at times whilst I try to work out what role each person plays and how that relates to what I have previous known.

Being new has worked in my favour. I have asked some ridiculously basic and, in some cases, very forthright questions of the people I have met with in order to understand what they do. Explaining you are new to the local authority means people are more understanding of your constant questions.

The question “so… what do you do?” might feel like a challenging way to start a professional relationship. But if you don’t ask, how will you be able to work together and seek out the most appropriate support for your students and their families?

Building relationships

Are key! Every time I discuss working relationships there is always the nagging doubt in my mind that people have a different understanding of such a simple idea.

Relationships are so important in my opinion they appear on the very first page of my book about being a head of year. These positive professional relationships are not merely being friendly. It is a process of getting to know students and staff, starting to understand what motivates them, being genuine and honest with people and most importantly building trust.

A positive relationship means that even when you need to have the most challenging of conversations, the person (child or adult) will still trust that what you are doing is in their best interests. Relationships are not ‘fluffy’ they are a bedrock which you can build upon to develop practice, help inspire learning and to share a common understanding of the challenges you will face.

As a mainstream head of year, despite my best endeavours I was always confined to deal with behaviours within a series of set boundaries and procedures. This was frustrating at times as I understood that behaviour is often a symptom of a wider issue.

Many people are familiar with the saying “behaviour is communication” but these stats from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists put that piece of rhetoric into much clearer focus.

81% of children with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) have significant unidentified communication needs. ¹
57% of children with diagnosed language deficits are identified with EBD. ²
In a study of pupils at risk of exclusion from school, two thirds were found to have SLCN. ³
Excluded boys had significantly poorer expressive language skills than their peers who had not been excluded from school; many of their difficulties had not previously been identified. ⁴
More than 60% of young people who are accessing youth justice services present with SLCN which are largely unrecognised. ⁵
Children with persistent and severe conduct problems are about three times more likely to have low verbal ability than children with a low risk of conduct problems. ⁶

My new role has provided me with the freedom to start understanding some of the causes of behaviour that challenges us as practitioners. This has been particularly apparent in bringing new students into the school. I have seen a number of examples of students being very unsettled by this transition into a new environment but also having the ability to create a more bespoke plan around their transitions.

Fear and anxiety are significant drivers in a lot of behaviour that teachers across the sector by teachers, yet we so often deal with it as the issue rather than a symptom.

A shift in understanding – My first 2 week in AP

Information overload

Building relationships