Over the course of this year, I have been working on how we reintegrate students who have spent time in a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) either due to physical and mental health needs, requiring additional SEND assessment or due to being permanently excluded from a mainstream school.
Why is reintegration so important?
Successful reintegration from PRU to mainstream education acts against factors such as later disadvantage (Sparkes, 1999), social isolation, youth offending, drug and alcohol misuse, susceptibility to mental ill health (Blackburn & Neumark, 1993; Hall-Lande et al., 2007) which are more likely to affect young people who have been excluded from a mainstream school and find themselves in a PRU. One study even linked exclusion with reduced cognitive functioning (Sameroff et al., 1993).
Secondly, PRUs are meant to be a revolving door, where those most in need for a whole host of reasons can come, receive the right support, and then look to reintegrate when it is suitable. By not reintegrating young people or holding on to them longer than is necessary you create a bottleneck. Those that need the support are stuck waiting for a place to open up.
Where reintegration is successful
The following is adapted from a piece of research by Nicola Lawrence (2011) which can be found here
Child Factors:
- Understands the reintegration process
- Positive self-esteem
- Actively engaged in the process
- Wants to be successful
- Reflective
Parent factors:
- Understands the reintegration process
- Responsibility and ownership of the process
- Positive and supportive
- Realistic views and hopes
Systemic factors
- Timely and individualised approach to reintegration
- Clear, regular, and honest communication
- Continued support offered by the PRU to mainstream
- Child centred approach with individual support package
- Clear and explained roles and boundaries
- Inclusive ethos at mainstream
Barriers to reintegration
Child factors
- Significant SEMH or behavioural difficulties that haven’t been addressed
- Lack of peer relationships
Systemic factors:
- Difficult relations between PRU and mainstream school
- No responsibility for reintegration
- Mainstream schools choosing not to reintegrate
- Intimidating reintegration meetings
- Withholding information
- Negative or unrealistic expectations of the child
- Lack of staff knowledge, skills and experience
How I have worked to overcome these barriers in practice
First and foremost, I made the decision that I would lead on reintegration from the centre where I work and have relationships with the families and children rather than leaving it to others who may be more distanced from the young people we work with. This did two things, gave me a lot of control over the progress of each reintegration and ensure someone is able to make decisions around the support that we can offer quickly and with all of the facts of the situation.
For dual registered children, regular review meetings are held and reintegration is discussed at each one, even if it is to say we are not ready at that stage, this way everyone knows the plan. For students who have been permanently excluded and are there for only on roll with the PRU a decision to seek a school place is made when with the child and their family, an agreement is reached that a child is ready for reintegration.
Lots of information is shared with mainstream schools prior to reintegration but the most important elements are strategies that have been used with the young person, academic information so work can be pitched appropriately and information on any pre-existing friendships that may influence the student. A support package is agreed with the mainstream school so they know exactly how we will support them with the young persons reintegration.
Meetings (but not the intimidating kind)
A meeting with the young person, their family and any other agencies that are involved to plan the reintegration timetable is arranged. For some the plan has not extended beyond two weeks as it was important to see how the young person adjusted. Every week initially and then every two weeks a key member of staff (someone who the young person has a strong relationship with) is released from school to visit them in their mainstream, this gives the young person opportunity to share any concerns or struggles outside of the more formal review meetings.
With frequent reviews we are able to work with mainstream schools to support the young people to continue on their reintegration – Over the past year I’ve had some students take 3 weeks to feel ready to reintegrate and others that required much longer – it is important that you are not controlled only by time but responsive to the needs of the young person.
The results
The result of this work has led to more students being reintegrated to mainstream in one year than have been for the past five years at the same centre and with a clear path for reintegrating more students in the future when students are ready to make the move back to mainstream.
References
- Blackburn, M. L., & Neumark, D. (1993). Omitted-Ability Bias and the Increase in the Return to Schooling. Journal of Labor Economics, 11(3), 521-544. https://doi.org/10.1086/298306
- Hall-Lande, J. A., Eisenberg, M. E., Christenson, S. L., & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2007, Summer). Social isolation, psychological health, and protective factors in adolescence. Adolescence, 42(166), 265-286.
- Sparkes, J. (1999). Schools, Education and Social Exclusion. https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/sticas/029.html
- Lawrence, N. (2011). What makes for a successful re-integration from a pupil referral unit to mainstream education? An applied research project. Educational Psychology in Practice, 27(3), 213-226. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2011.603530
- Sameroff, A. J., Seifer, R., Baldwin, A., & Baldwin, C. (1993). Stability of Intelligence from Preschool to Adolescence: The Influence of Social and Family Risk Factors. Child Development, 64(1), 80-97. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131438