By Colin Lever
SUCCESSIVE education regimes have never got to grips with children who present significant challenge. Suspension, exclusion, expulsion is the best they have come up with. But that is not the end of their story. School refusers, bullied to the brink when in mainstream, are now placed in a small building, alongside the type of perpetrators that made their life hell in the first place. Factor in a lack of access to a broad and balanced curriculum, where subject expertise is at a premium, and we see that we are only scratching the surface of their individual needs.
Just imagine having to work in a school environment where 60-plus of the Island’s most challenging pupils have been placed – a collection of pupils with autism, with ADHD, with PTSD, with attachment issues, with dyslexia and more. Having been removed from mainstream education, many of this cohort will be angry, disaffected and openly hostile towards authority. Others will be anxious and frightened. Some will vote with their feet. Staff that choose to work with these, most vulnerable, pupils should be lauded. To do so takes commitment, nerve, and an ability to handle constant stress. There is little respite. It takes great skill and expertise to work in such challenging conditions.
Recent headlines in the media highlighted the number of such pupils absconding. The headline is misleading in that most of the truancy occurs after school. The reporting does highlight two important points though. Firstly, that attachment issues are prevalent, and secondly, that trying to put all pupils with special educational needs in one basket is not efficacious. The needs of a child who has autism are quite different from the needs of a child who has been diagnosed with ADHD or PTSD. So why does our education system continue to put all children with special educational needs and disabilities in one room, in one school? Lack of resources? Lack of expertise? Lack of understanding? Would divide and rule not be a better strategy?
There is a purpose-built pupil-referral school to be built, as the present provision does not have the resources to deal with such a high concentration of challenge. But there is a political stand-off as politicians debate where the building should go. The need for specialist provision is now, not years down the line. Schools have their own additional resource provisions (ARPs), but behaviour management should begin long before a child is removed. There is a compelling case for having an ARP unit exclusively for pupils who have autism.
Schools in Jersey adhere to “Progress 8”. It is a value-added assessment system whereby academic progress is measured, with a particular bias towards maths and English and where hands-on subjects, such as the arts, craft and technology, are marginalised. Devising a curriculum, as they have in Manchester with the M-Bacc, is a game changer. A properly funded alternative to academia, one that is practical, technological and vocationally based. This not only resolves issues of training and recruitment, but it also provides the motivation for learning that academic subjects often lack. Consequently, behaviour will improve significantly.
The two main reasons cited by teachers for leaving the profession are workload and poor pupil behaviour. Together they make working conditions for many teachers, intolerable. After years of having a performance-related, target-led education policy, there are signs that the micro-management of a degree-entry profession is easing. Such has been the pressure to “deliver results” that teachers are given little time to attend to the unruly child. It is easier to refer out than to manage the issue in situ. Schools sacrifice the few for the sake of the rest. But these children should not be cannon fodder. Something must give, and, ultimately, it is the vulnerable child who suffers. If teachers were empowered to express their expertise as professionals, then many of these “behaviours” would be nipped in the bud, without the need for sanctions.
An internationally renowned psychologist once pointed out that “if a child is actively engaged, they will not be misbehaving”. Easier said than done, but this adage carries much weight. Education’s slavish adherence to academia, manifest as a didactic, results-led pedagogy, creates as many “failures” as it does successes. It is not that challenging pupils are unintelligent. On the contrary – the majority are of higher-than-average ability. They are a hotbed for entrepreneurs not the prison fodder that some predict. Many succeed in business despite a traumatic school life.
Early intervention is not just about a focus on early-years education, important though that is, it is also about meeting and greeting pupils at the start of each day to assess their fitness for learning. Building trusting relationships is a significant help. Empathy is everything. All staff should be trained in MAYBO techniques (a training system that teaches people how to handle difficult situations and prevent violence) to recognise, deflect, diffuse and, if necessary, deal with challenging behaviour in a low-key, non-confrontational manner. As a child gets more agitated, so the teacher should remain calm.
If challenging behaviour is persistent over a prolonged period, or if it becomes extreme, outside agency support should be requested and should be immediate. Before Covid, the educational psychology team stood at six full-time professionals. They were downgraded. Grievances were made and lost. All but one left their posts. At the time of writing, there are only three working in the Island.
Resolving social, emotional and mental-health issues cannot be done on the cheap. The Island needs an education chief executive. A person who can steer education policy to meet the needs of all the Island’s children. It needs to employ more full-time educational psychologists. It requires serious investment to establish social, emotional and mental-health expertise across its schools. It requires a purpose-built pupil-referral unit, with specially trained staff, to work with a small cohort (maximum 20) of the most challenging pupils for whom mainstream education may, temporarily, be the wrong place for them.
Jersey’s education system needs a robust referral system that is capable of identifying and attending to the needs of all the Island’s children. This needs to be aligned to a curriculum and a pedagogy that is engaging, motivating and relevant. Only then will our education system get ahead of the social, emotional and mental-health curve.
Colin Lever is a retired teacher and education specialist, SEND consultant, and commentator on educational and community issues. He also contributes musically to repair cafés and charity events and is currently writing and producing a comedy sitcom podcast.
