Isolation booths

[Pliudev]

Ok I'm ready to be shouted down by long suffering teachers but isn't the use of isolation booths an infringement on a child's human rights? I've read today of a child who attempted suicide while being kept in one of these punishments booths for prolonged periods. And of a boy who spent 35 days in one. What have things come to when schools can inflict this kind of punishment? In both of these cases the children had mental health issues. If parents isolated their children in this way wouldn't that amount to abuse? And isn't it an indication of failure on behalf of schools that there seems to be growing use of this kind of punishment? And how can schools justify fining parents for taking children on holiday if it is ok to suspend their education for long periods in isolation?

The school I work in has an isolation room, but there are upto 6 pupils in there at once and always a member of staff within feet of the pupils. To be put into isolation a pupil would have to have

1)Ignored a class warning about behaviour
2) Disrupted a lesson and recieved a warning.
3) Disrupted the lesson and recieved a 2nd warning,
4) Disrupted the lesson and recieved a 3rd warning.

At this point a child would be moved or spoken to aside to try and prevent them reaching any further in the behaviour system.... they would then have to

5. Disrupt the lesson a 4th time which results in being moved to a 6th form lesson for the rest of the lesson and an after school detention (30 minutes) next day.

6. Disrupt the detention, at which point they are given a longer (1hr detention) the next day.

7. Disrupt the 1 hour detention - at which point they would be given a half day isolation the following day.

So to get into isolation for half a day a child needs to have failed to modify their behavior seven times with clear warnings and support in between.

For SEN children, or those with other difficulties a lot of support is given during isolation, for example, staff they trust will take them out for a chat every hour or so to praise their behavior so far, make sure they are feeling positive about completing the whole 3 hour session and that they are confident they can complete the work set for them. Usually a member of the senior leadership or a learning manager will talk to them about what went wrong which led to the isolation and what strategies can be put in place to stop it happening again.

The system seems a bit complicated at first but because we never, ever deviate from it and everyone knows exactly what to expect.

clairemcnam what is the point t of your post?

A few hours in a room is not equivalent to the worst cases described.

For SEN children, or those with other difficulties a lot of support is given during isolation, for example, staff they trust will take them out for a chat every hour or so to praise their behavior so far, make sure they are feeling positive about completing the whole 3 hour session and that they are confident they can complete the work set for them. Usually a member of the senior leadership or a learning manager will talk to them about what went wrong which led to the isolation and what strategies can be put in place to stop it happening again.

sophiasnail this sounds like the right approach. Thank goodness there has been some thought where you work.

Does it normally work out ok in practice?

eusers while no behavior system is perfect it works pretty well and we have very few pupils who are regularly in isolation.

We are (newly) part of a large academy chain so the system has been fine tuned over the years. At the end of the day, teachers are human and no-one would do this job if they didn't care about teenagers!

Thank you sophiasnail yes those teenagers, someone has to care for them so thanks again for doing that too.

eusers

Maybe if you understood the comment you would see where I am coming from.

But hey lets treat the symptom and ignore everything else.

The system seems a bit complicated at first but because we never, ever deviate from it and everyone knows exactly what to expect.

Really? Wouldn't you deviate from it where the problem is caused by a child's SEN or disability? If that is the case, you are riding for some serious disability discrimination claims.

Acis If you read my post I explained how we put into place a lot of additional support so that our most vulnerable pupils can suceed.

Yes, but the point is that you have a rigid system which doesn't seem to give leeway to the child who disrupts or who is unable to cope with detentions due to SEN or disability, sophiasnail. Every disciplinary possibility must have some flexibility to allow for the duty to make reasonable adjustments.

The no excuses schools (google theres tons of them) dont even do all the steps. Its isolation/detention straight off.

And yes I have a problem with the "never ever deviating" philosophy. I've taught children who have had difficult news or are upset theyve uncharacteristicly lost homework etc and been upset etc. Or whose special needs need some level of adjustment.

I live in the area of magna academy. And I have worked at a very local school to it. The headteacher was praised by Ofsted for his approach just recently and has been promoted to CEO of the MAT. It works for some students and not for others. Also parents who send there children there now are fully aware of the rules and the very rigorous regime instilled there.

I was a pastoral worker and also manager of the isolation room when I worked in secondary education (a different school to magna). Again it worked for some and not for others. Work was always given and they still followed the timetable for the day, so an hour or maths etc.. social times they ate there lunch or snacks in the room and would sit and read. I would have a chat with them over the day and see what they thought of why they were in there and what they could do to ensure they didn't come back. I put the ownership of them. I'm not there to tell them off and shout at them. I am there to support and encourage them that its better for everyone, but more importantly them to not behave in a way that meant they were sent to isolation. It can have its pros and cons. Frequent flyers it's never going to work with from a pastoral point of view but gets them out of a classroom of 30 kids!

Part of the problem is what are "reasonable adjustments" within a main stream educational setting.

Why is a charity not funding a class action against the government for the wilful lack of funding that provides the level of support that many students need to be educated within a mainstream school?

I can completely understand how students may be unable to cope with a noisy classroom for 6 hours a day without support. I can understand how that may manifest itself. But many of these adjustments cost a lot of money, namely in the form of extra staff. When the government refuses to pay for this and eg gives a school enough money to employ X teachers but actually another 10 staff are needed to support the adjustments needed how do you expect schools to provide it?

Meanwhile, no school can tolerate another student hitting students or staff or disrupting lessons so much that the rest of the class can't learn, even if that behaviour is due to SEN.

Students with SEN are being disadvantaged and their educational needs aren't being met and it isn't right. But that lack of provision isn't the fault of an individual school, it's the fault of government.

I've sat on permanent exclusion panels where parents have begged us to uphold the decision to exclude their child because they have seen it as the only way to compel our LA to actually place their child in an appropriate setting.

Why is a charity not funding a class action against the government

How much money do you imagine charities have to spare?

However, there is an ongoing court action about SEN funding - www.irwinmitchell.com/newsandmedia/2018/december/families-launch-high-court-challenge-against-govt-special-education-needs-funding-policy

've sat on permanent exclusion panels where parents have begged us to uphold the decision to exclude their child because they have seen it as the only way to compel our LA to actually place their child in an appropriate setting

Yep. Me too.

What about a child with SEN that has no behaviour problems but finds it difficult to cope with the others poor behaviour in class? My Ds gets very anxious about others that disrupt his classes. He doesn't like things being thrown around or those that are rude or steal his stuff in lessons.

Punxsutawney

This is also an issue. Teachers that I know talk of the conflicting needs of children with SEN in their classes - they are told that 1 needs a calm, ordered environment whilst another, in the same class, will walk around, shout out, be disruptive as part of their SEN.

Even something as simple as coloured over lays. Apparently the whiteboards can display in different colours yet there are children needing different colours.

" Reasonable adjustments" here will be different for each child and can't always be accommodated by 1 teacher in 1 classroom can they? It's ridiculous that the government ever thought they could be.

I do think there are 2 different issues though - 1 is how schools manage and discipline bad behaviour and the other is how do schools ensure that children with SEN are getting their needs met so that they get the education that they are entitled to.

The system is built on the idea that there will only ever be one child with SEN in each classroom. When that is patently not the case.

Many of the children I teach who are really disruptive are so because they have undiagnosed SEN and have had years of their needs not being met. Our school is a middle school so really vulnerable to more unscrupulous schools - and desperate parents - applying to us for a “fresh start”.

We apply for a ridiculous number of EHCPs - and we’ve not had one turned down yet. But we have to establish there’s an issue and then begin the process which means students are well into their GCSE year before any support is paid for by the LA. It also means we have to deal with extremely disruptive behaviour - which is very difficult for other students, many of who moved because their current school wasn’t dealing with anxiety well.

It’s a constant and very, very shit balancing act for everyone!