Michaela School and behaviour - AIBU

[herculepoirot2]

AIBU to think that you might read this behaviour policy and think it is authoritarian and unnecessary, but to also think that, with results four times better than the national average, these people might have a point about the benefits to young people of being expected to work hard and behave well?

mcsbrent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Behaviour-Policy-11.02.19.pdf

[Tonnerre]

What technicality, out of curiosity, Piggywaspushed? Governors aren't supposed to work on technicalities, and Independent Reviewing Panels can only quash a permanent exclusion on judicial review grounds, which are considerably more than technical.

[noblegiraffe]

Schools are fined for permanently excluding pupils too, and aren’t exactly awash with money to do this!

[Piggywaspushed]

I don't know myself tonnerre but it is paperwork and procedures related.

[SmileEachDay]

Our LA (currently in special measures) has a “zero exclusion policy”.

They’ve not told us what the alternative is and funding for one of our only remaining outreach services for vulnerable families finished in July.

So..yay!!🙄

[SabineSchmetterling]

Bloody hell. How can a whole LA have a zero exclusion policy? That is mind boggling. Maybe the extra power for HTs to exclude is needed after all. I’m not against inclusion but there has to be some limit to what schools are expected to tolerate. How can you keep your pupils and employees safe if you cannot exclude students who have been repeatedly violent to other students and to staff?

[SmileEachDay]

And in some cases, because there is fuck all support, a PEX and time in a PRU is the only way extremely troubled youngsters have any chance of success. They simply can’t make it work in mainstream.

[Teachermaths]

There should be more and better funded PRUs. They should be available as a "choice" when leaving primary school to students who are referred by primary school. They don't need to be called PRUs, support or small school... Just somewhere that actually properly met the needs of students who need a smaller, calmer environment.

Currently mainstream schools are failing students due to having to deal with so many conflicting issues in one room. Mainstream doesn't work for some students, the classes are just too big. I agree that PExs have reached the point of being almost unachievable in most schools. Most schools don't bother anymore because it's not worth the hassle. Being fined for PExing a student is a false economy. It should lead to that student attracting extra funding to attend a smaller school. Obviously this is a pie in the sky idea currently.

[herculepoirot2]

Teachermaths

But it’s a good one. Lots of people fall into the trap of thinking firm behaviour policies and funding are mutually exclusive. They are not. I want to see funding AND firm behaviour policies. That necessitates different solutions for students whose behaviour seems outside their control.

[Tonnerre]

Schools are fined for permanently excluding pupils too, and aren’t exactly awash with money to do this!

Only if they refuse to reinstate having been found to have acted unlawfully or wholly irrationally in relation to the exclusion. It's a power the is used very rarely.

[noblegiraffe]

Do they not fine routinely any more? They used to back in the day www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3501398/Schools-fined-for-expelling-violent-pupils.html

Actually sounds like the sort of thing Gove would get rid of.

[SansaSnark]

I agree that more and well funded PRUs are the answer for some children. Some PRUs make a real difference to the lives of the students that attend them, in a way that possibly/probably isn't possible in mainstream school. It's also a very different environment and so they can deal with some things in a way that just wouldn't be possible in a mainstream school.

Exclusion doesn't have to mean the end of the road for a student- it should be the start of a process of rehabilitation in an appropriate environment- whilst ensuring the safety of everyone in the mainstream school.

[Tonnerre]

Those weren't fines, noblegiraffe. The councils were clawing back funding relating to the pupils in question.