Anyone watch 'excluded' on Bbc?

[BonkersAsConkers]

I haven't seen a thread yet?

I think it is a great show and really shows how they try and get the kids back on track. I was so happy for Shannon this week that. She got reintegrated.

I've been watching it- I taught there for three years

I watched the first episode and marvelled at the patience and determination of the teachers; was really impressed. Hats off to you, Tethersend!

I enjoyed teaching there very much. Am not in complete agreement with some of the behaviour management techniques shown on the programme, but it was very interesting to see it portrayed on TV and to see some ex colleagues.

Wow tethers!! It must be quite rewarding? Would I be right in saying more so because you don't just teach them but get them back on track so to speak? Do you think they are portraying it correctly or do you think they have an 'angle' they are trying to go for?

Tethers, can you explain the admission thing to mainstream? Is it a PRU? In which case it should be short term so the choice to go to mainstream would be less important. I was very confused because I thought that if a m/s school had a space they had to take a child (unless 0x twice) so why all the interviews etc?

Sorry for the interrogation

Yes Nerf, the reintegration process is one of the things I am a bit about. It is a PRU, but is also the ESBD provision for the borough.

The process of reintegration there is like a managed move rather than an in-year application, although I'm not sure if they are using dual roll for the first six weeks or so.

Bonkers, I think the pressures and rewards are different from mainstream teaching, and your motivation comes from the small achievements the kids make. Turning up to a lesson, staying until the end without climbing out of the window, taking a risk with work even though you are terrified of failure all make you feel that it's worth it. It's not just about getting a child back to mainstream, although it's bloody great when they get there.

I'm still in touch with a few ex students, and they are doing very well

Thank you, that's clearer. Are you glad you missed being in it?

I teach in an EBD school and was shocked at 90 students and 30 staff! How do they manage them all? We have 47 boys and some days it feels like 400. And Bridge a mixed school! faints at the prospect

Coming from a teacher's angle the most touching bit for me was when the mentor got off the phone with Shannon's mum and said that the mum had said she didn't really want her daughter to take her piercing out for her mainstream interview. I thought he was going to cry and I have had so many conversations like that.

I loved Millie, she's a real character who's had some terrible things happen to her. I hope the student who made the comment about her mother got a consequence from the school (even if just apologising to Millie).

Yes, glad not to have been in it. It was great to see my old classroom though

im watching this now, i wonder why craig is so volatile.

I'm watching episode 2 now. Really enjoying it and am amazed at the skill, talent and compassion of some of the staff.

Are the school judged (Ofsted) on how many students are reintegrated into mainstream, or on GCSE results? Or is it, as it should be, a more complex picture of judgements than that?

This programme has really touched me. To see some of those children in the distress they're in was hard to watch. I have two dc with autism and have obviously seen this kind of thing before and in a way it was a comfort, after years of feeling isolated and out of step to watch supposedly NT children going through the same kind of struggles. They're not so very different after all. Anyone who works with those children helping them back on track deserves a medal and it's something I would very much like to do myself.

I'm watching it now. It's really good and well worth watching because it would be so easy to think that these kids were all thugs or whatever because they got excluded, when it's so much more complicated than that.

I am so thrilled for Shannon that she was offered the place at the mainstream school (and with a sensible compromise regarding her piercings!). She seems like a really nice kid and a bright one who will hopefully have a good future.

Oh and the teachers are amazing too!

I was just half-watching this and I'm thinking now I must have mis-seen the ending . I thought at the end they had talked about Shannon having a 'confrontation' with the head of the new school over those blessed piercings - did I imagine that ?

No, I think they were introducing the next episode. Sounds like she decided to try the piercings again...

Oh no. Silly, silly girl if that's the case.

Oh dear poor, silly Shannon. She was obviously finding it difficult integrating into the new school. I really like this kid and am so sorry that this has happened but I can understand that it must be really hard for them when they first go back to a mainstream school.

I don't know if it's the editing, but Michael is coming across differently from the young people featured in previous episodes. He seems quite proud of his inappropriate behaviour.

Did we ever discover what sort of results Michael got in his GCSEs?

He got enough to get on to the college course in animal husbandry. I think they said he got 8 GCSEs, 4 of which were C or above. He seemed like an able student. If it hadn't been for the EBD difficulties, perhaps he might have been able to pursue his dream of being a vet.