headteacher-secondary

ALTERNATIVE The exclusion Techniques that support students in PRUs can have a positive impact for all young people, says ShaunBrown A s a mainstream head of geography, I loved the craft of communicating ideas, designing the curriculum and creating learning. But after seven years I began to take a greater interest in the students who struggled to succeed. The experience of one student in particular was central to this. He was a Year 7 boy in my form group. Though he was often in trouble, it was rarely serious – and so I remember himmore for how popular and funny he was. When he took the lead role in our school play, he was fantastic. But in Year 8, things unravelled for him. His dad was removed from the home because of violence towards his mother and her children; his elder brother was jailed, and he was finally taken into the care of his Grandma when his mother suffered a mental breakdown. He was increasingly unable to cope in school and serious incidents escalated rapidly. In the end, there were a number of exclusions, a short period in the PRU, and then – after one final incident – he disappeared. Back then, I didn't know how I could have supported him better, nor what the school could have done differently. But I wanted to understand. That led me to apply for a new job as a teacher in Tower Hamlets PRU. To begin with, the experience was tough. I came face to face with children whose circumstances were as complex as they were heartbreaking. It meant that I had to completely rethink my teaching practice, and develop a new understanding of children’s needs. But it was exactly where I wanted to be. I was in a setting that felt determined to turn lives around, redefine success and give children a renewed sense of hope. I stayed at Tower Hamlets PRU for 10 years and became their head of inclusion. Back tomainstream Having gained a much richer understanding of the learning, wellbeing and safeguarding needs of the students at the PRU, I began to reflect on whether my experiences could be applied to a leadership role in a mainstream school, working preventatively with children at risk of exclusion. I eventually returned to mainstream, this time, as the deputy headteacher of Thomas Tallis School in Greenwich. Here, at a large inner-city secondary school, I soon realised that my experiences within a PRU could support all pupils, not just those at risk of exclusion, because all children have learning, wellbeing and safeguarding needs. This, for me, was a redefining of what ‘inclusion’ could, and should mean. Not just supporting those students with the most 14 teachwire.net/secondary