Prospectus

The Support Centre, run by Davinder Dhillon and his staff, work with youngsters whose behaviour is causing concern. Pupils are referred to us by the Head of Year or members of the Senior Management Team after they have been through all previous stages of the school's Referral and Intervention Procedure.

Each pupil has a support programme drawn up in consultation with the Head of Year and the pupil which aims to help him/her to address the offending behaviour as quickly as possible. The programme may include having in-class support from one of the SC staff and/or withdrawal times in the Centre to do work set by the subject teacher. In a few cases, the child may be put on a reduced timetable (with the agreement and co-operation of their parents/carers), the principal aim being to steadily increase the amount of time spent in school until full attendance is attained. Individual Behaviour Plans are drawn up and circulated to relevant staff and to parents/carers. We also use Monitoring Reports for the pupil's subject teachers to sign at the end of each lesson.

Another responsibility for the Centre is to integrate youngsters who have been either excluded or transferred from other schools. Pupils who are new to the area or who have had a long period of absence are also supported; and in some cases pupils who are new to the area may need to receive help. A programme is worked out with the pupil, the parents/carers, Mr Orrells, and the relevant Head of Year, which may include full-time attendance based in the Support Centre, only going into certain lessons to begin with, or part-time attendance which is mainly or entirely in the Support Centre. In all cases, work is obtained from subject teachers for the pupils to do, so that they keep up with the rest of their classes. The aim always is to re-integrate pupils fully into school.

The Support Centre also offers short courses such as Anger Management, Social Skills and Self-esteem for targeted pupils. These are sometimes run in conjunction with the Head of Year.

The Centre serves as a morning and afternoon registration point for certain students who are unable to cope with going to Form Registration. Lunch Clubs are held three times a week for children for whom the hurly-burly of lunchtime breaks is too much. Some of them, plus others, who arrive at school well before morning school starts, also come to the Support Centre to meet, talk, play games, use the computers and so on, untill the start of the school day.

The school Support Centre acts as a resource for staff throughout the school, who may talk informally to us about problems they are encountering, or more formally through various committees and departmental or year staff meetings. From time to time, the Support Centre will organise training sessions for staff, sometimes run by an outside speaker, as part of the school's in-house staff training programme (INSET).