Pastoral Support Programme

Guidelines for Schools and Governors

September 2004

For more information please contact:

Easter Russell: 8937-3151

Robert Reid: 8937-3181

Nita Vadher: 8937-3156

Paul Roper: 8937-3192

Before the Meeting

Appendix 1 Staff Questionnaire
Appendix 2 Parents Questionnaire
Appendix 3 Parents Invitation Letter
Appendix 4 Pupil Questionnaire (Primary)
Appendix 5 Pupil Questionnaire (Secondary)
Appendix 6 External Agencies: request for information
The Meeting
Appendix 7 Student Target Sheet
Appendix 8 Pastoral Support Plan

After the Meeting

Appendix 9 2/4 Weeks Review Form

Appendix 10 Final Review and Evaluation Form……… …………………………….

Introduction

These Pastoral Support Programme guidelines have been produced in response to schools’ requests for information.

The aim of a Pastoral Support Plan is to promote social inclusion and help to reduce the need for permanent exclusion. The forms and assessments included will provide a guideline for following a process. These can be adapted by individual schools or used selectively. Of equal importance but far harder to convey on paper is the development of the skills required to facilitate an effective PSP, to understand the group dynamics and to interpret the messages behind a behavioural problem. Solution focused consultative approaches can help to promote an ethos dedicated to fairness, impartiality and openness.

This guidance aims to provide both a school management process and procedural framework within which wider, support can be accessed, both within and outside school, while securing an acceptable level of conduct on the part of the pupil.

What is a Pastoral Support Plan (PSP)?

The PSP procedure and process is designed to support those pupils for whom the normal school based strategies have not been effective. A PSP is a structured intervention for pupils at risk of disaffection or permanent exclusion. The aim of the PSP is to involve the pupil in the shared challenge of improving his/her behaviour and social skills. It is not intended as an administrative step on the route to permanent exclusion.

A PSP is a school based and owned process. Parents and external agencies will need to be involved in supporting both the pupil and the school to meet the targets set at the initial PSP meeting. The PSP should not be used to replace IEPs or Special Educational Needs assessment process; pupils should still be taken through the appropriate stages of the SEN Code of Practice.

The DfES guidance on pupil attendance, behaviour, exclusion and re-integration, including advice on PSP’s, can be found in Circular 10/99 ‘Social Inclusion: Pupil Support.’

Why have a Pastoral Support Plan?

‘Schools will have to demonstrate that they have in place policy and procedure to deal with pupils at risk of permanent exclusion and will doubtless face censure if the measures they take are not demonstrably substantial and in keeping with the DfES guidance.’

Smith and MacPherson, MASI, 2000

A decision to exclude a child permanently is a serious one. It will usually be the final step in a process for dealing with disciplinary offences following a wide range of other strategies, which have been tried without success. It is an acknowledgement by the school that it has exhausted all available strategies for dealing with the child and should be used as a last resort.

‘If when they review an exclusion, the Discipline Committee or the independent appeal panel consider that the guidance was not followed, they should normally direct re-instatement.’

DfES, Circular 10/99 Social Inclusion: Pupil Support

Who should be put on a Pastoral Support Plan?

Students identified as being at risk of permanent exclusion should be given a Pastoral Support Plan. “At risk” means that a pupil is not responding to the school’s normal range of strategies and support (repeated fixed-term exclusions might be an indicator) and that the intervention of external agencies may be required.

Given the intensive nature of a PSP, schools will wish to target those students who are clearly at risk of exclusion.

It is good practice for schools and governors to review their use of PSPs. Schools can look closely both at the students who have been permanently excluded during the year, and those who have been given multiple fixed term exclusions.

Useful questions to ask might be:

Would these students have been easy to predict at the beginning of the academic year?

How many of these students were placed on PSP’s?

In the case of permanent exclusions, how much time elapsed between the referral and the initial PSP meeting?

How effectively had the school targeted its at risk students?

How can the school improve its targeting of at risk students?

The Process

The process described is intended as a guiding framework, which should be effective in most cases for most schools. However, users should feel free to adapt it to suit the needs of the individual pupil and the circumstances of the school.

Referral

The headteacher is the only person who can exclude a child from school.

Schools will need to identify a member of staff with responsibility for initiating and co-ordinating a Pastoral Support Plan.

An initial summary may be completed by senior pastoral staff or heads of year. The decision whether to proceed with a PSP would normally be the responsibility of the headteacher.

If the decision is taken to initiate a PSP, the co-ordinator will need to set a date for the planning meeting, inviting parents and appropriate outside agencies.

It will be important to consider the time frame, as external agencies are unlikely to be able to respond at short notice.

Information gathering

As much information as possible needs to be collected as soon as possible after the initial referral and before the initial PSP meeting. Those involved may include:

·  Staff

The Staff Questionnaire (Appendix 1) elicits staff views about the pupil’s presentation and performance in class, breaktimes, assemblies etc. and highlights the main areas of concern. If lesson observations are to take place the staff questionnaire may indicate the areas of most concern.

·  Parents

The Parent Questionnaire (Appendix 2) gives parents the opportunity to express their own concerns about their child and to describe the qualities they see in him/her. It also demonstrates to parents that the school has serious concerns about their child and wishes to seek their support. A letter should be sent to parents inviting them to attend the PSP meeting.

( Appendix 3).

·  The Pupil

As soon as possible after the referral, a member of staff well known to the child should elicit how the pupil feels about the current situation. Depending on the age and nature of the child this could be a self-assessment tick chart (Appendices 4/5).

The pupil should be encouraged to express his/her views freely and honestly and they should be recorded uncritically.

External agencies

These could include:

Exclusion Officer.

Learning and Language Support;

Educational Psychology Service;

Behaviour and Pupil Support Service;

Education Welfare Service;

Social Services;

Youth Offending Team;

Police liaison officers;

Connexions;

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service ( CAMHS);

Drug Intervention Programme (Addaction);

Ethnic minority community groups;

Housing Department;

Youth Service.

The Request for Information form (Appendix 6) will:

Determine if the pupil is known to that agency:

Ask whether the agency will share information to assist the PSP process;

Invite a representative to attend a planning meeting if appropriate.

The member of staff coordinating the PSP should consider the responses in light of a variety of recommended strategies:

Support for learning difficulties;

Disapplication from the National Curriculum;

Changing teaching set or class;

Group work/individual support from outside agencies;

Mentoring scheme;

Support from school internal pupil support centre;

Part or fulltime alternative education placement;

Alternative timetable;

Further referrals.

The Pastoral Support Plan Meeting

Wherever possible the meeting should be held during the normal school working day.

Adequate time needs to be set aside to cover the ground.

Staff and parents will need to consider whether the pupil should be present for the whole meeting or contribute towards the end.

The chairperson will need to ascertain that everyone is clear about the aim of the meeting.

The PSP meeting will look at positive points and main issues. The pupil should be involved in helping set his/her targets and these should be closely monitored (lesson by lesson Appendix 7) and reviewed every 2/4 weeks.

Targets should be SMART.

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Achievable

R = Realistic

T = Time bound

Everyone will need to offer some part of the solution to the issues.

At the conclusion everyone will need to be clear about what is to be done, by whom and by when.

All schools have their own reward systems and resources to support positive behaviour. The use of special individualised rewards for progress can be a powerful incentive. Consulting the pupil about preferences enhances the prospect of engagement in the programme.

A record of the meeting will need to be sent to everyone who attended and agreed to support. (Appendix 8)

A date for the next meeting will need to be set. PSPs normally run for 16 weeks.

A system that has worked well in one school is to put the pupil on a traffic light system:

Negotiate time- e.g. 1 Month Red – Review and amend or move to

Amber.

1 Month Amber- Review and continue or move

to green.

1 Month Green – Review and if no concerns, off

PSP.

PSP Review

A PSP review meeting between the pupil and key individuals (every 2/4 weeks) will be useful to take stock of progress to date. Adjustments can be made to the routine, content and targets in the programme. This meeting is the occasion for encouraging further and better efforts. The aim is to assess what is working, maximise it and to shift the emphasis away from what has gone wrong.

Where targets have been achieved, subsidiary or consequent targets can be introduced. It is important both to keep up momentum, and to monitor and evaluate targets.

The idea of the session is to give pupils the opportunity to identify what has gone well, what effect that has had and how to replicate success.

Appendix 9 can be used to assess progress.

The PSP Evaluation

Although it should have been clear at some point in the second half of a PSP whether or not the programme has been successful, reviewing and assessing the intervention is an integral part of the process. (Appendix 10)

Focusing on solutions is the key. If the current provision is not meeting the pupil’s needs what further measures can be put in place to help a pupil sustain his /her place in mainstream schooling. The experience of the programme should provide excellent information from which to plan for the future.

An assessment by the school of each programme will help develop knowledge for
subsequent Pastoral Support Programmes. Identifying what went wrong has a place,
but of far greater importance is to examine, replicate and develop what went right.

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