WHAT ROLE CAN BE FULFILLED BY AN EXTERNAL SUPPORT TEACHER TO MAINTAIN STUDENTS WHO PRESENT MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS WITH BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT DIFFICULTIES

Abstract

In July 1989 the special school where I was head was closed down and I found myself appointed to run a small ‘behaviour support service’ which was to provide support to secondary schools in South Cambridgeshire and to make (or purchase from an external provider) a very small amount of ‘alternative provision’ at KS4 (maximum 10 places). The early days of the service were an unmitigated disaster. As I slowly began to understand what the service needed to provide, I wanted to study further the role which an external (to the school) support teacher might provide which would enable schools to work effectively with ‐ or, at least, not exclude ‐ potentially difficult to manage students. This article describes briefly a piece of research which I have carried out into ‘behaviour’ support work in secondary schools which looks at the role which is effective from a support teacher's view and also at that which heads/senior managers are willing to purchase ‐either directly or by endorsing the LEA's ‘top‐slicing’ of its potential schools budget.