Learning Support Units

Programme Objectives
All schools in Birmingham will have access (either on an individual or shared basis) to a Learning Support Unit, outside the classroom, where children who need particularly intensive support can spend some of their time.

Learning Support Units:

	Enable schools to provide separate short-term teaching and support programmes tailored to the needs of difficult pupils.
	Keep disaffected pupils in schools and working while addressing their behaviour problems and helping to reintegrate them into mainstream classes as quickly as possible.
	Minimise the disruption caused by the most difficult pupils without excluding them.

Key Information

	The programme aims to establish Learning Support Units to provide for difficult and disruptive pupils.
	Units will either serve pupils from the schools in which they are run or a group of schools may set up a unit in one school to serve other schools in the group.
	Units will not be Pupil Referral Units (PRU's). They will be part of the host school and the responsibility of the Head Teacher and Governing Body of that school.
	Pupils attending the units should remain registered as pupils of their mainstream school or class
	Partnerships will need to decide how many pupils should attend the Unit at a time, either full or part time, but the Units are likely to be small.
	Clear criteria and procedures effectively supervised with external inputs as necessary, must be set up to cover pupils' entry to and exit from the Unit. Procedures should include time limits on pupils' attachment to the Unit. These will vary according to pupil need, but should not exceed two terms.

Learning Support Units will:

Be staffed by full time appointees, or teachers released part-time from other duties at the school. They should have expertise in teaching pupils with behavioural problems, or receive relevant training.

Liaise closely with the school's other teaching staff in setting and marking suitable work.

Have high expectations of pupils' conduct and insist on consistently appropriate behaviour. Pupils should be helped to acquire the social skills and attitudes they need to behave acceptably.

Need to co-operate closely with other classroom teachers about pupils in the Unit and when they rejoin mainstream classes. This will help to ensure a consistent approach to behaviour management and to academic work. The Units may also provide INSET or other support to the school as a whole.

Be expected to reduce both fixed term and permanent exclusion, reduce the number of incidents of disruptive behaviour and improve levels of literacy and numeracy.

Monitor and evaluate pupils' behavioural and academic progress during and after their time in the Unit. Agencies such as the education welfare and educational psychology services should play a part where relevant.

Ensure all pupils attending the Units have clear objectives for improving their behaviour. These could be incorporated in the action plan, which the Learning Mentor will draw up for each pupil who needs particular support. These action plans will build on other plans where they exist. It will be particularly important for parents of pupils in the unit to be involved in helping to tackle pupils' difficulties. The contribution they are to make should be incorporated in the action plan. Such plans might also specify the academic support to be provided where it is clear that failures at school work are a principal cause of the difficult behaviour.

Build on the work of pilot in-school centres which identify success factors such as:

	Combination of withdrawal from and support within mainstream
	Involving mainstream staff to provide sense of 'ownership'
	Facilitation and involvement of SMT
	Involvement of parents
	Flexible approaches to enable long term but infrequent support to continue after normal period of intervention
	Consulting pupils and involving them in self-monitoring

Birmingham's Overview

	This programme links directly to EDP Priority 4 activity 2. It offers an additional opportunity to 'help schools to manage difficult behaviour by extending the implementation of the Framework for Intervention and providing supporting initiatives.'
	This programme will also mesh directly with our Behaviour Support Plan.
	Birmingham is fortunate to have had the Zacchaeus Centre set up by the Catholic Partnership, and we would hope to use this experience to support the establishment of the support units within Birmingham schools.