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A day in the life

Putting it together

There are pupil referral units throughout England and Wales teaching children who have been excluded. Carolyn Hainsby tells The Teacher what it’s like.

I’ve worked in the children’s support service (CSS) in Langdon Hills, Essex, for three years. I head up the primary unit, which has two other teachers and two teaching assistants. Before that I taught year 6 in a mainstream primary school and worked as a Senco. The CSS here also has a secondary unit and a unit for pregnant girls.

Typically, pupils might be sent to our primary unit because they have been excluded from mainstream school, or have had a positive referral because of behaviour issues. Our aim is to get them back into mainstream or special school within two terms.

There are many reasons a child might be excluded. Mainly it is due to persistent disregard of school rules, or challenging, violent and aggressive behaviour. A PRU may not be the appropriate placement for the child. We’ve had pupils as young as year 2.

Sometimes a child might have an undiagnosed condition such as Asperger’s or ADHD. Some just need to get away from their usual school to break the cycle of bad habits and help them return and go on to be successful.

We also work with schools to support some of their difficult pupils and prevent exclusions.

We have 16 pupils aged five to 11 years in the primary unit. They are divided between two classrooms, joined by a corridor used as a cool down area. We don’t split pupils by age, but by personality. We keep it flexible and pupils move between classrooms.

All our pupils are boys. We can take girls but we’ve never had any in my time here. I think boys express themselves more outwardly – they are more boisterous. Girls’ behaviour manifests itself differently.

We teach English and maths every day, but everything else we teach is topic based. We try to link lessons to what’s going on in the outside world and what pupils’ interests are. We’re very much led by the pupils. Most found formal lessons difficult, so we try to keep it flexible and practical.

Play is our most powerful tool. Each day starts and ends with play – and we play a lot of games through the day. Many of our pupils don’t know how to play and have poor social skills and problems controlling their anger. Play teaches personal and social development. Many of our most productive conversations take place over Lego.

You definitely need a sense of humour to work in a PRU, that and thick skin. We’re a good team here and it’s a supportive environment. It’s important to like the children you work with, as they’re not always sweet!

The most rewarding part of the job is to see the progress, both academic and social, that pupils make in the short time they’re with us. It’s always good to hear that a pupil is continuing to do well in their new school.

If someone wanted to work in a PRU, I’d advise them to spend the day in one before making their decision – they’ll know if it’s right for them. When I came here before my interview I just wanted to stay.