Outstanding school is full of surprises

A white rabbit with brown spots is crouching on the lawn. We are on our way to a science lesson at the Pendlebury Centre, but this unexpected Alice in Wonderland moment makes me stop and raise a quizzical eyebrow towards deputy head Stella Hulley.

"They're very therapeutic," she explains of the three rabbits living in this central quad, known as the peace garden. "If a student comes in feeling low, often they'll sit out with the rabbits and come in feeling better."

There are many surprising things about the Pendlebury Centre. This pupil referral unit (PRU) in Stockport has been rated "outstanding" by Ofsted for five consecutive inspections, starting in 1998, with the most recent visit in January this year. "Your pupils and their families are in no doubt that your school transforms lives," the inspector wrote in the latest assessment. "For many pupils and their families, your school was their last hope." It describes the centre as a "haven" that allows pupils to "make strong progress from their different starting points, and achieve both personal and academic success which amazes their mainstream schools and parents".

PRUs do not generally get such a good press. A typical example is a Telegraph headline from 2013 warning: "Pupils being failed by poor-quality education ‘sin bins'".

Leading from the front is the dynamic figure of Janice Cahill, Pendlebury's head teacher for the past 21 years. She is all too aware that PRUs are often viewed - sometimes with justification - as a "dumping ground" for difficult students, staffed by teachers "past their shelf life". Even though that could not be further from the truth at Pendlebury, teachers still tread carefully around the PRU stigma. If they see one of their students out and about in Stockport, they do not go up and say hello. "Some of our young people don't tell their aunties and uncles they come here," Cahill explains.

So what is Pendlebury's secret? From the outside, this two-storey brick building could be any post-war educational facility. Once inside, the mood immediately lifts. Light pours into the airy hall through generous windows, the walls are lovingly decorated with colourful murals and daffodils glow in pots on the dining tables. Never is there a sense of crowding, noise or haste. It is probably the calmest school I have ever visited.

But passing through the lessons taking place this morning - science, creative writing, mindfulness and maths - a picture emerges of young people who can be painfully shy or socially awkward. The lessons are conducted in extremely small groups - today, there are between one and four young people per classroom, and a teaching assistant is often on hand to provide support to the teacher. "Mainstream schools are one-size-fits-all and a lot of our young people don't fit that model," explains Hulley. "Coming here, forming a group, for the first time they can be happy in who they are."

Mental health needs

The young people are not quite what I was expecting, certainly not the loudmouths and hard cases many would imagine a PRU to contain. There are two other PRUs in the Stockport area - Moat House for teenage mothers and Highfields for permanently excluded children. That leaves Pendlebury to work with those excluded young people who have specific mental health needs. More than half are on the autistic spectrum, many self-harm or suffer from anorexia and some may have witnessed domestic violence.

Working with families is a small but important part of what Pendlebury does. Parents often associate school with failure - a call from a teacher used to mean a ticking off. So staff at Pendlebury try to speak to parents every few days to relay positive messages about their child's progress. Cahill smiles as she recounts the story of one parent who told Ofsted inspectors: "She's a bit scary that Mrs Cahill. If she says you've got to do it, you do it." While they keep in close contact with families - in exceptional cases checking on young people during holidays - they are not social workers, she says. "If you become over-familiar with parents, that can be really bad news," she adds.

In fact, the whole philosophy of the PRU is about expecting high standards and respecting boundaries. Pendlebury is not a long-term replacement for school, but a preparation for whatever comes next. After 18 weeks, most of the young people will have gone back into a mainstream school, college or work placement. "We do say to them that Pendlebury's not real life," Cahill says. "For the children here, real life is going into large educational establishments or into work."

With that in mind, the young people wear their school uniform until it no longer fits, at which point they follow Pendlebury's own dress code. Teachers must be called "Sir" or "Miss". Phones are handed in each morning. And most of the young people are expected to go into their mainstream school regularly so as not to lose touch.

Cahill's key advice to any struggling PRU is to build close relationships with local schools and colleges. When young people arrive at Pendlebury, a contract is drawn up with the mainstream school saying what it will contribute and setting out what the PRU will do. She advises linking with a "teaching school" - strong local schools with effective leaders. She is encouraged by the education white paper which "for the first time" makes it clear that schools are responsible for excluded students. Finally, that "out of sight out of mind mentality" can be banished for good, she says.