Avon Tyrrell does not do discipline, at least not as most schools do. Its pupils are those who may be known as “problem children”, on the verge of exclusion or already excluded from school.
They arrive at the UK Youth-run school with backgrounds that often involve dysfunctional families, behavioural disorders and workless households.
“We’re very conscious that the young people have failed at school or, more accurately, school has failed them, so we steer away from that strict behaviour approach,” says head of the foundation Paul Larkin. “The biggest compliment the kids will pay us is that we’re not like teachers.”
They would be right to say that too because most Avon Tyrrell staff are not teachers. In fact Larkin is the only teacher despite the four-to-one staff-to-student ratio. Most have youth work backgrounds and it is the theories of youth work, not teaching, that drive the school’s ethos. It is an approach that Ofsted said is successfully re-engaging students in education in its first inspection of the school, which it rates as good overall.
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