Behind the Inspection Rating: PRU profits from relationships
Tristan Donovan
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit has earned Wycombe Grange pupil referral unit its third "outstanding" Ofsted rating.
Wycombe Grange, Buckinghamshire - Pupil referral unit inspection - July 2014
If you attended the recent switching on of Chesham's Christmas lights, you might have caught a glimpse of how Wycombe Grange is improving the lives of young people. For nestled within the market that evening was a stall run by students from the Buckinghamshire pupil referral unit selling Christmas decorations, jewellery and other goods they had made during their vocational courses.
The stall is part of Wycombe Grange's efforts to offer its students a taste of entrepreneurialism. "We are trying to make all the vocational activities enterprising," says head teacher Debra Rutley. "We have a couple of bank accounts that the students are learning to manage. The sales they make go into a central fund and with that money we do activities with the young people so they can clearly see that there's a bit of profit-sharing for them."
Fostering enterprise is one of many factors that has earned the unit its third consecutive "outstanding" rating from Ofsted. But probably the single most important factor is the unit's relationships with its students.
"The key to our work that everybody can see when they come into any of our buildings is that the relationship between the teachers and students is so positive that we can work with them and they can accept support," says Rutley.
Days out play a crucial role in building those relationships.
"With our students on the pupil premium, we found that they've had very little in terms of the wider horizons experience that other students might take for granted," says Rutley.
"It's not just like going to the museum; it's like going to the park. What struck me a couple of years ago looking at GCSE exam papers is that they ask children to, say, write about a holiday they went on. Well, what if you've never been on holiday? So we try to give these young people as many different experiences as we can - it could be walking into town and going for a coffee."
The impact of these experiences can be huge. "Last year, we took a group to the beach and they still talk about it now because it was such a positive memory," says Rutley. "These are 15-year-olds and they had never been in the sea, never played on a beach, never had candy floss - basic things that often schools take for granted that children have experienced."
The positive relationships built through such activities have helped the unit deliver improvements for young people. Ofsted noted that students make "much better progress than expected" and many students leave with several A* to C grade GCSEs. Nearly all come away with GCSEs or vocational qualifications.
But maintaining these relationships when faced with highly challenging behaviour relies on a supportive staff culture.
"It's hard when you've had to deal with very bad behaviour to say: 'Tomorrow, we're going to open the door with a smile and say how are you?'," says Rutley. "We have to remind ourselves that we are going to set standards, but that every day is going to be a fresh start for the young person. It's difficult and sometimes we have to tell ourselves it's ok to feel that it is hard.
"We discuss our day at the end of every day, and sometimes it's just about having a cup of tea and saying that was a hard day for me. Our staff can offload and it's non-judgmental. It's often a painstakingly slow process, but the children do change their behaviours because they have staff who care about them."
Fact File
- Location: High Wycombe and Chesham
- Description: Wycombe Grange is a pupil referral unit for boys and girls aged 11 to 16. The unit works across four locations in High Wycombe and Chesham. These locations include one in High Wycombe for pupils with mental health issues and a purpose-built facility in Chesham offering vocational courses. Alongside its work with children on the unit's roll, Wycombe Grange runs an outreach service that supported 234 students at risk of permanent exclusion during the last academic year.
- Number of children: 30 on roll
- Ofsted inspection number: 110205
Helpful Hints
Outreach works. Wycombe Grange also does outreach work at local schools to help students avoid exclusion. These often take the form of one-to-one work with young people. "The one-to-one sessions are with individuals who are having difficulty," says head teacher Debra Rutley. "We'll go in, set up a plan with that young person and each week we'll meet them and mentor them so they can alter their behaviours. We're very successful at keeping those children in school and it's very light touch."
Pass the baton. Staff at Wycombe Grange are free to refer students to other members of staff when they are struggling, says Rutley: "It's not seen in a hierarchical way. Sometimes I know I have a better relationship with some students than I do with others, so I need someone else to come in and take over that negotiation instead of me."
Use specialists. Wycombe Grange often brings in outside specialists to help bring its vocational learning to life for students, from the chefs who came from Italy to help the children make a seven-metre long piece of pasta to sugarcraft specialists to help them give their Christmas cakes extra flair.