Relationships and behaviour

Lead SMT: Headteacher: Adam Abdelnoor 

Review date: April 2012

Inaura school has a voluntary ethos – this means that we aspire towards the voluntary end of the voluntariness-coercion spectrum
Reference source - MANAGED MOVES A complete guide to managed moves as an alternative to permanent exclusion

The relational approach
Whilst behaviour management seeks to change the behaviour of another, the relational approach seeks to enable the other to change their own behaviour. Using the relational approach, the practitioner can set up the context within which the other person wants to do the very thing they would like them to do.  We successfully use a relational approach throughout Inaura.

That means we
•    see behaviour as functional, communicative and meaningful.
•    seek to identify the immediate and hidden needs being expressed through behaviours and respond to them quickly and creatively
•    address the underlying emotional agenda
•    explicitly invite the young people in our care to see themselves as voluntarily participating in a shared endeavour
•    promote personal responsibility, with high levels of accountability and support.

There are four key aspects:
•    non-coercive techniques,
•    restorative approaches,
•    building relationships of change,
•    personal empowerment

Training
All staff who attend Inaura are required to complete a 6 x 2 hour training course on the relational approach and how it is applied in our school.

Restorative approaches
Restorative approaches policy – this is our response to wrong-doing.  The focus is on the social harm done when social codes of any kind are broken.  The code is not seen as a tariff of punishable offences but as a list of frequently occurring actions which do social harm.   Restorative approaches rely on a high support/ high accountability ethos.  The restorative approaches policy is currently contextualised in our behaviour management policy.

Building relationships of change
Inaura is successful in changing the behaviour of students who present with antisocial ‘unwelcome’ conduct when we are able to build a relationship of trust with the student.  Our whole purpose is directed towards this establishment of relationship because within this context we can enable the student to take responsibility for their conduct and discover a sense of purpose based on a having a secure footing within their wider community – for students this is the school.

We teach our staff to apply relational approaches in everything they do with a student and we also ask them to teach their students the same skills based on understanding the basis co-operative dynamic:

‘I can get my needs met more easily by helping to meet the needs of others’.

Punitive actions are inimical to the formation of  relationships.  Hence our use of restorative approaches which invite wrong-doers to meet with the aggrieved, take responsibility for what they have done,  give an account of themselves, and consider voluntarily showing remorse, regret, apologising, and making recompense, reparation, or atonement.

Personal empowerment
In practice, it is astonishing how quickly negative behaviours extinguish once a student simply takes responsibility for their actions. 

Where students are still unable to do this we will if necessary change the context or content of their study programme (with their co-operation) so that the situation is quarantined even if not fully resolved.  We do not punish.

In practice this means that students have to demonstrate that they want to be with us and see Inaura as their community. 

If a student is unable to keep to their study plan, we offer them an alternative programme.  Each programme is individualised, but where the student is unable to manage what we can offer in the current context, we make certain general assessments:
•    Do we need to change the in-school location?
•    Does the student require a study plan taking place mainly “@large”?
•    Does the student require a secluded setting (without other children present for some or all of the time)?
•    If the student is working in a secluded setting do we need to provide 2:1 support to ensure safety?
•    Does the student need to carry out part of their programme at home?
•    Is the length of the school day too long?
Our aim for all students is a 27.5 hour week taking place with other students and mainly or entirely on-site.

Sending children home
Inaura never send a student home as a punishment. Rarely, a student may be sent home under the following circumstances
•    When we consider that their mental state means they are unfit to attend school – equivalent to sending a child who is physically unwell home. The student can return to school as soon as they are well enough to do so.
•    When we consider that we are unable to ensure the safety of the student or other students or staff because of the student‘s emotional state.  The student can return to school as soon as we have a revised plan in place to ensure the student, and others, are safe at school.