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      Lend a hand to pupils, teachers and parents                                          

      

        Support work in schools is about more than just managing behaviour, says Hazel Davis       

              

        By Hazel Davis       

       

      Published: 28 June 2007    

 

                                   

                      

The term "support work" is such a woolly one. It screams "this is not a real job!" and is redolent of earnest men in polo necks observing quietly while someone has a paddy. Behaviour support work is even worse. Surely controlling behaviour is a teacher's job anyway?

                                        

  Mica May is a family support worker at Working With Families, part of The   Children's Society in Rochdale and an independent project operating within a   primary school as part of the school's behaviour management (BM) strategy.

  May says: "Behaviour management is not really seen as the   responsibility of schools although it is in schools where the issues surface   en masse because of the numbers of children teachers have to manage at a   time." May also believes that "a woefully small amount of time   within teacher training is put into BM because the curriculum is so full   already. Trainee teachers get told that if they make their classes   interesting and relevant the children will pay attention."

  Stephen Cox heads up the Derbyshire Behaviour Support Service. Cox worked in   special education before deciding to "work in a slightly more   challenging environment". He says that behaviour support work is an " ageing" profession. Many come into it from teaching and he feels that's   no bad thing: "You can't be inexperienced and do this kind of work. You   need to be able to deal with being sworn at, difficult parents and thinking   creatively."

  Essentially, school behaviour support staff work with children in mainstream   schools who may need help due to serious behavioural or emotional   difficulties. They work alongside teachers and parents to help improve   children's self-esteem, social skills, access to the school curriculum and   devise strategies to encourage children to take responsibility for their own   actions.

  These strategies need to extend beyond the classroom. May also runs a   private consultancy, working with parents using the same principles as   behaviour support work. "Awareness of what can be expected from   children at particular ages is lacking in the majority of the population,   often due to the way children are portrayed in the media. I help parents   develop a strategy to begin strengthening their relationship with their   children usually based on play and praise. If a parent is able to spend time   reading, playing or chatting with their child this can build the   relationship enormously."

  In December 2002, the Government launched a national behaviour and   attendance programme. As a result all secondary schools have now been   provided with audit and training materials and consultancy support, as part   of the behaviour and attendance strand of the secondary national strategy.

  Every local authority is supposed to have at least one behaviour and   attendance consultant working as part of the strategy. A behaviour support   worker will devise intervention plans, audit existing support and ensure   that the environment is conducive to the pupils' development.

  "When you are working with young people," says Cox, "their   needs aren't always immediate. You need to be very analytical and able to   look at behaviour and its causes." In some ways, adds Cox, behaviour   support workers have an advantage over class teachers, "because they   are able to learn from school A and apply the successes to school B. Class   teachers sometimes say, 'that's the most difficult child I have ever seen'   but they don't realise they are doing a great job because they don't have   that comparison."

  Behaviour support work isn't the highest paid in the world and there are no   formal qualifications directly associated with it. And it carries some of   the disadvantages of not being in full control of a classroom. Cox says: " Very often you will come up with a system which works for that pupil and you   encourage the teacher to use it. Then they will get the credit for its   success. But that's not why we're in this."