Best Practice

Tackling the common problems presented by challenging students

Daniel Sobel reflects on the challenges often presented by our more difficult students, and how as a whole-school team we might be able to overcome these problems before it is too late

In many schools you will find the head and deputy and possibly other senior leaders fire-fighting the most challenging student cases, spending up to 80 per cent of their time on the same five to 10 students. This article draws on a recent conversation I had with Michael Purches, who is a former headteacher of a special school (for 19 years) and a real expert on supporting schools to manage their toughest cases. This article lays out some of the principles of good and bad practice when dealing with the hardest student cases in your school.

In many cases that I have seen as an expert witness in tribunals and court cases about students who are permanently excluded, I notice the same unfortunate patterns:

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