Inclusion
Having started an inclusion room in September, I seem to be spending more and more time in the company of the poor waifs and strays who have ended up out of class for a wide variety of reasons. There's no doubt it has reduced the number of exclusions, something a few (maybe more than a few) would prefer but there seem to be more each day. Today I have 9 students in the room engaged in a variety of tasks. Unusually there are two girls amongst them, they are far less likely to be subject to any of the behaviour management systems in the school, following the national trend.
Three of them are working on their art folders, the theme of Australia giving rise to a debate about the Australian flag so they can paint one. The silence is occasionally punctuated by requests to go to the toilet or for more paper but otherwise they work in silence and I get on with writing reports, Year 10 this time. This is a few minutes worth of break from that as I have now moved into my third hour of supervising the room and am losing concentration and the will to live.
Strangely though for most of them, working with concentration and in silence is a welcome change as it means they actually get on and work and as one comments, the time flies then.
Discussed hats and hoodies with the Year 11 class as part of revision of non fiction texts having printed a couple of articles from the weekend press. Given the differing opinions expressed in the articles, I was pleased to see how much they understood the ways in which the arguments were framed and the tone adopted by the respective commentators. Interestingly they understood the feelings of those feel intimidated by the wearers of hoodies being, I imagine, the most common victims of young people dressed in that way, but also felt it was ridiculous to ban them as most people behaved well despite wearing them including themselves. Another instance of something being ok for yourself but irresponsible on the part of others perhaps along the lines of watching an 18 rated film because you have the maturity and experience to deal with it while it may have profoundly disturbing influences on the weaker minded.
Six a side football
To the astonishment of no one Simon was ruled out of action following last week's horrendous/comical injury. With the absence of Dave we were reduced to a bare minimum with no substitute and 2 games to complete on ageing limbs. A new signing (the promise of a free pint following the game being enough to win the bidding war) made his debut and Richard proved a useful addition despite the fact he should have been disqualified from the team on the grounds that he is not thirty plus. The first game was hard and although we held them 0 - 0 at the break, they ran out comfortable 3 - 0 winners. Perhaps the key word there is ran, something we were unable to do in the second half! Knowing we had another game meant we took it a little more easily than otherwise would have been the case - does that sound convincing to you? It doesn't to me.
It turned out to be an inspired decision, as if I had any choice in the matter, with the second game seeing us win 6 - 4 in a thriller. We were 3 goals up at half time but were drawing with minutes to go. Two quick goals at the end saw us home to stand at three wins out of the four games played so far. Not too bad for this bunch of unlikely lads.
Having started an inclusion room in September, I seem to be spending more and more time in the company of the poor waifs and strays who have ended up out of class for a wide variety of reasons. There's no doubt it has reduced the number of exclusions, something a few (maybe more than a few) would prefer but there seem to be more each day. Today I have 9 students in the room engaged in a variety of tasks. Unusually there are two girls amongst them, they are far less likely to be subject to any of the behaviour management systems in the school, following the national trend.
Three of them are working on their art folders, the theme of Australia giving rise to a debate about the Australian flag so they can paint one. The silence is occasionally punctuated by requests to go to the toilet or for more paper but otherwise they work in silence and I get on with writing reports, Year 10 this time. This is a few minutes worth of break from that as I have now moved into my third hour of supervising the room and am losing concentration and the will to live.
Strangely though for most of them, working with concentration and in silence is a welcome change as it means they actually get on and work and as one comments, the time flies then.
Discussed hats and hoodies with the Year 11 class as part of revision of non fiction texts having printed a couple of articles from the weekend press. Given the differing opinions expressed in the articles, I was pleased to see how much they understood the ways in which the arguments were framed and the tone adopted by the respective commentators. Interestingly they understood the feelings of those feel intimidated by the wearers of hoodies being, I imagine, the most common victims of young people dressed in that way, but also felt it was ridiculous to ban them as most people behaved well despite wearing them including themselves. Another instance of something being ok for yourself but irresponsible on the part of others perhaps along the lines of watching an 18 rated film because you have the maturity and experience to deal with it while it may have profoundly disturbing influences on the weaker minded.
Six a side football
To the astonishment of no one Simon was ruled out of action following last week's horrendous/comical injury. With the absence of Dave we were reduced to a bare minimum with no substitute and 2 games to complete on ageing limbs. A new signing (the promise of a free pint following the game being enough to win the bidding war) made his debut and Richard proved a useful addition despite the fact he should have been disqualified from the team on the grounds that he is not thirty plus. The first game was hard and although we held them 0 - 0 at the break, they ran out comfortable 3 - 0 winners. Perhaps the key word there is ran, something we were unable to do in the second half! Knowing we had another game meant we took it a little more easily than otherwise would have been the case - does that sound convincing to you? It doesn't to me.
It turned out to be an inspired decision, as if I had any choice in the matter, with the second game seeing us win 6 - 4 in a thriller. We were 3 goals up at half time but were drawing with minutes to go. Two quick goals at the end saw us home to stand at three wins out of the four games played so far. Not too bad for this bunch of unlikely lads.
2 comments:
Sounds like a lot of hard work, working with year 10 and 11s. Bit confused about what an inclusion room is though. Is it like a special class during school hours for kids that would normally be kicked out?
You got it in one. We used to exclude quite a number of the kids who we now have in there - they might have been involved in a fight or similar or been abusive to a teacher. It's also used to reintegrate them back after exclusion instead of having them straight back in class.
Essentially it is there to help the kids succeed better and to support staff who want to be able to get on and teach.
Another factor is definitely the fact that some of them want to be excluded, they enjoy the late mornings and not having to do any work, so it prevents that happening as they have to work. Their work and behaviour determines when they return to class but we try to keep it to one day wherever possible.
Hope that helps and thanks for reading.
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