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Westminster Special School

College Park School Federation of Westminster Special Schools
& Bi-borough Inclusion Service

Student Behaviour In Public

Although the law forbids a teacher to use any degree of physical contact which is deliberately intended to punish a pupil, or which is primarily intended to cause pain, injury or humiliation, section 550A of the Education Act 1996 allows teachers, and other persons who are authorised by the Headteacher to support pupils when displaying challenging behaviour.

  • Committing a criminal offence (including behaving in a way that would be an offence if the pupil was not under the age of criminal responsibility)
  • Injuring themselves or others
  • Causing damage to property (including the pupil’s own property)
  • Engaging in any behaviour prejudicial to maintaining good order and discipline at the school or  amongst its pupils, whether that behaviour occurs in a classroom during a teaching session or elsewhere

All of our pupils have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) because of their special needs some of our pupils sometimes exhibit behaviour which could cause injury to themselves, others or property.

Staff will deal with these incidents firstly by ensuring the safety of other pupils in the group: which will usually mean withdrawing them to a safe area. Staff will then use the minimum physical intervention required to ensure that the pupil exhibiting challenging behaviour is supported from doing harm to themselves, members of staff, or property.

All staff who deal with pupils who have the potential to behave in this way will receive training in TEAM TEACH which is a whole school approach to behaviour management we have adopted. There are two qualified TEAM TEACH instructors on our staff who regularly host revision and review meetings with staff teams.

You can find out more about TEAM-TEACH by visiting the website:Team Teach

A record is kept in the school of all occasions when physical restraint is used and a first aider/school nurse will check over any pupil who has required physical restraint to ensure that no injuries have resulted.

All of our pupils have severe learning difficulties and communication problems. They are still learning how to cope with accessing their local area and at times they can be very anxious and display unusual behaviours.

Our staff have been trained in different approaches to helping move these situations forward, and they may have discouraged you from helping out and not have the time to explain why.

We appreciate your concern and offer of assistance and hope we can allay any worries you may have about things you have seen. The safety of our students is paramount. If you have concerns that have not been resolved by visiting this website then please email us at admin@qe2cp.westminster.sch.uk

You may have seen our staff using physical techniques to support a child or young person until it is safe. You can find out more about the Team Teach approach by going to the website link above.

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