Year 11 pupil M had school phobia and anxiety. He would not work in school and made every excuse not to work online to do his functional skills. We were very persistent and encouraging, to get M and mum on board (mum was a single parent and was difficult to get hold of to put the outreach work in place). Our persistence and attitude toward M and mum was successfully. M built his confidence up and his anxiety towards speaking with adults improved. M went online face to face and worked independently to catch up on missed learning, to achieve his math and English functional skills, last year through the pandemic, which obviously made things even more difficult for any pupil. The deputy head of the school in Southend, and the SENCO thanked me for our commitment and approach towards M and mum to engage in learning and for mum to support M to engage. This was a very positive outcome for M and we also found M a college course he was interested in and is attending this year.

I was a teacher at a PRU for 3 years in Havering. I worked with many children and assessed all pupils in my class as they started the PRU. I contacted professionals to make sure after completing their assessments that referrals was sent to professionals to put in place the right support the children and families need to improve education and better life chances. I worked had a boy L in my class he had autism and always played on his own, he got angry if anyone touch his desk, chair or equipment and books, he didn’t like loud noises either. L played on his own at playtime and this really upset me to see. The plan I put in place for L was to remove triggers and to buddy him up with another student to improve his social skills and to build friendship with other pupils. The other pupil I buddied L up with was confident, funny and friendly, she enjoyed playing with L and encouraging him to make good choices and get rewards for following the class rues. L made a huge amount of progress with his learning and behaviour; he would walk to the school bus holding hands with the other student smiling and skipping. He started his reading and handwriting every day without any anger’s issues, because other children in the class was asked not to move his chair or touch his pens and books on the table, this worked really well, because before when he arrived in the morning if his chair had been moved that would upset him for the whole day. L also wore ear defenders during academic lessons and his levels went up. Parents also supported the changes we made to remove barriers to learning and to improve his behaviour to learning and empathy for other people’s feelings, he has emotional wellbeing lessons everyday and learned how to understand that his actions affect other people’s feelings. L would play with all the children in the playground with the support of the other pupil (peer support) and his outlook on school completely changed. We supported a smooth transition back into mainstream for L and he is still in his mainstream school because the mainstream school followed the plan that was in place for L which supported L to continue to keep progressing and achieving in mainstream. His parents were very grateful and that the techniques we used to help L achieve, we also included the parents in and their life at home and L is completely different as it gave the parents more tips and ideas to use to continue the good behaviour at home.

I worked with a 5-year-old as an outreach tutor, he was excluded from school after just 3 weeks, T would not sit and do any academic work. From the first time I met T, he was comfortable and wanted to show me his favourite toys. After a few days T would be waiting at the door for me to arrive and he was ready to learn. His mum said she cannot believe in a few days the improvement in T behaviour and the environment of the home is so much calmer. T sat and done his literacy and maths, and was learning the alphabet, he enjoyed stories and drawing pictures to re tell the story, T also labelled his work with letters from a visual alphabet chart, he said he was very proud of himself. I worked with T at home 3 hours a day for 6 months, and supported his transition into a special school, due to his diagnosis. After T went to school his mum still contacted me to update on his positive progress in his behaviour and learning. Mum sent me a picture of T diary entry that he had written himself a few weeks after starting his new school (remembering he did not know one letter of the alphabet when I started tutoring T). His mum said he wanted her to tell me he is so proud of himself and so is his nan. Mum said she sat and cried when she saw T sitting up the table doing his math and English work with me, she never thought he would have an education and was so happy, she also thanked me for taking hi out and teaching T about keeping safe inside and outside of the home, because he doesn’t run off anymore when they go out as a family and all their lives are so much happier. T is a funny, friendly, and caring little boy, and was lovely to teach. I am so happy that T is in school with friends and is happy and will have choices in life like other children that haven’t had to live with a condition, this shows that we can help children with or without special needs to achieve and have a happy life on a positive pathway, I still think about T and when I do it makes me smile how happy he is and his family.