Janice Cahill OBE has been in education for over forty years.

She has set up and been involved in various initiatives to support students with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs in young people.  Her book, The Best Outcomes for Young People: Lessons from a PRU Headteacher, focuses on partnership working and offers a toolkit for those working with students to help them with their education experience.

Janice very kindly wrote a little bit about her experience as a PRU headteacher and shared some of what readers will find in her new book.

I decided to write The Best Outcomes for Young People – Lessons from a PRU Headteacher, after being asked for many years if I would write down my tips and secrets on what made a successful PRU/AP (Pupil Referral Unit/Alternative Provision). This was relatively easy, as for me working with pupils with SEMH (social emotional and mental health needs) is not rocket science. It is about developing human relationships, believing in the pupils you meet, and helping them achieve their potential.

However, I am not so arrogant or naïve as not to recognise that these pupils can be challenging in the mainstream school environment and can cause significant headaches for many teachers, leaders and when their school placement breaks down, for local authorities. What can and should we do with these pupils? For many the removal from their mainstream school and home community is the first decision and the return to their mainstream or any other school, following a suspension or permanent exclusion, is reduced.

My book focuses on partnership working. PRU’s and AP’s should not be outside the school offer but should be part of the continuum of care schools should provide. For many of us life can become hard and we need ‘time out;’, an opportunity for reflection and for personal coping skills to be developed. A good PRU/AP will work with the pupils to develop these alongside the school, to ensure that every pupil can make a successful transition back.

Why should you read my book? I believe it provides a toolkit for every schoolteacher, support worker, school leader, and multiagency worker, and for local authorities to get it right for pupils with SEMH needs. This problem is not going away. We know we need to change our approach to enable these pupils to stay in our schools. Sending them elsewhere should not be an option. I have been working with a secondary school that has set up its own internal AP based on and using the principles found in my book and while it is in its early days, it is working.

So, give it a go: read my book, apply my principles and see if your suspensions and exclusions go down and your staff’s well-being improves. But most importantly, ask yourself: does it enable all your pupils to have a better experience of your school and to leave with positive memories?

Many thanks to Janice whose book offers those educators looking to support their own students an insight into her experience teaching students with SEMH needs.  If you are looking for CPD titles for your school and staff you can find a selection here.