Some students who come to college are difficult to manage. They bring with them issues and unrealistic expectations often associated with low self-esteem. These have to be carefully handled so that students can engage in learning and begin to progress. For many such students college can represent a new opportunity, which if handled well, will ensure that they are re-engaged, re-motivated and begin the journey towards acquiring new skills and experiences.

There is a danger that students who are difficult to manage will either be sidelined and given unchallenging tasks to do, or receive a disproportionate amount of time by their tutors. In some colleges the issue has been brought into particular focus with increasing numbers of 14-16 year olds taking a proportion of their study in college. Many colleges are therefore, beginning to re-evaluate their behaviour management systems and the learning strategies that can be used to support and re-motivate.

At Learning etc we can offer you a range of behaviour support consultants with experiences across schools and colleges to can work with you to support your staff as they deal with unknown situations and unexpected incidents. The types of activities that we offer include:

• Review and development of college behaviour management strategies
• Dealing with sanctions and rewards
• Learning strategies to support behaviour management
• Re-engaging the disaffected and behaviour support programmes
• Handling the hardest to help
• Techniques to encourage positive behaviour (circle time, brief solutions therapies and so on)

You can be assured that we will work with you to develop practical strategies and ideas that are appropriate to your college, and not just ‘off the shelf solutions’.