Challenging teenagers are helping disruptive children aged three to eight tackle their social, emotional and behavioural problems, as part of an innovative project operating in Ipswich.
Working along the lines of the old notion of 'poacher turned gamekeeper', the teenagers act responsibly when given responsibility and set a good example. The aim of the cross-age tutoring project, run by the First Base pupil referral unit, is that both age groups will learn to modify their behaviour.
No formal evaluation was made of the outcomes for the first cohort of teenagers, who launched the project last summer. But, says Janet Osborne, their head of year at the town's Coppleston High School, 'The benefits are still there. These are children who were constantly defying and challenging authority, stopping teachers from teaching and other students from learning. We gave them this opportunity to be trusted and heard. They were closely supervised and only two went at a time, but they were given responsibility, and they gained in confidence and were praised.'
The younger children also gained. 'They get to have a positive relationship with a young person who wants to be here for them,' says Eithne Leming, headteacher of First Base. 'For some of them, these students might be the only people in their lives who are not paid. All their other relationships are with people who are paid to be there, so they particularly value the fact that the students are volunteers.'
The unit, which opened 18 months ago, is staffed by experienced teachers and specialist teaching assistants. At any one time they have on their books between 25 and 30 Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 pupils, with whom they work to challenge and probe the motives behind unacceptable behaviour and set positive examples.
The unit takes children from across the maintained, voluntary and private sectors and offers training and support for parents, practitioners and teachers, as well as working directly with the children either in their own settings or at First Base. It uses the traditional early years approach of observation and learning through play.
In mid-October, a new group of pupils from Thurleston High School joined the project and already they are noticing changes in themselves. 'I think I am behaving better since coming here,' says 13-year-old Jade. 'I used to walk out of class. Since coming here I have been happier because I am making the children happy. I think the teachers respect me more too, and I am having a better time at home.
'Some of the little children here get stressed and they find them ways of dealing with it. I used to be really stressy, but I am using all the things I am learning here for trying to calm down and I can express my feelings better.'
Danielle, aged 15, emphasises the importance of communication. 'What we do is we work with the children, we play with them and communicate with them,'
she says. 'Communicating with the children has made it easier for me to communicate with other people. I think they are listening to me at school now. If I can help here, I can help my mum and that helps me.'
Boys make up the majority of First Base's client group, while the unit's teaching team are all women. Recruiting teenage boys to the project has had a positive impact, says Eithne Leming - providing the younger boys with positive male role models, while sending the teenagers back to their schools with hitherto unheard-of glowing reports.
'When you teach something, you learn it, you learn it very thoroughly and you don't forget it. Every teacher knows that. So let your students teach,'
she says. But she adds, 'Cross-age tutoring is difficult to organise.
Because you have to bring together older and younger students, it has to be well supervised, and you have to prepare the older students.'
Ms Leming was introduced to cross-age tutoring in a lecture by retired professor Carol Taylor, formerly at the University of Durham, who used it in the 1960s when teaching in a high school in the Compton district of Los Angeles, where the tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams grew up.
Ms Leming says the approach is not something that was invented anywhere particular. 'In a survey I did, more than half the projects had arisen because of one teacher. Traditionally, older pupils are enlisted as one-to-one tutors in maths or reading with younger children.
'Working on the same principle, the teenage students at First Base are mastering and demonstrating social, emotional and behavioural skills. These students know how it is to be in school and not behaving as their teachers want them to behave. They observe the children and say, "That's what happens to me," or "I used to do that." One of the girls said, "If I can help a child avoid some of the trouble I have got myself into, I will do it."'
The teenagers are carefully selected and undergo an induction day, run along the lines of an adult training course. It covers key issues such as observation and communication skills, the role of the cross-age tutor, policy and practice on child protection and approaches to pupil discipline.
'We talk to them about how to listen to children, ways of managing distress and anger, assertiveness and negotiation skills and ways of getting your message across, and helping others solve their disputes effectively,' says Eithne Leming.
Anthony Fleming, head of year 9 at Thurleston High School, adds, 'They have looked at these young children and to some degree, it has been like looking in a mirror. They have realised that there is a right way to behave.'
CASE STUDY: TUESDAY
'When you play with the children here you give them praise,' says 13-year-old Tuesday Butcher. 'You don't put them down or say, "That is not very good, that is wrong". You say, "You have tried your best. Maybe next time it could be even better".
'I wish the teachers at my school could come here and learn. They are negative. I don't like it when teachers shout and don't listen. Instead of shouting at you, teachers should talk to you like they do here, and explain things so you cool down.
'I get into trouble at school if I argue. When they start shouting at me, I shout back, but I have learned to speak for myself without shouting back. I wished someone had told me how to do that before.
'It is better at home too. I went to my dad to ask for some money to go Christmas shopping and it didn't end up in a big argument, with me getting stressed and shouting and getting grounded. It went fine and I got the money.
'At school people used to wind me up and I would get stressed and shout.
Now I know how to say things instead of shouting. I think before I speak. I never used to. I only started doing that here.
'If you are helping a child and another one wants your help, you say "Wait a minute, I'm helping him and then I will come to you". The children learn to be patient and when you help them, they really respect you.
'At snack time, when you're handing out the bananas and a child says please, you give them the banana and say, "Well done for saying please".
Even if they don't say please, you still give them the banana. Because you say well done to the ones who say please, the others say please too.
'If one person is sitting and you say well done, then everybody else sits up with their legs and arms crossed and you say, "Good. You are sitting nicely". If they won't listen you say, "Can you sit nicely, please". They will listen most of the time. You have to make sure they don't make any arguments.
'If two want to play with the same thing, you have to say, "Ask". One boy wanted a rocket that another one had, so I told him, "Well ask him and maybe he will let you have it". And he asked him and they shared.
'I am learning here. When I have my own children it will be better for me because I will know how to handle them. If you have a headache you just say to the children, "I have got a headache, I went to bed late". That will teach them to go to bed earlier. You don't say, "You've given me a headache". You don't blame them and make them feel bad.
'I think being here has matured me. I have to show the children how to do things nicely, like how to sit nicely. I was shy about speaking to new people. The children here have confidence to speak to new people, older people like me, and that has given me the confidence to speak to new people, older people.'
