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Encouraging young people

An evaluation of Rhema, a project working with young people at risk of exclusion, found that a number of factors helped develop a good relationship between staff and the learners.  By fostering a good relationship with the young people staff were better placed to encourage them to learn.

Treating the young people in an adult way, for example, by letting them smoke outside helped encourage the young people to behave more maturely.  It also meant that there was less likely to be conflict between the staff and students as the students felt that they were respected by the staff.  This was helped by the staff taking the approach of youth worker, which they described as being somewhere in between being a friend and a teacher. 

Continuity of staff meant that the same staff members worked with the young people throughout the project.  This gave the young people a level of continuity and stability that enabled them to build good relationships with the staff.  This was important as often, outside of school, the young people's lives were quite chaotic. 

Informal chats between the staff and young people were possible during break times.  In some cases this allowed the young people to open up to staff about any problems.  It gave the staff further insight into why the young people behaved as they did.

A personalised approach meant that the staff used different strategies to encourage the young people to learn and to manage their behaviour according to the personality and behaviour of each individual.  For example, the quiet ones were encouraged to be more assertive, whilst the assertive ones were not allowed to be bullies or always get their own way.  Staff always considered the skills and capabilities of the young people and understood when the learners became bored or frustrated because a task was too challenging. 

A high staff to student ratio meant that the young people had lots of attention from the staff.  This enabled the staff to support the young people in their learning more easily.

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