ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a 'worked' tension model and then creating a sample personalised reducing anxiety management plan. It considers how children's anxiety levels reveal themselves in presenting behaviours. The chapter provides clear descriptors that reflect what the child in question exhibits at each level or state of anxiety. It describes appropriate staff responses to each level of behaviours exhibited by the child. The chapter also helps to understand that stress or anxiety can increase or decrease in intensity between each level. Many of the children attending the pupil referral unit (PRU) were on 'fixed-term' exclusions or at risk of 'permanent' exclusion from their mainstream schools for 'challenging behaviours' with the schools' view that they were best educated elsewhere as they were perceived to be 'unmanageable'. All children with mental health/emotional well-being needs as a result of diagnosed conditions or disorders or high-risk 'within-child' 'familial' and 'environmental' factors need to be managed differently and sensitively and in a proactive manner.
