The Positive Behaviour Intervention and Resource Centre (PBIRC) in Wynberg is the first special school of its kind in South Africa.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) launched a pilot programme in 2018 that was facilitated by Neville Goliath, Provincial Manager: Positive Behaviour, to conceptualise and operationalise the possibility of a support programme for in-school learners that present with high-level behavioural needs.
A heritage site in Wynberg, previously known as Tenterden Child and Youth Care Centre, was acquired by the WCED to test the feasibility of such a programme. The results of the pilot programme were good and the registration of the Positive Behaviour Intervention and Resource Centre (PBIRC) was granted on 1 January 2022.
The programme finds itself as part of a continuum of support responses to learner behavioural needs. The behaviour support pathway places this programme at the high-level of support to learners experiencing behaviour as a barrier to learning.
Children at the centre engage with adults with extensive experience in working with learners at risk, specialised teachers, psychologists and occupational therapists that are led by a principal and renowned positive behaviour practitioner, Moosa Mahadick.
The individual Support Plan of the learner could comprise psycho-social interventions and occupational therapy support to respond to the functional challenges that the child might experience. These therapeutic needs respond to the challenges in the life space of the child and this could include coping with conflict, dealing with anger expression, problem-solving skills and identifying resiliency factors required to survive their lives.
Parental participation is an important participant in the programme. However, this programme prides itself in the practice of giving these children relationships that are meaningful and not harmful. Therefore, it’s not about the programme, but what the child finds in a relationship.
The Positive Behaviour Intervention & Resource Centre is more than just a school; it’s a deliberate attempt to draw a circle that takes kids in. Creating a space where kids belong and to reconnect them with the important relationship that a child needs in an adult. To guide them through their rites of passage towards adulthood and in so doing, acquire the vital skills only found in relationships.
