It is attached to a college and the youngsters at it have some of their lessons there to pave the way for starting full-time courses.For the most part the “prus” are geared up to try to instil better behaviour patterns into pupils so they can return to mainstream schooling That is what Adrian Green hopes to do. Aged 14, he was excluded from his school after hitting a teacher “The teachers didn’t really give you a chance,” he said. “If you got into trouble once, you were just branded a troublemaker.”My behaviour has become a lot better Staff at these schools are far better. They know when you’re going to lose your temper or throw a mad one and they just calm you down. They’ve taught me you can control your anger.”Youngsters such as Adrian are set behaviour targets and once they have reached 75 per cent of them they can be considered for a return to mainstream schooling It doesn’t always work. Sometimes the move back can trigger another onset of behaviour problems but Peter Lewis, head of children’s and young people’s services for the city, said: “We expect the vast majority of 11 to 14-year-olds to return to schools.”Rob Gilroy is manager of a “pru” that specialises in vocational courses and work experience for those aged 14 to 16 and also has a special unit for pregnant schoolgirls and school-age mothers He said: “We obviously have smaller classes We have the opportunity to get to know the kids well.

We have more time to respond to their concerns and act upon them. If it doesn’t work, we may have to do something different – like a one-to-one programme with a teacher with a view to reintegrating them into the unit. They are not abandoned.”Mr Lewis is adamant the “prus” are not a soft option. “It is different, it is hard work, it is disciplined and it is structured.”One thing is certain, though: the new regime of the “prus” is vastly different from the previous system. Staff at the Southampton support service now negotiate with schools to send pupils at risk of exclusion into the units before the crunch comes. Because of that approach, exclusions have fallen by about 80 per cent.

The troublemakers are out of school but they are still learning – thanks to the men and women who teach at the “pru”.. Robert Hanbury Brown, astronomer: born Aravankadu, India 31 August 1916; Professor of Radio-Astronomy, Manchester University 1960-63; FRS 1960; Professor of Physics (Astronomy), University of Sydney 1964-81 (Emeritus); President, International Astronomical Union 1982-85; AC 1986; married 1952 Heather Chesterman (two sons, one daughter); died Andover, Hampshire 16 January 2002. Hanbury Brown joined a small team of scientists and engineers at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk in 1936, as a 20-year-old fresh from a postgraduate degree in electronics at the City and Guilds College of London University.The main task was to build the coastal defence radar known as Chain Home, which used huge antenna towers and very heavy transmitters With E.G. Bowen, he helped develop a shorter-wavelength and much lighter version which could be installed in an aircraft. After tests in an Anson aircraft in 1937, the world’s first airborne radar was built and flown by them in 1938.This extraordinary pace of development was maintained throughout the war, leading to the many navigational and fighter radars produced by Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE).