It's every teenager's dream come true - a course where they have a say in what they learn and when they go home. But, as Emily Flanagan discovers, this unconventional approach is working wonders with pupils who face expulsion from school

KAREN Readman has tried kicking her pupils out of her office before morning lessons begin, but to no avail. Many of them turn up an hour earlier so they can sit and talk to her. Several months earlier, all the coaxing and threats in the world couldn't persuade many of them to go to school and Karen is quietly pleased with her staff room congregation. "Some of them will come in one hour earlier and camp in our staff room. We say: 'Can you give us two minutes? And they say: 'No.' We don't mind. It's because for a lot of them it's the first time they've had any attention," she says.

Karen is a co-ordinator on the Impact scheme, an alternative education programme for pupils who face expulsion from a mainstream school. All the children have been referred by schools, often as a last ditch attempt to make sure they get some education. But after several months on the Impact course, the tutors find they will ask to stay until 4pm or 5pm and volunteer for weekend or evening courses. The results are made all the more impressive by the fact that the scheme is still in its infancy.

It was launched across County Durham in September 2000 after the local education authority commissioned the Learning Support Service to provide education for pupils who had failed to attend more than 50 per cent of lessons and who were at risk of becoming socially excluded.

Now there are schemes run from youth centres in Chester-le-Street, Ferryhill, Seaham and Stanley, as well as from colleges.

Karen and project co-ordinator Doreen Armstrong, both based at Bishop Auckland College, find there are a range of reasons why mainstream education does not work for some children.

Often teenagers walk through their doors with so much emotional baggage they have little energy left for education. One recent participant on the Impact scheme was kicked out of his school because he rarely appeared in class, but nobody knew why.

Doreen says: "He was a fantastic artist. He put pen to paper and produced some fantastic things. He could read everything. We presumed at some point someone said to him, 'your writing is too messy', and that was it. He wouldn't write in front of anybody so it got to the point where he wouldn't even go to school because he didn't want anyone to laugh at his writing."

Problems at school can also cause anxiety for parents. After moving from Chesterfield to Durham City, Eva Hayman discovered her 15-year-old daughter Candice was so nervous in her new environment that she was not going to school or even leaving her home. After she was referred to the Impact scheme, workers helped her tackle her fears of new people and places by taking her on shopping trips and to new areas to give her back her confidence.

Other young people referred may have undiagnosed dyslexia, problems at home, or are too bright and find school under-stimulating. Often they need time that teachers cannot provide as they juggle paperwork, Government targets and simply keeping the class under control.

Doreen says: "You don't know what problems they're having and it's not until you build up a good trusting relationship that they let you in on these little things.

"Some might have had a bereavement and won't go to a bereavement counsellor. Most adults can't work effectively when they experience similar things. Some of our brightest students have literacy problems."

Course tutor Karen says many students arrive with their heads down and rarely speak, until several months down the line they blossom into confident young people.

"We've just had a look at last year's photographs of the students here now. We said: 'What a difference'. It's rewarding to see. Like Gareth William - when he first started he didn't like us, he didn't like anyone. At first it would be, 'hey lady', or 'hey you', if he wanted our attention. Now he's lovely. This morning he ran up to us asking if he could come and see us because he had a day off work."

Gareth quickly grew into a star student, taking up any course offered to him, from sign language to mechanics and even volunteered to look after a virtual baby, programmed to cry through the night like the real thing.

All pupils are taught traditional skills such as maths and English alongside alternative subjects such as construction and office skills, to help them in their chosen career. Lessons are taught in small groups of between four and ten and pupils also have the added bonus of individual tuition.

Karen says: "On a one to one basis we find we can stimulate the children more. If they find something such as graphs in maths too easy, we can take them two stages along. But at school they're using a lesson plan where teachers have to cater for the whole class."

Often the key to bringing out the best in the young people is giving them self-esteem by sending them on team building exercises and outward bound courses.

Karen says: "We want to produce young people that are confident enough to do what they want and have the ability to socially interact. If they want to be a binman and they're confident enough to go out and be a binman, that's what we want."