Teaching the kids a lesson ot two

Read allowed like a charge sheet but with much happier repercussions.

And when the youth rises to collect his awards, his face beaming with unfettered pride, the response from the captive audience is as warm as it is unexpected.

Riotous applause, shouts of encouragement, piercing whistles, raucous cheers.

Then it's the next. Another list, another award winner another eruption. The atmosphere is charged, excited, heated, a quasi-religious experience for youngsters to whom praise is an alien concept.

For most in the room it's the first award ceremony they have ever been to in their world where success always happens to somebody else and becomes the target of ridicule and resentment.

The ceremony is held behind closed doors, quite literally, the wrong side of reinforced glass, high walls, and locks at the secure unit, Aycliffe Young People's Centre, County Durham.

Some of the recipients are coy, embarrassed, too awkward to get up to receive their certificates, which are handed back through the audience to them instead, ironically bringing more attention on them than if they had walked to the front of the room. Another boy does get up, clutching a box file full of his work, every bit the picture of the studious schoolboy.

Dozens of youngsters, boys and girls, pack the common room. Abused, disaffected, truant and criminal. They are in the centre because they have to be, sent to a school of hard knocks by courts or social services. But they are at the awards ceremony because they choose to be.

All but the newcomers have something to collect and the sense of pleasure among them is palpable.

"There's been a 40 per cent increase in the number of exams taken this year," team manager John Wilson tells them. "It's also the largest number of subjects ever taken. The only people who haven't got anything are the people who have been here less than two weeks."

Later he tells me: "For a lot of the kids just being there was an experience for them. For a lot it was embarrassing. For most it's the first time they have been presented with anything.

"Ninety nine per cent of the kids in care leave with nothing. Everybody leaves here with something. By achieving they become more settled and happy."

Secure service manager Gill Palin says education is an invaluable part of their work with youngsters.

"The Government tells us to be hard on crime, hard on the causes of crime. We are looking at why they commit the crime in the first place. That is why education is so important because they leave with something which hopefully stops them reoffending."

School in the secure unit is compulsory, rigid, structured. But it is dealt with more sensitively than in normal schools where a child's individual needs can sometimes be overlooked.

The centre's old culture of "ask, tell, make" has given way to a more open minded ethos which identifies and services youngsters' needs.

"Very few children here have academic achievements and most are way behind for their age," says Aycliffe Centre manager Ken Black.

"Many have educational needs which weren't picked up in mainstream schools so they couldn't keep up with their schooling.

"So when they come in we try to find where they are with their schooling, not where they should be. We try to make it attractive, show them they can succeed and that it's not the same as before. We show them that learning can be fun and relevant to their lives."

Education at Aycliffe Centre comprises compulsory schooling for 32 children in the secure unit, courses at the Copelaw Education centre for 20 youngsters living at the site, and day workshops at Copelaw Training, for 15 youngsters over the age of 16.

There is a normal school term, summer school in the long break and homework club in the evening, with lessons including good citizenship, how to take care of yourself and developing social skills.

The centre also works with children who attend mainstream schools who have been identified as potential truants before they become chronic non-attenders at school.

The majority of the children come from difficult family backgrounds. Recent research revealed that a child with two parents living in their own home and not on benefits has a one in 7,000 chance of having to go to a children's home.

By comparison a child living with one parent, in a rented house, sharing a bedroom with others and surviving on income support has a one in ten chance of going to a children's home at some stage of their life.

Copelaw Education manager Carol Payne says learning can make the difference between life and death.

"We had one girl who told us we had saved her life. She was very good at making models and writing stories but no one had recognised the fact. Now she has just got a contract with Penguin Books. Someone else who trained at Copelaw is now in their second year of a degree at Bradford University."

Copelaw Training is set to close soon because of a lack of funds. Fitting then that one of its last projects is a 30ft long metal sculpture of a dinosaur.

Copelawsaurus took 20 youngsters 26 weeks to create. A mild steel framework covered in sheet steel, its construction required all manner of skills to be employed, including team work, maths, using templates and mig welding.

"They put a lot of work into it," says instructor David Doubleday. "Some didn't even see the end product because they left but it was still a motivating project. A lot of the kids are disaffected with no qualifications. Without these courses they would have sat at home doing nothing."

While they are at Aycliffe Centre it's clear that the youngsters respond and are hungry to learn. But their biggest challenge comes when they leave, going back to family and friends and away from the stimuli which helps shape their lives.

"We can guarantee what we do with them," says Ms Palin. "But then it's up to them to see if they can make anything of it."