Victor Hugo's proverb is spray-painted on the wall of a classroom in Melbourne's north: "He who opens the door of a school, closes a prison."

Key points: Melbourne's The Pavilion School turns around the lives of young people

Melbourne's The Pavilion School turns around the lives of young people Many students have been expelled or have dropped out from other schools

Many students have been expelled or have dropped out from other schools Students say school has helped their sense of wellbeing

This salute to the social value of education underpins the work being done by The Pavilion School, which welcomes society's most at-risk teenagers.

The staff are helping to turn around the lives of disengaged young people who have been expelled from mainstream education or dropped out along the way.

But what makes this North Melbourne school succeed where others have not?

Principal Josie Howie puts it down to unconditional positive regard for all young people, no matter what their issues.

Ms Howie, a social worker who retrained as a teacher, developed the program 10 years ago to meet the demands of the local community in Preston, in Melbourne's north.

"Everyone has a right to education no matter what your background, how bad your behaviour, how aggressive you are or how chronically disengaged you are from school," she said.

The Pavilion School concentrates its state grant on employing a high ratio of specialist staff to students.

Every class has a teacher, a youth worker and an integration aid, supervising small groups in a calm and accepting environment.

Lesson plans are flexible, vocation-orientated, and the timetable for completion of Year 12 is open-ended.

"It's about not judging or blaming kids for the situation they are in," Ms Howie said.

"Rather, we pull them closer in and provide them with the support they need. I think that's the difference to what a lot of schools are able to offer."

'They haven't been given the support'

Ms Howie said it was important to view a child's anti-social behaviour as a sign of distress and to allow them to have a measure of control over their lives.

"They haven't gone through regular developmental milestones. They haven't been given the support or the modelling they have required through home life," she said.

"They need to have community and parents and schools around them helping them through that difficult time."

The Pavilion School started in a community sports shed, but demand grew so quickly, the Victorian Education Department provided a home at a disused primary school in Preston.

Students say they feel safe, comfortable and respected at the school. ( ABC News: Cathy Jacobs )

There is also a second campus in a space provided by Whittlesea Council Youth Services and the student cohort has grown to 240 with a waiting list.

Ebony, 20, was out of school and often homeless for five years.

She is now happily living back with her mother and sister and aiming to finish Year 12 and get a job.

"I've got more respect for the teachers than when I first came here," she said.

"It just made me a better person."

At the school, 20 per cent of the students identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Ebony credits the respect she has been shown at the school for her newfound sense of wellbeing.

"They [students] feel safe and they feel comfortable coming to school knowing that no-one's going to look at them differently or pick on them or anything like that," she said.

Graduates moving on to further education or work

Campus director Jo Bartlett said she was receiving more inquiries from younger teenagers.

"We have a lot more 12 and 13-year-olds approaching us, coming up on our waiting list," she said.

"It's pretty scary to think it's happening for a large proportion of young people not only in Victoria but across Australia."

Increasingly, she said, other schools were approaching the Pavilion to learn how to apply the learning model in their own classrooms.

About 85 per cent of the school's graduates go on to further education or the workforce.

After a brush with the law and missing a year of school, 16-year-old Matt has a new lease on life with plans to become a tiler.

He said he would still be on the streets and causing trouble if he had not discovered The Pavilion School.

"All that's behind me now. I would never bring that into my life again," he said.

"I'm more mature and looking out for my future instead of thinking about stupid things."

When asked if she thought she was helping to keep kids out of prison, Ms Bartlett replied: "Absolutely. I 100 per cent believe that."