The so-called "soft skills" utilised by teachers--including relationship building, awareness of the pupil's context and background and the demonstration of authority--to develop an appropriate learning culture in their classrooms have long been recognised as being a major contribution to effective promotion of positive behaviour. This article…

The year 2003 saw Behaviour and Attendance (B&A) consultants beginning work across the country, supporting (mostly) mainstream secondary schools. They are part of an extensive advisory team which is instrumental in improving standards in schools through the Government's Secondary National Strategy. Their brief was to develop and improve the…

Refugee children are often admitted into schools having experienced traumatic events. The impact of trauma on children has been well documented and these children frequently have complex needs. The Devon Behaviour Support Team (BST) has offered Art Workshops to schools to support children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and…

The Special Education Needs Code of Practice (2001) states that both parents and children should be actively involved in the decisions that surround the child's special educational need. In particular, it acknowledges the "unique knowledge" that children have of their own needs and advocates that they should take part in the setting and evaluating…

The article focuses upon a small-scale research project undertaken in a Northern Ireland secondary school. Using a questionnaire, the article explores the views of a sample of young people from four European countries who are enrolled at the school, regarding the school's inclusive policy and associated practices. In recent years, Northern Ireland…

This article presents factors that place girls at risk of delinquency and offending as well as the patterns in juvenile delinquency trends for females in Singapore. The authors also describe Singapore's overall structure of services for young offenders and the current status of alternative education programmes for young women engaged in delinquent…

Difficulties in motor processing are often seen in children with specific literacy difficulties. Indeed many children with dyslexia may also have a diagnosis of dyspraxia. This article seeks to increase understanding of difficulties in motor processing and to provide practical advice to teachers to assist in identification of such difficulties. It…

The study outlined here was an attempt to examine the use of Social Story DVDs as a single-intervention approach in addressing the issue of anxiety around turn taking in a child with dual diagnosis of autism and learning disability. The child selected was in a school for children with additional needs. The child was taught in a daily session…

This paper reports on teaching assistants' perceptions of the Phase 1 Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) training programme and the match to their changing role in classroom support, and suggests resulting issues for the design and delivery of HLTA training programmes. It explores what impact undertaking the training and gaining HLTA…

A major criterion for the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome is an impairment of the imagination. This article focuses on the specific difficulties that students with Asperger syndrome have with the imaginative content of the English curriculum. It examines the problems with reading and writing imaginatively of a group of students with AS in a…

This study begins to explore ways in which the principles underpinning the traditional "nurture group" model could be altered and age ranges extended while continuing to deliver the proven success of nurture groups in promoting children's social and emotional development. Part-time nurture groups were established in four different primary schools…

This paper develops from previous research (Orsini-Jones et al., 2005) and reports on the experience of three students, two visually impaired and one blind, reading languages at Coventry University, on the adjustments made to meet their needs and on the challenges encountered on their learning journey both from their point of view and from the…

This paper challenges a view of concrete materials as artifacts used within a rigid instructional sequence that particular children are perceived to require or not, as the case may be. Focussing on mathematics teaching, it contends that it is more useful to consider the function of these materials as "tools," artefacts used flexibly and…

The study outlined here was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of using the Phono-Graphix reading programme with a group of four struggling readers/non-readers. The children selected were in Primary 2 and had already had one-and-a-half years of mixed reading instruction strategies--primarily Jolly Phonics with a 'look and say" approach.…

At 11 years of age, English students in secondary schools are expected to make no more than five spelling errors per 100 words and write at a speed of 25 words per minute in order to cope with the curriculum. This research found that at least one third of the Year 7 cohorts (ages 11-12) in three typical suburban secondary schools were unable to…