Special Educational Needs in Schools

The Education Reform Act gave all pupils the legal right to access to a common curriculum. This important development for children with special educational needs entailed risks as well as opportunities. Sally Beveridge's book provides a concise introduction to the issues involved meeting the special educational needs of children in ordinary classrooms. It focuses particularly in the ways in which teachers can develop and extend their own more general "good practice" in order to cater for these children's areas of special difficult. Throughout, the book argues that schools can exert a significant influence on their pupils' learning and behaviour, and therefore that teachers shold be alert to those factors within school which can add to or alleviate the difficulties that pupils experience. In developing this theme, Beveridge emphasises the centrality of teachers' role, but also the importance of liaison with other professionals and with parents in promoting successful educational opportunites for all. Readers wishing to pursue certain themes further will be helped by suggestions for discussion and further reading.