Special Educational Needs in the Primary School: A Practical Guide Book

Local management of schools and cutbacks in central support services mean that the responsibility for meeting special educational needs is resting ever more squarely on the shoulders of ordinary classroom teachers. However, few feel wholly confident in their ability to adapt work within the National Curriculum to meet the whole range of needs, or co-ordinate successful action plans for children who - for whatever reason - are not learning as well as they might. This work aims to increase that confidence. Aimed at busy class teachers, special needs co-ordinators, heads and teachers in training, it shows how the teachers can build differentiation into planning lessons and schemes of work. It describes workable strategies for managing the most common behaviour difficulties and meeting special needs in language and mathematics. At a whole-school level, it offers practical guidance on developing special needs policies, assessment, record keeping and the management of time, roles and resources. The focus is on the ways in which schools can do a good job in meeting special needs themselves, within everyday constraints of time, money and energy, and in doing so hold back the tide of increasing marginalization of vulnerable children within the education system.Read More