"Emotionally based school avoidance" (EBSA) is a term used to describe young people who have difficulty attending school due to emotional needs. In comparison to previously favoured terms such as "school refuser", EBSA highlights the impact of unmet emotional needs over school non-attendance, which then informs the intervention…

The article highlights the models of inclusive education of Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Great Britain. Inclusion models can be classified into three basic ones, according to the ratio of the number of primary school-aged children at general and specialized schools, namely: full inclusion, partial inclusion with a predominance of pupils at…

For children with special educational needs, seeds were sown for the move away from segregated settings to inclusion in mainstream settings following the 1978 Warnock Report. However, the "special versus mainstream school" debate was re-ignited in 2005 when Warnock recommended a more significant role for special schools than previously…

This paper draws on my doctoral research study based on consulting work with three primary school Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) that took place in 2008. The study examined the interactions that arose in the consultations with the SENCos and their staff. The findings that emerged from the application of Grounded Theory research…

The success and quality of educational provision for children with SEN and/or disabilities is a matter of considerable debate, with wide differences reported by parents. Extant evidence is limited by sampling bias and size, making the true extent of (dis)satisfaction difficult to gauge. This paper reports systematic, comparative evidence from a…

The most important feature of successful curriculum differentiation for special needs students is good planning, which involves the stages of curriculum support, development of units of work, adapting materials, grouping students, providing individual supports, and assessment. This model is applied to the classroom, the key stage or department,…

Offers a critical response to the British Teacher Training Agency's two consultation documents on special-educational-needs-specialist teachers. The critique addresses the proposed standards, the definition of a specialist teacher, the value of standards, effective services, core standards, the deficit model of specialist standards, and delivery…

This article examines how the new British National Special Educational Needs Specialist Standards might be used as an audit tool and the consequences for teachers, line-managers, and training providers. It considers the role of the standards, core standards, extension standards, the standards as an audit tool, accessing resources, and future…

As care in the community has been legislated in Great Britain for people with special needs, concerns in planning educational programs include evaluating the quality, accessibility, and validity of services; creating a policy statement and development plan; mapping needs; and auditing services. (SK)

This document is a progress report on a British project designed to help disabled adults gain self-advocacy skills, becoming active consumers of the rights and benefits to which they are entitled. The aims of the project, which began in September 1988, are as follows: (1) promote staff development on advocacy among professionals working with the…

This article addresses issues raised by the British Audit Commission's report on statutory assessment and Statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN). Questions are raised concerning ideas of "special educational needs,""areas of need," and "categories of handicap"; fair distribution of SEN funding; relationships…

The theme and topic of students with special needs should be examined from social theoretical platforms, rather than special education frameworks; a sociopolitical approach based on discourse theorizing is especially useful. Recent research shows that the students with special needs concept is an invalid approach to educational equity. Includes 63…

This article reviews some ways of differentiating classroom methods for special needs students in Great Britain, including differentiation of content, interests, pace, level, access, response, sequence, structure, teacher time, teaching style, and grouping. The most effective methods of differentiation are felt to be grouping, structure, and…

This study examined the impact of the SENCo-Forum, an e-mail group concerned with students who have special educational needs (SEN) in Britain. The study addressed characteristics of Forum users, how often people send messages, a comparison of "enthusiastic" and "light" users, qualifications of Forum users, ways in which the…

This article considers issues concerning assessment of students with special needs at Key Stages 1 and 3 of the British National Curriculum. These include timing and administration of assessments, teacher training, special adaptations to the assessments, special arrangements, recording and reporting, and exceptions. (DB)