ABSTRACT
After the family, school is the social institution which has the closest contact with children for most of their formative years. The primary and increasingly demanding purpose of a school is clearly educational. At the same time, schools are uniquely placed to observe their pupils, to recognise social and emotional difficulties and to address needs which are interfering with the learning process and could continue into adulthood. Realising the potential of this position is not at all simple. Emotional and social needs are essentially private, unclear even to the individual experiencing them, and at school they are often masked by misleading behaviour which may repel rather than attract help and understanding. The challenge is to produce conditions in which troubled pupils feel safe enough to reveal their needs and in which someone pays attention and responds appropriately.
