ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationships between a school's policy on ability grouping and messages which may be conveyed through the hidden curriculum. It presents the importance of other aspects of school organisation, arguing that these may provide sources of frustration to pupils and teachers alike. The chapter also considers approaches to pupil guidance in schools and discusses their implications for children with special needs. Behavioural programmes, then, provide no panacea for dealing with the problems presented by pupils with special needs. Provision for children with special needs requires more than the piecemeal approach implicit in most behaviour modification projects, however valuable these may be in their own right. The emphasis on the control of observed behaviour has led to enthusiastic application of the techniques of behaviour modification. Overall, the conclusion is clear: the pupils that teachers most frequently refer to counsellors are precisely the pupils whose behaviour is least likely to change as a result of counselling.
