ABSTRACT
Providing a positive identity for children is paramount to their future success in the mainstream classroom. All the children who join the group have a history of failure. They arrive demoralised and disaffected, unable or unwilling to learn satisfactorily. They have no confidence in their ability to succeed in the classroom and, until the negative picture they hold of themselves is replaced with a more positive one, they will continue to fail. While giving children a more positive identity does not guarantee that they will achieve greater academic success, it will enable them to participate more fully in their mainstream classroom and cope with what is asked of them, in the knowledge that they too are worthwhile individuals.
