ABSTRACT
The focus here is on creating coherence in the lives of students, especially those from the Pakistani community. This is said to happen when their home and school lives are integrated. Teachers have a particular role in such a process through their relationship with the pupils. Such relationships are found to help establish the right environment for learning and its enjoyment, improved social and emotional competence and increased student achievement. Here teachers’ understanding of their pupils’ background and everyday reality plays an important part. They are suggested to take a ‘funds of knowledge’ approach in their work which enables them to build on what the students bring into the school from their wider lives. The implications of teacher training are identified. A number of examples of effective practice are identified which have the potential for replication for the current context.
