ABSTRACT

Some of the children were managing their behaviour and learning by spending half a day with the small group and half a day in class, but others found this more difficult. The introduction of a key adult was seen as a positive strategy by all three children, the key adults and their normal class teachers. Several of the children who were placed within the small class had diagnoses of attachment disorders and others showed behaviours which, knowing their personal history, may have also been due to attachment difficulties. All of the children returned successfully to class and over the following term their incidences of unacceptable behaviour were reduced – during the previous term they had received several exclusions between them and during the term that they had key adult support they only received one half day exclusion between them.