ABSTRACT
Although anxiety and frustration about children’s behaviour in itself cannot be separated from parents’ feelings about the situation, overall there is evidence here that different approaches in school have different impacts on related outcomes. Pupil difficulties are not resolved overnight, especially where there are associated special educational needs, but positive school action and home-school collaboration appear to make a difference for the child, help situations to be more easily managed and are supportive to both parents and teachers. The opposite is also true. The quality of home-school relationships and interventions appear to have either a positive or negative spiral effect with potentially far-reaching outcomes for all concerned. Although these are interactive and systemic, issues have been separated out here for clarity. The first overriding issue is partnership itself and responses related to levels of inequality.
