ABSTRACT
The process of staff development is as much an attitude of mind on everyone's part as a set of activities. It requires a commitment on the part of the senior management of the school to certain goals and the developments necessary to achieve them. When a school decides to adopt a whole school approach to special needs, all teachers will require some training. This will be the case even when the programme does not include the integration of pupils with serious handicaps. There are many ways in which teachers learn and a school planning a whole school approach should try to use as many of them as possible. The writers suggest that teachers need to be informed about handicapping conditions and their educational implications and they need to develop awareness of pupil potential. Special needs teachers have need for time to support colleagues, counsel pupils and their parents and make contact with feeder schools.
