ABSTRACT
The intention of this book is to provide some insights into the issues surrounding the organisation of formal special needs support systems in schools, and to discuss some ideas which might be useful in helping staff to develop such support systems in their own schools. To increase the practical value of the text, we have provided a number of activities which we hope will be useful to staff in applying these ideas in their own school contexts. These could be used by individual teachers, by groups coming together on in-service training courses, or by groups which form on an ad hoc basis within a school. A further aim of the book is to provide material which will help to raise awareness of general special needs issues amongst student teachers who are engaged in a period of initial teacher education. As such, this book complements the other volumes in this series which are both concerned with the skills which teachers need to develop in order that they can make appropriate provision for pupils with special needs in their own classes.
