Exploring Sign Use in Two Settings

Nicola Grove, speech/language therapist, and Sine McDougall, psychologist, from the Division of Psychiatry of Disability, Department of Mental Health Sciences, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London, explore use of Makaton signs in teacher-directed and free play settings by children with severe learning difficulties.     

Connecting with connexions: the role of the personal adviser with young people with special educational and support needs

The Connexions service has particular responsibility for coordinating transition planning for students with learning difficulties. In this study Bob Grove and Alison Giraud–Saunders report on the development of the personal adviser (PA) role in two special schools and an FE college as part of the Lewisham Connexions pilot. This article is based on the evaluation report of the Connecting with Connexions project, which is available in full from the authors.     

The Three R's of Pastoral Care: Relationships, Respect and Responsibility

The author argues that over the last twenty years we have witnessed an evolution in pastoral care that is unparalleled in any other field of education. There has been controversy over the definition and these different views are discussed. The paucity of research and literature in the field and particularly in relation to the pastoral needs of teachers andstaff is emphasized.
In this paper it is suggested that the needs of school staff in respect of pastoral care are relatively neglected in the literature. Using the three R's of pastoral care – relationships, respect and responsibility – this paper focuses attention on teachers and their needs in the workplace. It is argued that attention to relationships, respect and responsibility enablesa proactive collaborative approach in which all members of the school community play a crucial role in the pastoral care of students.