How should we define Exceptions?

'Modifying' or 'disapplying' the National Curriculum – what do these terms mean? Neither is clearly defined in the Education Reform Act, statutory instruments or circulars. Yet both begin to apply from this month onwards as the National Curriculum is introduced into schools. Guidance from the Department of Education and Science is urgently needed, suggests Brahm Norwich, lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University.