Book reviews

Creativity in the English Curriculum
Lorna Smith (2023)

Susan Isaacs: A Life Freeing the Minds of Children
Philip Graham (2023)

Ignorance
Sally Tomlinson (2022)

Education in Spite of Policy
Robin Alexander (2022)

What is Education about?
Geoffrey Marshall (2021)

Mary Warnock: Ethics, Education and Public Policy in Post-War Britain
Philip Graham (2021)

Enfield Voices
Tom Bourner and Tony Crilly (eds) (2018)

Who Cares About Education? ... going in the wrong direction
Eric Macfarlane (2016)

Grammar School Boy: a memoir of personal and social development
John Quicke (2016)

The Passing of a Country Grammar School
Peter Housden (2015)

Living on the Edge: rethinking poverty, class and schooling
John Smyth and Terry Wrigley (2013)

Education under Siege: why there is a better alternative
Peter Mortimore (2013)

New Labour and Secondary Education, 1994-2010
Clyde Chitty (2013)

Politics and the Primary Teacher
Peter Cunningham (2012)

School Wars: The Battle for Britain's Education
Melissa Benn (2011)

Children, their World, their Education
Robin Alexander (ed) (2010)

Education Policy in Britain
Clyde Chitty (2nd ed. 2009)

School behaviour management
Lane, Kalberg and Menzies (2009) and Steege and Watson (2009)

Supporting the emotional work of school leaders
Belinda Harris (2007)

Faith Schools: consensus or conflict?
Roy Gardner, Jo Cairns and Denis Lawton (eds) (2005)

The Professionals: better teachers, better schools
Phil Revell (2005)

Education Policy in Britain
Clyde Chitty (2004)

Who Controls Teachers' Work?
Richard M Ingersoll (2003)

Faith-based Schools and the State
Harry Judge (2002)

The Best Policy? Honesty in education 1997-2001
Paul Francis (2001)

Love and Chalkdust
Paul Francis (2000)

State Schools - New Labour and the Conservative Legacy
Clyde Chitty and John Dunford (eds) (1999)

Experience and Education: Towards an Alternative National Curriculum
Gwyn Edwards and AV Kelly (eds) (1998)

Bullying: Home, School and Community
Delwyn Tattum and Graham Herbert (eds) (1997)

Bullying in Schools And what to do about it
Ken Rigby (1996)

A Community Approach to Bullying
Peter Randall (1996)

Teacher Education and Human Rights
Audrey Osler and Hugh Starkey (1996)

Troubled and Vulnerable Children: a practical guide for heads
Shelagh Webb (1994)

Supporting Schools against Bullying
Scottish Council for Research in Education (1994)

Bullying: a practical guide to coping for schools
Michele Elliott (1992)

Financial Delegation and Management of Schools: preparing for practice
Hywel Thomas with Gordon Kirkpatrick and Elizabeth Nicholson (1989)

Reforming Religious Education: the religious clauses of the 1988 Education Reform Act
Edwin Cox and Josephine M Cairns (1989)

Re-thinking Active Learning 8-16
Norman Beswick (1987)

Two Cultures of Schooling: The case of middle schools
Andy Hargreaves (1986)


Troubled and Vulnerable Children: a practical guide for heads
Shelagh Webb, 1994
Croner Publications Ltd
134pp £9.95 paperback ISBN 1-85524-275-3

Review by Derek Gillard
June 1995

© copyright Derek Gillard 1995
This book review is my copyright. You are welcome to download it and print it for your own personal use, or for use in a school or other educational establishment, provided my name as the author is attached. But you may not publish it, upload it onto any other website, or sell it, without my permission.



Ask any head teacher and s/he will tell you that the number of disturbed pupils in mainstream schools has been rising dramatically in recent years and that the severity of disturbance is also increasing. In many cases, problems at home - often the breakdown of relationships between the adults - is the cause.

But educational policy and provision have made the situation worse: One of the most unfortunate consequences of the 1988 Act has been the rise in the number of such children who are failing, or being failed by, the school system. Under the pressure of the new financial arrangements many schools are increasingly unable to help, or even keep, those children who are expensive in resources and teacher time. Permanent exclusions rose from just under 3000 in 1990-91 to nearly 4000 in 1991-92 and was over 3600 in one term in 1993. It was pointed out recently in a House of Commons debate that up to ten per cent of today's children suffer a significant degree of emotional or behavioural disturbance during their childhood.

Shelagh Webb has written this book for Croners' The Head's Legal Guide in an attempt to help Heads and other teachers to understand what is going on and to offer practical suggestions as to how schools can help.

Areas covered are: family difficulties and bereavement; homeless families, travellers and refugees; child protection and children in care; children as carers and poor attenders; children in need and children with special educational needs; working in partnership with parents; and children's rights in education.

In each case, Shelagh Webb describes the sort of problems children can encounter and the symptoms which they may display in school and then offers suggestions as to how the problems may be sensitively approached by the school.

The book ends with a section listing a large number of agencies who may be called upon for help and advice, and prominence has been given to organisations which have local branches or which are also available outside London.

This book is written in a simple, straightforward style and contains much good common sense and essential information for Heads and other staff. It will certainly find a valued place on my shelves and I commend it warmly to all who are concerned about the appalling situations in which so many of our pupils now find themselves. Shelagh Webb says it is a modest attempt to offer hard-pressed Heads and teachers some practical help in meeting the needs of their neediest children. It is Shelagh Webb who is modest: her book is an important contribution at a time when schools need all the help they can get.

This review was first published in Forum 37(3) Autumn 1995 94.