Nurturing attachment to school: contemporary perspectives on social, emotional and behavioural difficulties

This paper explores some of the ways in which schools can help to maximise the positive engagement of students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). The discussion begins with a brief consideration of the nature of SEBD and goes on to examine some of the ways in which schools can, on the one hand, create and exacerbate the problem, and, on the other, help alleviate it. Care is taken to offer a realistic appraisal of what schools can achieve within current policy constraints. It is suggested that Smith's (2006) concept of 'attachment to school' is helpful in enabling us to define the kind of educational engagement that a genuinely inclusive educational experience reflects. Some suggestions are made regarding empirically tested approaches associated with effective inclusion.