This book is an amazing summary of the latest research in many fields. It is easy to read and includes helpful suggestions and techniques that are consistent with my recommendations, including being a "good boss". It focuses on building attachment with our most challenging children. Although intended for adoptive parents, foster parents and professionals will also find it a valuable addition to their library.

There are a wealth of teaching books with strategies and tips for dealing with challenging behaviour and disruptive students. Most teachers know a variety of strategies and have had some success in implementing them. But what happens when they don't work? In the fast-paced, pressurised, often chaotic life of a school, there are times when even the best tried and tested ideas do not seem to work with some classes and some students. There are days when some children seem completely unteachable and unreachable. Although a relatively small group of pupils, these children take up a lot of teacher's planning, thinking and emotional time. Even the most experienced teacher will have times when these pupils do not respond, leaving the teacher feeling de-skilled and incompetent.This book is aimed at helping teachers deal with these situations and feelings. It explores the factors behind those 'bad days' and looks at what can be done when nothing seems to work.The book includes practical, accessible examples based on the writer's experience. Real-life examples include failures as well as successes, showing what can happen in the everyday classroom. The first section includes an extensive list of effective behaviour management strategies. The second section then offers an easily accessible framework for understanding the behaviour of those children for whom basic strategies do not always work.

Pupils who survive multiple traumatic experiences of loss, trauma, abuse and neglect can easily be misunderstood in our schools, despite our good intentions. Such children often underachieve, at worst becoming excluded from the very place that could offer them an opportunity for "second chance learning" and for reaching their potential. These children do not respond well or consistently to behavioural modification techniques, nor are they able to thrive in a system largely created for those from a "good-enough" background. Contents include: how attachment difficulties can affect a child's ability to learn; providing and 'additional attachment figure' in schools; the benefits and challenges of getting alongside children who have experienced trauma and loss; transitions during the school day; permanency and constancy; being explicit; regulating arousal levels; handling conflict; wondering aloud; lowering the effects of shame; working with transition from primary to secondary phase; developing effective home/school partnership (includes a photocopiable initial meeting prompt card); providing staff support; recommendations for future action.