One big surprise for first-time visitors to a well-run special school is how much fun children with severe and complex learning difficulties can have. Not all of them of course, and not all of the time.

Some of their behaviour can be challenging and unpredictable, says Carole Bowie, headteacher at Campsie View School, Lenzie, but experienced teachers begin to realise that behaviour difficulties are attempts at communication.

“I don’t think anyone has a full understanding of these young people’s needs. But I do know that pupils in our school have such a limited ability to affect their environment that if we don’t find appropriate ways for them to do so, they will use what we deem to be inappropriate ones.”

So when teachers at Campsie View, which recently won the Investors in People Award for the quality of its staff development, are asked what topics they chose during the past year for the extra contractual 35 hours of CPD specified in the teachers’ agreement, they mention communication first.

“Things are moving so quickly,” says assistant head Jackie Macpherson, “that you can’t just go through Jordanhill and come out and teach indefinitely. You have to keep updating your methods. Until 1974, all our kids would have been considered ineducable, and they’d have been in a hospital.”

While it was once thought that some children couldn’t even indicate a preference, observation of interactions with adults has shown that small movements - a look, a squeeze, a kick on a wheelchair - can speak volumes.

“We now know they can all communicate in some way, so where once you’d classify behaviour as bad and try to make them change it, now you ask what it is they’re saying and whether you can change the learning situation.”

Communication is also central to Campsie View’s winning the IIP award in other ways.

Commenting recently on the benefits of the award, First Minister Jack McConnell said: “When a school is recognised as being committed to forming strong, effective partnerships with pupils, parents and the community, then pride within that school soars.”

A major benefit to a school, according to recent research, is in raising the morale of non-teaching staff, a finding the Campsie View management confirms.

“We have slightly more support staff than teachers here, even without counting clerical staff, therapists, psychologists and nurses,” says Mrs Bowie. “And one of the things Investors in People particularly liked is that all of them get the chance to take part in the CPD we organise. Apart from anything else it means you don’t get any feelings of ‘them and us’

developing.”

Getting a whole school involved in CPD can best be done within the school, says Mrs Bowie, but out of hours. This not only makes logistical but also financial sense: “It costs me pound;350 to send one teacher to Edinburgh for a day when you include expenses and cover. Cover, of course, is dearer post-McCrone. On the other hand, getting an expert up from London for the day can cost as much as pound;1,000. But last time we did that, for a workshop on team-building, 20 of our staff showed up. So it’s easy to see where the value lies.

“If a course is relevant, if it helps them work with the kids, our staff will show up even on a Saturday.”

For Campsie View, gaining the IIP award was, says Mrs Bowie, remarkably painless. A visit by an assessor who talked to all the staff and evaluated the school against quality indicators (whose resemblance to those in HM Inspectors’ How good is our school? is no coincidence) was followed by the assessor’s report, and the good news that the school had succeeded at the first attempt.

The Campsie View staff and management are considering their preferred CPD topics for the coming year, but it is likely that New Opportunities Fund computer training will play a big part. For many of the teachers it could easily use up all of the “maximum 35 hours of CPD” specified in the agreement “It’s not at all difficult finding the first 35 hours,” says Ms Bowie. “It’s a lot harder to restrict it to 35.”

For more information on Investors in People, see www.iipuk.co.uk