It would, for many teachers, be the ideal end to a demanding day at school relaxing in a comfy chair while a bunch of pupils in aprons serve them cream cakes, chocolate crispies and coffee. Wonderful.

Unfortunately it is only lunch-time at Wallace High school in Dumyat Road, and the little tea-party is soon over, which means the teachers have to get back to an afternoon’s teaching. And it should mean the kids have to get back to an afternoon’s learning. But because they’ve all worked so hard, Maureen Mathieson decides they are entitled to a treat and can sit around the table for a while, socialising and eating what little the hungry teachers have left behind them.

Mrs Mathieson, the principal teacher at Ochil House, the special needs unit inside Wallace High, is as pleased as the children that the event went off so well.

Not only was it a good test for the lifeskills section, recently renovated and equipped with special devices - like talking microwaves and work-surfaces that can be cranked up to let children in wheelchairs get close to their work; it was also a real test for the lifeskills themselves that will be so important to these young people - most of whom have difficulties that not long ago would have debarred them from mainstream education.

Ochil’s children and teachers have been an integral part of Wallace High since 1996, and the integration is increasing all the time. The individual education programmes devised for each child - of whom there are now 17 taught by 3.6 teachers - place them in mainstream classes whenever possible, in subjects like English, maths, PE, music, home economics and computing.

“I like the big classes and getting to mix with everybody,” says Ewan who is in third year.

“Every child is different,” says Wallace’s headteacher Bill Brodie, “and the programmes call for varying amounts of integration. The key to success is communication between the Ochil teachers - Maureen Mathieson, Moneena Peebles, Shona Aitken, and Liz Gordon - and the mainstream teachers.

“The programmes take a lot of planning, usually at levels of the curriculum where staff have not previously been involved, so they are breaking new ground.

“Higher Still is valuable because Access courses and Intermediate 1 are achievable for some of these youngsters.”

Wallace High is not a special school, he explains, but “one of the most comprehensive of comprehensives”, with a catchment area that varies from regions of high deprivation to considerable affluence.

“We have many challenging children who don’t have physical or learning difficulties. Inclusion is for everybody and we encourage and support all our youngsters whatever their background.”

Within Ochil House the children are equally diverse, ranging from those who have “just slipped out of mainstream and can sometimes be fast-tracked back again” to youngsters who are non-verbal and quadriplegic.

For the two little girls who have just come into first year, integration will be a gradual process beginning at lunchtimes, when they will join the rest of the school in the dining-room for a few minutes at first. Then, as their dexterity and social skills improve, for longer each day.

The rest of the Ochil children already eat regularly in the dining-room, before - weather permitting - heading out to the playground. Young Josh (11) from mainstream, who is chatting to his Ochil chums, explains: “After dinner we go outside and play if it’s no’ raining. If it is, James, Martin, Adam and the rest go back to the unit, and I can go and play with them there. I understand what they’re saying because I talk to them a lot.”

The children in Ochil also take a very active part in the social and cultural life of the school, says Mrs Mathieson, participating in school outings, lunch clubs, discos, prizegivings, Burns Club competitions, and a recent “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” event, at which the teachers were thrashed by the pupils.

One of the high points of the Christmas service, she says, is the singing and signing choir: “Children who can verbalise will sing, children who can’t will sign the words, some kids will be doing both, and if someone is struggling then whatever they come out with is all part of the music.

She assures a sceptical listener: “It looks and sounds wonderful.”