This book is part of the Open University’s inclusive education series (edited by Gary Thomas and Christine O’Hanlon). It addresses the interesting question of how specialised is the teaching of pupils with disabilities and difficulties.

Ann Lewis and Brahm Norwich provide the introduction and final chapter. In between are 14 chapters on a range of groups, from low attainers to those with profound and multiple learning difficulties.

There is a structured summary at the end of each chapter and these provide a framework for the discussion in the concluding chapter. The editors make clear that a more than usual degree of collaboration has gone on between the contributors to this volume, which gives it a necessary coherence.

This is an important book because, in a publishing scene that sometimes seems dominated by tips for teachers, it is a genuine attempt to engage, in a readable way, with the big unifying ideas.

Busy Sencos and others working in teams to seek out, access and share resources, expertise and experience to meet the needs of all learners will find space to stretch out and think in this book. Even more important, they will feel encouraged, as the editors hope, to carry on the debate among their practitioner and policy-making colleagues.

Caroline Roaf

Visiting fellow, Oxford Brookes University