Liddle (1963) theorized that disaffected children may make up up to 25% of the school population, however this term can refer to different groups of students, including those with special educational needs. needs. From what I have observed and lessons I have taught, I feel that there tend to be about three or four "invisible children" per class, depending on the size of the class. These children are generally overlooked by staff members as they do not contribute openly to class discussions and, more importantly, never cause any disruption. The following essay will attempt to examine the strategies available for including this group of children in the mathematics classroom, linking observation and good practice together, and considering the implications of this for my future career. Even in the early stages of observing my new year eight In class I noticed that there was something different about pupils A and B in that they were very quiet and preferred to work alone. When I was starting to think about taking over the class, I tried to make an effort to communicate with them before class started, even just to ask, "Did you have a good weekend?" to which I would normally receive a one-word response. “Although building good relationships is a two-way street, you may have to persist with your positive efforts for a long time before some students let you in.” (Cowley 2009: 120)I repeated this action for each lesson, talking to a few selected students as they entered; which coincidentally always included my two “invisible” children. I found that Cowley's above statement rang true, particularly for Pupil A who after a while would come over and ask me if I had had a good weekend. This was just one of the stra......middle of paper......Crozier. WR (1997) Individual students. London: Routledge.Pye, J. (1989) Invisible Children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Holt, J. (1982) How Children Fail. Merloyd Lawrence Delta.Cowley, S. (2009) How to survive your first year of teaching. 2nd edition,. Continuum International Publishing Group.Black, P et al. (2002) Working inside the black box. London: nferNelson Publishing Company LtdLiddle, G. (1963) The school works with the disaffected. ASCD. [Online] [Accessed 22 December 2011] http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_196302_liddle.pdfLane, M. (2010) Where hands-up in class is prohibited. BBC. [Online] [Accessed 22 December 2011] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11090044Kagan, S and Kagan, M. (2001) Kagan cooperative learning. Kagan Publishing.Montgomery, D. (2000) Skilled Underachievers. London: Whurr Publishers.