Resiliency concerns the ability to bounce back following a prolonged experience of adversity.

Author Carmel Cefai shares the interest of the majority of contemporary writers in emphasising not the risk factors but what makes "children in difficulty" achieve. Cefai sees schools - and classrooms especially - as a prime support system to enable resilience.

The central arguments of this compact and well researched book are that a classroom promoting social and emotional competence will also encourage academic gains, and that the means to facilitate resilience will affect not just vulnerable pupils but all pupils.

The book is divided into three parts. Part one proposes a model of the classroom as the context for boosting resilience. Part two contains four chapters full of innovative, effective methods and practice, that emerged from Cefai's experience in the Maltese primary schools on which his research is based. These include using emoticons to support the understanding and expression of emotions and creating a culture of peer support. Part three suggests a framework for evaluation and change regarding the promotion of resiliency within the classroom.

Useful summaries of relevant research are included, together with a plethora of tools to examine the predicates for resiliency in the classroom. For the teacher or local authority leader this is an inspiring and practical book.