Social Inclusion in Schools Improving Outcomes

Raising Standards David Fulton Books 1st Edition

Whitney Ben - PDF Download (2025)

https://ebookultra.com/download/social-inclusion-in-schools-
improving-outcomes-raising-standards-david-fulton-books-1st-
edition-whitney-ben/

Visit ebookultra.com today to download the complete set of

ebooks or textbooks
We have selected some products that you may be interested in
Click the link to download now or visit ebookultra.com
for more options!.

First Steps to Emotional Literacy David Fulton Books Kate

Ripley

https://ebookultra.com/download/first-steps-to-emotional-literacy-
david-fulton-books-kate-ripley/

Raising Boys Achievements in Secondary Schools 1st Edition

Mike Younger

https://ebookultra.com/download/raising-boys-achievements-in-
secondary-schools-1st-edition-mike-younger/

Raising Self Esteem in Primary Schools 1st Edition

Margaret Collins

https://ebookultra.com/download/raising-self-esteem-in-primary-
schools-1st-edition-margaret-collins/

Improving Functional Outcomes in Physical Rehabilitation

1st Edition Susan O'Sullivan

https://ebookultra.com/download/improving-functional-outcomes-in-
physical-rehabilitation-1st-edition-susan-osullivan/
Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools Leading the Way
Toward Healthier Youth 1st Edition Committee On Nutrition
Standards For Foods In Schools
https://ebookultra.com/download/nutrition-standards-for-foods-in-
schools-leading-the-way-toward-healthier-youth-1st-edition-committee-
on-nutrition-standards-for-foods-in-schools/

Improving the Context for Inclusion Personalising Teacher

Development through Collaborative Action Research
Improving Learning 1st Edition Andy Howes
https://ebookultra.com/download/improving-the-context-for-inclusion-
personalising-teacher-development-through-collaborative-action-
research-improving-learning-1st-edition-andy-howes/

Quality and Safety in Nursing A Competency Approach to

Improving Outcomes 1st Edition Gwen Sherwood

https://ebookultra.com/download/quality-and-safety-in-nursing-a-
competency-approach-to-improving-outcomes-1st-edition-gwen-sherwood/

Improving Learning How to Learn Classrooms Schools and

Networks Improving Learning Tlrp 1st Edition Mary James

https://ebookultra.com/download/improving-learning-how-to-learn-
classrooms-schools-and-networks-improving-learning-tlrp-1st-edition-
mary-james/

Improving Schools in Exceptionally Challenging

Circumstances Tales from the Frontline 1st Edition Alma
Harris
https://ebookultra.com/download/improving-schools-in-exceptionally-
challenging-circumstances-tales-from-the-frontline-1st-edition-alma-
harris/
Social Inclusion in Schools Improving Outcomes Raising
Standards David Fulton Books 1st Edition Whitney Ben
Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Whitney Ben
ISBN(s): 9781843124740, 1843124742
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 2.05 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page i

Social Inclusion
in Schools
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page ii

Also available

Every Child Matters

A Practical Guide for Teachers
Rita Cheminais
978–1–84312–463–4
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page iii

Social Inclusion
in Schools
Improving Outcomes,
Raising Standards

Ben Whitney
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page iv

First published 2007 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.

“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

© 2007 Ben Whitney

Note: The right of Ben Whitney to be identified as the author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced

or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Whitney, Ben.
Social inclusion in schools: improving outcomes, raising standards / Ben Whitney.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Child welfare—Great Britain. 2. Educational law and legislation—Great Britain.
3. Child abuse—Great Britain—Prevention. 4. Children—Crimes against—Great Britain.
I. Title.
HV751.A6W49 2007
371.7—dc22 2007001566

ISBN 0-203-93170-X Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 10: 1–84312–474–2 (Print Edition)

ISBN 13: 978–1–84312–474–0
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page v

Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1
1 Joined-up services for children 5
2 Attending and achieving 21
3 Behaviour and exclusions 41
4 Safeguarding and protecting children 55
5 Children at risk of missing education 73
6 Making a positive contribution 90

References and resources 106

Index 108

v
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page vi
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page vii

Acknowledgements

The views expressed within this book are entirely my own personal responsibility and
do not necessarily reflect those of my employing local authority or any of its schools
or officers.
I am grateful to Barbara Pavey from NASEN for her support and encouragement
throughout the writing process.

vii
inclusion/00/c 14/3/07 08:36 Page viii
inclusion/0i/c 14/3/07 08:42 Page 1

Introduction

A very important part of the population we cannot touch at all; I refer to the most degraded
of the poor. The children of trampers and beggards. Sometimes, by extraordinary efforts, we
get some of these children into school, but they are off again almost immediately; and those
are the children from whom a very large proportion of our prisons are peopled. Now the
difficulty is, how to get these children under instruction, and how to keep them [there].
(Evidence to the Parliamentary Report on the State of Education, 1834)

I once visited a high school with a mother and her 13-year-old son Adam.We were
there for an ‘interview’ to consider his admission after exclusion from another school
elsewhere.We were all three on our best behaviour as we listened to the headteacher’s
obvious pride in his pupils and their wide range of magnificent achievements,academic,
sporting and community. I would have been immensely proud of them too, and their
supportive and no doubt, often sacrificial, parents.Anybody would want such a school
for their child.Then at last the head turned to Adam and said,‘And what will you bring
to our school if you should come here?’‘Nothing but trouble,’ said his weary mother,
and that was that!
As I approach the later stages of my career in education and social work, I ought to
be pretty much exhausted myself, but I am hopeful that this is a particularly exciting
time to be doing this kind of work.Perhaps other children and young people like Adam
might just get a better deal soon.As the opening quote suggests, we have been trying
to make a difference with marginalised children like him for rather a long time.
Teachers and other educational workers, especially those with a particular focus on
Special Educational Needs (SEN), will already be familiar with the concept of ‘inclu-
sion’.This is a philosophical and practical approach to meeting children’s educational
needs that seeks,wherever possible,to ensure their participation in mainstream provision
alongside their peers.This issue is still a topic of lively debate with supporters on both
sides of the argument.There are parents who actively want their own or other people’s
children educated in this way and others who actively do not. Professionals and politi-
cians are similarly divided. SEN inclusion is a major challenge for schools in seeking to
ensure that teaching and learning can address the needs of diverse and often challenging
children and young people.
But there is a wider inclusion agenda that is not directly related to SEN as traditionally
understood, or in the case of behaviour, that is only sometimes seen in that context.
Children’s ‘needs’ are far wider than the strictly educational. They are subject to a
wide variety of influences, not only at school.These influences will often be far more

1
inclusion/0i/c 14/3/07 08:42 Page 2

Introduction

significant than their inherent intellectual ability in determining their eventual attain-
ment. Some children have massive hurdles to overcome if they are to benefit from what
schools have to offer.They need ‘social’ inclusion which recognises that these factors,
in the child or young person, their family, their local community or society as a whole,
may present just as great an obstacle for them as the strictly learning-based issues form
for others.
Services for ‘vulnerable’ children, as they are now usually called, are currently going
through unprecedented changes to create a more coherent and joined-up approach
that puts the child and their family at the centre.The ‘five outcomes’ in the Children
Act 2004 will be the test of whether these changes are working.Increasing participation
in learning and raising achievement are central. The Education and Inspections Act
2006 places a new duty on all schools to promote children’s ‘well-being’. So what is
expected of schools within the government’s overall strategy? And, crucially, how does
this broader social responsibility relate to the core business of teaching and learning, or
is it just an unwelcome distraction?
Effective schools . . . identify any pupils who may be missing out, difficult to engage, or feeling
in some way apart from what the school seeks to provide. They take practical steps – in the
classroom and beyond – to meet pupils’ needs effectively and they promote tolerance and
understanding in a diverse society.
(Ofsted, Evaluating Educational Inclusion 2000)

[The goal is] . . . to have a school system in which every child matters; in which attention is
paid to their individual needs for education and well-being; and in which schools can develop
the distinct ethos and approaches that maximise the potential of their pupils.
(DfES, New Relationships with Schools: Next Steps 2005)

. . . a system that responds to individual pupils, by creating an education path that takes account
of their needs, interests and aspirations, [which] will not only generate excellence, it will also
make a strong contribution to equity and social justice.
(DfES, A National Conversation about Personalised Learning 2005)

This book aims to provide the busy teacher with the information they will need to be
an effective partner in making all this happen.This new emphasis is not about turning
teachers into social workers,but there are growing expectations about the range of skills
that may now be required within schools. Working with colleagues beyond the school
will be increasingly essential. Once we start to address the needs of children in a holistic
way, we cannot do it in isolation or be influenced only by our own professional per-
spective.
The range of topics covered is intended to:
● raise awareness of what is involved in promoting social inclusion in schools,
● stimulate reflection on the questions raised, and
● encourage practical action in making a difference.
This book should also be of value to teachers in training, non-teaching staff in schools,
local authority officers,governors and those from a more conventional SEN background
who may be taking on wider pastoral roles for the first time. My hope is that, as you
read it, real children and young people like Adam from your own experience will come
to mind and some new ideas for meeting their needs will emerge.

2
inclusion/0i/c 14/3/07 08:42 Page 3

Introduction
Key themes
Within each chapter of the book, one key theme is developed in greater detail, as sum-
marised below.

Joined-up services for children

There are new inter-agency tools available such as the Common Assessment Framework,
information-sharing protocols, shared databases and thresholds for intervention. All
teachers need to have some knowledge of these new arrangements, especially where
children are identified as having additional needs beyond what the school can provide.
It may not now be appropriate simply to refer the child on to someone else when there
are problems.The professionals who already know the child will have a clearer respon-
sibility for making an assessment themselves and identifying new resources with the
family.School staff may be asked to act as the ‘lead professional’, co-ordinating a response
to a child’s needs from across a range of agencies.What will they need to know in order
to do this properly?

Attendance and achievement

School attendance has never been higher up the agenda both for the DfES and for local
authorities.It has to be a central focus for daily life in every school.Children who aren’t
there will clearly be at a long-term disadvantage.Those with SEN need to be there even
more than others if they are to achieve their full potential. But should we be tough or
tender with parents and pupils? What exactly is the problem? Is unacceptable absence
all ‘truancy’ as it is often labelled or something more complicated? How can schools
work with others to combat it? Perhaps we need to make some significant changes to
what we have to offer if we are to have any real impact on the eventual outcomes of
those who are most likely to stay away.

Exclusion and behaviour

Exclusion from school should be a rarity, not the first line of defence when there are
difficulties in managing a child’s behaviour. But considerable numbers of pupils find
themselves out of school, either for short or long periods, which only reinforces their
sense of alienation.There are some children whose behaviour will present as unaccept-
able, but rarely in isolation from other problems in their lives.What are the duties of
schools in the exclusion procedures and how can we strike the right balance between
the needs of every child to still receive an education and the rights of everyone else to
teach and to learn in a secure and orderly environment?

Safeguarding and child protection

Child abuse never goes away and there has been a renewed focus in education since the
death of Lauren Wright and the Soham murders. Being abused as a child is a significant
indicator of problems as an adult.What are the responsibilities of schools as part of the
new safeguarding arrangements and how can we ensure that vulnerable children are
properly protected? School staff must do what is required under inter-agency procedures
as frontline children’s workers.But can it be done without alienating often hard-pressed

3
inclusion/0i/c 14/3/07 08:42 Page 4

Introduction

and equally vulnerable parents or making their continuing relationship with school
even more difficult and creating even more barriers?

Children at risk of missing education

Many children are not in a school or are in danger of missing out on education entirely.
Many ‘looked after children’ in public care, either voluntarily or as a result of court
proceedings, may often be out of school as well. What does it mean for school staff
that the local authority is a ‘corporate parent’ for these children, whose lives may have
been a whole series of disruptions that has made regular schooling impossible? Other
vulnerable groups include children from known marginalised groups like travellers,
young offenders, asylum-seekers and refugees and those we have lost, or never known
about in the first place.What can we do to ensure that they too have the opportunity
to ‘enjoy and achieve’?

Making a positive contribution

And underpinning all of this provision is an emphasis on listening to parents and chil-
dren.This is now supplemented by national and local Children’s Commissioners and a
range of new duties on service providers. Inspectors will be especially interested in this
key area and will ask children and their parents directly what they think of the services
we provide. Educators are ideally placed to make a difference for future generations.
How might we need to adapt the way we work with families in order to ensure they
have every opportunity to take responsibility,even when they are reluctant to work with
us? Social inclusion means going beyond blame or negativity into promoting active
participation by those who have traditionally been largely disengaged and disaffected.
How might we do things better?
To say that ‘all children are special’ has become rather hackneyed and even slightly
politically incorrect. But the ringing theme of government reform of services for
children and young people in recent years has been that ‘Every Child Matters’. If that
is to be true, and in all cases, we need to maintain an ever-wider perspective.We must
ensure that education doesn’t operate apart from all the other services designed to
promote the best interests of all our children and young people, especially those at risk
of being left out. It cannot all be done by schools alone but neither can much be done
without them. Every child matters and all of every child matters every time.
Resources for obtaining further information beyond the scope of this book, includ-
ing DfES guidance, websites, organisations, regulations and other key documents, are
referred to at the relevant point in the text.The main resources, and a brief selection of
other relevant publications, are also listed at the end.

4
inclusion/01/c 14/3/07 08:45 Page 5

CHAPTER 1

Joined-up services
for children

It was like Piccadilly Circus in my house most of the time. There always seemed to be someone
there trying to sort out the latest crisis. We had all kinds of people coming round; most of them
were OK: social workers, the wag man from school, police, the housing, everyone. Mum dealt
with them mostly; she was always up the Social for something, or down the doctor’s. I left
her to it, or looked after the little ones. It was embarrassing – having to admit that my family
wasn’t like all the other kids at school. And they never seemed to talk to each other. You’d
have to tell them the same stuff over and over again before anything happened. Everyone has
problems I suppose, but I always felt different; out of it.

Promoting inclusion
This book is about how teachers and schools can best work together with others to
promote the wider welfare of children. More than that, it’s about how we must work
together in particular for those children on the margins who need us most. Schools are
part of a multi-agency network of professionals and services that are intended to bring
about an improvement in every child and young person’s quality of life and prepare them
all for adulthood.
This opening chapter offers an unashamed perspective in support of social inclusion
for children within the education system; a ‘mission statement’ on which all the
subsequent chapters will expand. It is based on two simple principles.
● Firstly, that when we say every child (and young person) matters we really mean it,
without exceptions.
● Secondly, good or improving outcomes for the majority or even for most children
are not a sufficient measure of our effectiveness.We have to be measured against them
all.There is a universal entitlement to be delivered and nothing less will do.
We have clearly become more compassionate and inclusive as a society than used to be
the case – perhaps we sometimes forget how much things have already changed. My
own experience since the 1960s makes the point.When I was at grammar school, I never
came across any children with learning problems.They would have all failed the 11 plus
and gone somewhere else. If you couldn’t cope with the work or, perish the thought,
if you misbehaved and the cane or the slipper wasn’t enough to make the point, you
had to leave and that was that. Most pupils were from middle-class homes like me with
supportive parents. Other children from other kinds of backgrounds must have existed,
but I never met them, or not at school anyway.

5
inclusion/01/c 14/3/07 08:45 Page 6

Joined-up services for children

Many previous ways of treating children that used to be seen as perfectly routine have
now become unacceptable, such as the right of teachers to hit those in their care. My
own children found the very idea incredible. Child abuse was known about for years
before it was actively addressed. Similarly, the standards of inclusion that we aspire to
now are also higher than before.A greater participation by children with special educa-
tional needs is a particular example. Only a generation or so ago they were classed as
‘subnormal’or ‘retarded’,terms now rightly seen as offensive and degrading.That change
of attitude has benefited the lives of countless children and their parents.
I began my professional career in the early 1970s. I happened to be one of the first
social workers in the new social services departments to concentrate specifically on
supporting families with disabled children who had just started attending a school near
to where they lived. I was also involved in setting up regular respite care in the com-
munity where they,and their parents,could have a break at weekends and in the holidays.
This approach, keeping families together wherever possible, was previously almost
unheard of but now seems obvious.
I was motivated no doubt in part by the fact that my own, highly intelligent, older
brother had muscular dystrophy but unusually, had remained with his family and in
mainstream education. If it worked for him, why not for others? Most of his con-
temporaries were educated quite differently.They didn’t live with their families and I
saw them only on flag days and at garden parties when they were allowed out from their
‘home’ somewhere out in the countryside. No doubt they were well cared for and it
was, in one sense, a safe and stimulating life for them, but somehow it never felt right.
I have since spent over thirty years in family social work,education and the voluntary
sector. I have worked with children in care, churches, parents and community groups
and, for the last sixteen years with schools again, this time helping them to engage with
another kind of child at risk of being left out: those who may rarely thank us for our
efforts and whose lives are in constant chaos.They may seem to delight in breaking all
the rules, but their needs and potential as individuals are just as great as those who were
overlooked before.

WHO ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

The original DfES Guidance (Circular 10/99 – Social Inclusion: Pupil Support)
identified a list of children and young people at particular risk:
● some of those with special educational needs (but not all)
● children in the care of local authorities/looked-after
● some minority ethnic children (but not all)
● travellers
● young carers
● those from families under stress or experiencing abuse
● pregnant schoolgirls and teenage mothers
● poor attenders

6
inclusion/01/c 14/3/07 08:45 Page 7

Joined-up services for children

To these groups might be added:
● children who are ‘missing education’ either through formal or informal
exclusion or other factors
● those whose behaviour makes them difficult to engage, including those
who are dependent on illegal drugs and/or alcohol, young sex offenders
and others in the criminal justice system
● other transient groups such as asylum-seekers and refugees
● children with mental health problems
● children and young people living in poverty, who are homeless or whose
families are generally marginalised from the wider community

Future generations may yet judge us harshly for our continuing social inequalities,even
if they are now rather more subtle.They can still have a significant impact on many
children’s learning and their subsequent performance and achievement.The assumption
that there is now a level playing field available and that all parents and children have a
free choice among all schools is clearly a very simplistic analysis.We are not supposed
to call them ‘league tables’ but everyone knows that’s what they are. Schools compete,
and in any competition there are always losers. Some children are still last to be picked
for the team, if indeed, they are allowed to play at all.
For those children who are not easily going to score well in such a competition,
achievement and pastoral care are inextricably linked together.Their needs should be
at the heart of plans for school improvement. Indeed, at a recent headteachers’ con-
ference in my local authority, Steve Munby, Chief Executive of the National College
for School Leadership (NSCL), identified how well schools engage with marginalised
children and their parents as the first priority for effective leadership in the future and
the key to raising overall attainment. These issues must be key priorities for both
managers and practitioners in any school, including those that do not necessarily see
them as a current priority.They may be missing something crucial.
But schools cannot operate in a vacuum. Children’s lives outside school have to be
understood and a holistic approach adopted that seeks to meet the multiplicity of their
needs,informed not least,of course,by the child or young person themselves.Their own
perspective has often been overlooked up to now.It may be helpful to begin by becom-
ing more familiar with the wider ‘social care’context within which schools now operate
and getting to grips with the language used by others who will be working much more
closely with us in future.

KEY DATES IN CHILD WELFARE PROVISION

1872 Infant Life Protection Act
1889 Protection of Children Act
1890 NSPCC formed

7
inclusion/01/c 14/3/07 08:45 Page 8

Joined-up services for children

1933 Children and Young Persons Act

1945 Death of Dennis O’Neill
1946 First recognition of deliberate fractures (USA)
1948 Children Act
1962 First use of term ‘battered baby/child’ (USA)
1969 Children and Young Persons Act
1974 Death of Maria Colwell
1978 Warnock Report
1981 Education Act (SEN)
1988 Cleveland Inquiry
1989 Children Act
2000 Death of Lauren Wright
2001 Death of Victoria Climbié
2002 Education Act (safeguarding duty ss. 157 and 175)
2002 Death of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman (Soham)
2003 Laming Report and ‘Every Child Matters’
2004 Children Act
2006 Local Safeguarding Children Boards

The growth of ‘welfare’

Arrangements for promoting the welfare of children in Britain, especially those judged
to be most vulnerable,undergo significant change about every twenty years.For the first
generation after the war there was a particular need to rebuild family life,literally through
improved housing but also through universal health care and expanding employment.
But as most of the nation came to accept that we had ‘never had it so good’, we also
had to come to terms with the difficult recognition that some children were not reaping
the benefits of the improvements seen by many.This was either through continuing
poverty or because of significant shortcomings in the quality of their parental care.
Things were not all as rosy as memories may sometimes suggest.The death of Dennis
O’Neill from deliberate abuse and the gradual emergence of ‘battered baby syndrome’,
first in the USA and then in the UK, demonstrated that such issues had not gone away
as most must have hoped. Some parents at least could not be trusted with the care of
their own children.The privacy and parental authority that was traditionally inherent
in British family life now came under much greater scrutiny as the role of the state
expanded.
The Children Act 1948 was generally non-interventionist and supportive towards
families. In contrast, the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 increased the emphasis
on taking children into alternative care. Following the killing of Maria Colwell, both
the profession of social work and the need for inter-agency arrangements began to take
hold as a largely new element in welfare provision.There was a growing recognition of
physical neglect, if often still as a result of poverty as well as intentional cruelty.Then

8
inclusion/01/c 14/3/07 08:45 Page 9

Joined-up services for children

sexual abuse was acknowledged (not in fact new but hardly mentioned, for example, in
my own initial social work training).The emphasis was moved away from the previous
medical-based therapeutic approaches and on to more practical interventions designed
to help families with the problems of everyday living. Social workers in the USA never
delivered fridges or gave out grants to pay the rent as I used to do.
Significant numbers of children were now being removed from their parents to live
in ‘approved schools’,‘community homes’and other specialist provision when they were
judged to be ‘beyond control’. Many children and young people went to Borstals and
other punitive establishments when they broke the law. Experts and specialists knew
what was best for troubled children, it was thought. Ideally they should be looked after
where we didn’t see much of them,but where we could also have every confidence that
they were in the best place,wherever that was.(It was only in the 1960s that we stopped
sending disadvantaged children to Australia.)
Many of those who would now be recognised as having SEN were the most ready
victims of such arm’s-length compassion.They were deemed ‘ineducable’ and provided
with only the most basic of care in ‘mental’hospitals,often in remote,if idyllic,locations.
There was little opportunity even for what was usually described as ‘training’, where it
existed at all.We have only had special schools (as opposed to Junior Training Centres)
for less than thirty years and in my early working life I would regularly visit children
with severe learning difficulties who had spent their whole lives hidden away, often
staying there right through their adulthood as well. Such an approach was taken for
granted as best for everyone.

Children Act 1989 and beyond

However, crises such as the events in Cleveland, Orkney and other examples where
children appeared to have been removed from their families unnecessarily,undermined
public confidence in both residential provision and the judgement of professionals.
There was also a growing awareness of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by a small
number of staff in children’s homes and other institutional care settings. Out of sight
could no longer mean out of mind as well.There was an emerging consensus around
the need to put more emphasis on the rights of the individual again, of both children
and their parents this time, rather than just parents as before.
This thinking, along with other questions about how we should handle the
implications for children of parental separation and divorce,led to the Children Act 1989
(implemented in 1991).This is still a key milestone with continuing significance.This
Act greatly enhanced the need to work in partnership with parents and to avoid,
wherever possible, heavy-handed action which may actually make things worse for
children. It is, after all, their welfare that is supposed to be ‘paramount’.The pendulum
now swung back towards the family, admittedly a more varied and less robust arrange-
ment of relationships than used to be the case.In all but a very few cases,staying at home
is likely to be better for the child (and less expensive for the taxpayer), than any
alternative. It also means that more children with additional needs are likely to remain
in their community, and therefore in local schools, as a result.This was the beginning
of the social inclusion approach; it is not a recent invention.
Almost twenty years on again and the neglect and murder of another child,Victoria
Climbié, has changed things again for the twenty-first century.This was a shocking, if

9
inclusion/01/c 14/3/07 08:45 Page 10

Joined-up services for children

far from unique, case of child cruelty. It gripped the attention of politicians and raised
major questions about professional competence and management accountability,rather
than only pointing the finger of blame at the people who actually killed her. Unusually,
the criticisms of the subsequent Laming Report went right to the top.The focus in child
welfare for the coming years will not be so much on the debate about whether the state
or parents should decide what is best for children.Either may be appropriate depending
on the child’s needs and the parents’ circumstances. In itself that is as sterile a dispute as
whether mainstream schools or special schools are always better than the other.It clearly
depends on a number of factors in each case.
What matters now is that the people to whom the state looks for the well-being of
its children must act together.We must do whatever is required to promote the best
interests of every child and young person as an individual.Professionals must talk to each
other and especially to the child, and take note of what they say in making their deci-
sions.We actually have to deliver services for children that make a difference to their
lives, not just set up systems and procedures that work for us but which don’t actually
improve the outcomes for the ‘customers’. It’s all about outcomes and standards now.
We spend billions on education, social care, family services and support for parents and
children.What do they, and especially those who need it most, actually get for it?

The Children Act 2004 and the ‘five outcomes’

Teachers, and schools, may have traditionally been somewhat aloof from the changes
that have been gripping their counterparts in social care and, to some extent, health.
After all, we have had our own changes to cope with as Education Acts have succeeded
each other like buses in the rush hour. The only constant has been that nothing is
constant. But much of this upheaval was at the level of curriculum, organisation and
governance,with children themselves rarely the focus of the various initiatives.With the
Children Act 2004, not only have the goalposts been moved but we are all being asked
to play on a pitch with entirely different lines and with a largely unfamiliar set of rules.
It’s more like orienteering than any more structured sport; following the signs to see
where they lead but with the goal not necessarily yet in view!
The Children Act 1989, while of enormous significance to social workers and to the
few people in education seeking to maintain an inter-agency perspective, passed most
teachers by with scarcely a ripple. The then Department for Education and Employment
did not even produce a circular about it, preferring instead to give support to a little-
known Open University publication, separate from the official suite of guidance. Even
allowing for the fact that the Children Act 2004 (s. 11) still fails to put the same duty
on schools as it places on all other agencies who work with children, this time things
will have to change.The duty in sections 157 and 175 of the Education Act 2002 to
‘safeguard and promote’the welfare of children means just the same as section 11 means
for everyone else,though it is typical that education still has its own separate legislation.
The overall focus has shifted away from us, or even parents, and on to children. It is,
at last, their needs that matter most, or so the legislation says. And, in a revolutionary
strategy with implications as yet not wholly clear, education, social care workers and
health professionals, all of whom may be seeking to meet the needs of the same child
at the same time, can no longer do so separately but must, whether we like it or not, do
so together.Thinking in separate ‘silos’ has to go.

10
inclusion/01/c 14/3/07 08:45 Page 11

Joined-up services for children

There will be one local Children’s Plan,one common inspection (Joint Area Review)
and one Children’s Services Authority or Trust to co-ordinate it all. We are already
learning not to talk about the ‘local authority’ and the ‘local education authority’ as
somehow different when they are, of course, the same thing. But such thinking chal-
lenges major assumptions that have held sway for generations about who is responsible
for what when it comes to children.
Change began with the 2003 Green Paper, Every Child Matters (ECM), which prob-
ably had a wider distribution than any other of its kind. From this has come a whole
new national strategy and a reorganisation of service provision at a local level which is
still unfolding as I write.The rest of this chapter aims to pick out the key elements for
those who may not yet be entirely familiar with them.They are the essential framework
for everything that follows.

THE FIVE OUTCOMES

● Be healthy – This means children and young people are physically healthy,
mentally and emotionally healthy, sexually healthy, living healthy lifestyles,
and choosing not to take illegal drugs. We also want parents, carers and
families to promote healthy choices.
● Stay safe – This means children and young people are safe from maltreat-
ment, neglect, violence and sexual exploitation, safe from accidental injury
and death, safe from bullying and discrimination, safe from crime and anti-
social behaviour in and out of school, and have security, stability and are
cared for. We also want parents, carers and families to provide safe homes
and stability, to support learning and to develop independent living skills
for their children.
● Enjoy and achieve – This means young children are ready for school, school-
age children attend and enjoy school, children achieve stretching national
educational standards at primar y school, children and young people
achieve personal and social development and enjoy recreation, and
children and young people achieve stretching national educational
standards at secondary school. We also want parents, carers and families
to support learning.
● Make a positive contribution – This means children and young people
engage in decision-making and support the community and environment,
engage in law-abiding and positive behaviour in and out of school, develop
positive relationships and choose not to bully or discriminate, develop
self-confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes and
challenges and develop enterprising behaviour. We also want parents,
carers and families to promote positive behaviour.
● Achieve economic well-being – This means young people engage in further
education, employment or training on leaving school, young people are
ready for employment, children and young people live in decent homes
and sustainable communities, children and young people have access to
transport and material goods, and children and young people live in house-
holds free from low income. We also want parents, carers and families to
be economically active.
(DfES, Guidance on the Common Assessment Framework, 2005)

11
Other documents randomly have
different content
 CHAPTER IV

THE COMPOSITION OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF GLASS

The composition of glasses may be simple, compound, or complex,

according to the number of bases or acids which may be present in
the mixture.
The Simple types of glass are exhibited in the soda silicate,
potash silicate, and lead silicate. The two former silicates are of most
industrial value.
Soda Silicate is made from a fusion of 100 parts of sand with 50
parts of soda carbonate and 5 parts of charcoal. The charcoal is
added to facilitate the decomposition. The fused mass when cool is
transparent and of a pale, bluish, sea-green colour. Upon boiling it in
water it dissolves and gives a thick viscid solution called “Water
Glass.” This is extensively used in the various arts and manufactures.
Textile fabric and woodwork saturated with this solution and dried
are rendered fireproof. In the manufacture of artificial stone it forms,
with lime and other basic oxides, very stable cements. Mixed with
silicious or ganister it forms the well-known fire cements for
repairing the cracks in retorts, muffles, etc. Water glass is also used
in soap, and colour making, and for preserving eggs.
Potash Silicate is less used, being more expensive. It is
produced from a fusion of 100 parts sand, 60 parts potash
carbonate, and 6 parts charcoal.
Lead Silicate is composed of 100 parts sand and 66 parts of red
lead fused together. This silicate is mostly used in the manufacture
of soft enamels and artificial gems, and goes under the names of
“Rocaili flux,” “strass metal,” and “diamond paste.”
There is another form of soluble glass which is a combination of
the soda and potash silicates. This is really a double silicate and may
be produced by fusing sand 100 parts, soda carbonate 25 parts,
potash carbonate 30 parts, and 6 parts of charcoal. This silicate is
used in soap making. Soluble glass can also be formed by using
sulphate of soda as the alkali. In this case, a larger proportion of the
alkaline salt has to be used, also a larger amount of carbon, in order
to complete the decomposition of the sulphate. A mixture of sand
100 parts, saltcake 70 parts, and carbon 16 parts would produce
sodium silicate. The boron silicate and borate of alumina are two
other forms of soluble glass used in their simple states.
The Compound Glasses may be flint or crystal glass, soda-lime
glass, Bohemian glass, pressed glass, and sheet glass. These are the
general type of glasses used in the manufacture of domestic
glasswares.
Crystal Glass, which is a silicate of lead and potash, is made
from best sand 100 parts, red lead 66 parts, potash carbonate 33
parts, cullet 50 parts, to which a small proportion of potash nitre,
arsenic, and manganese dioxide is added. The bulk of English cut-
glass table ware and fancy goods are made from this type of glass.
It gives very brilliant and colourless results, more especially when
cut and polished. A second-rate quality of crystal glass for table ware
may consist of a silicate of lead and soda, as follows: sand 100
parts, red lead 66 parts, soda carbonate 25 parts, cullet 50 parts;
with small proportions of Chili nitre, arsenic, and manganese.
Bohemian Glass is made from sand 100 parts, potash carbonate
35 parts, lime carbonate 15 parts, cullet 50 parts; with small
proportions of potash nitre, arsenic, and manganese dioxide. This
type of glass is used mostly by continental manufacturers for
chemical ware, table and mirror glass. It is a hard, brilliant, and
stable glass, very suitable for enamelled glassware. It is a silicate of
potash and lime.
 Pressed Glass consists of sand 100 parts, soda carbonate 50
parts, barium carbonate 15 parts, cullet 50 parts; together with soda
nitre, arsenic, manganese, and cobalt. This is used by manufacturers
of pressed glass table ware or moulded ware. It is a silicate of soda
and barium, the barium having a direct influence in giving a good
surface to the pressed goods.
Crown Glass consists of a silicate of soda and lime; sand 100
parts, soda carbonate 36 parts, lime carbonate 24 parts, soda
sulphate 12 parts, cullet 50 parts; with traces of manganese and
cobalt. This glass is used for making sheet window glass by the
crown, disc, and cylinder methods.
Plate Glass is a silicate of soda and lime; sand 100 parts, soda
sulphate 55 parts, limestone 30 parts, coal or anthracite 5 parts;
with traces of nickel oxide, cobalt, or antimony oxide. This is used
for cast plate glass, rolled plate, cathedral glass, window and mirror
glass.
The Complex Glasses may be described as those in which more
than three bases are introduced, and constitute such types of
glasswares as bottles, thermometer tubes, chemical ware, etc.
Common Bottle Glass may be described as an example of
complex formulae. Common bottle glass, or tank metal, is made
from a silicate of soda, alumina, lime, magnesia, and iron, as
follows: Common sand, containing iron and alumina, 100 parts;
greenstone or basalt (a silicate of alumina, iron, lime, magnesia, and
potash), 25 parts; dolomite limestone (magnesia and lime), 30
parts; sulphate of soda, 35 parts; carbon, 5 parts. Felspathic
granites may be also used in such glasses.
Bottle glasses require intense heat to melt, and are usually dark in
colour when made from igneous rocks, owing to the large amount of
colorific oxides present in such materials. These dark colours are not
objected to in bottles for stout, wine, and beer.
It will be noticed these formulae cover a long range, from the best
table glass to the commonest dark bottle glass. Besides these, opal,
opalescent, and fancy glasses are made, in which either arsenic, tin,
alumina, antimony, zinc or barium oxides or borates phosphates and
fluorides may enter into the compositions.
Glass makers’ recipes vary considerably in the proportions of the
various materials used, according to the locality and the type of
furnace used. Generally, it will be found that, where a gas-fired
furnace is in use, a larger proportion of sand can be used and a
cheaper metal produced.
The metals produced in covered pots are usually softer and
contain more lead and fluxes than those produced in open pots. In
using open pots the heat of the furnace has direct access to the
surface of the metal therein. In the case of covered pots, the heat
has to be conducted through the cover of the pot, which retards the
heat to a certain extent. On this account, softer mixtures are used in
covered pots.
 CHAPTER V

COLOURED GLASS AND ARTIFICIAL GEMS

In colouring glass, either or several of the following colorific oxides

may be used. They are added to the batch before fusion. Varying
proportions are added, according to the depth of the colour desired.
Occasionally the colour is influenced by the nature and composition
of the rest of the batch. In some instances several colouring oxides
are used. In this way many delicate tints are obtained; in fact, there
are but few colours that cannot be produced in glass.
For Green Glasses the following oxides may be used: Chromium
oxide, 2 to 6 per cent. of the batch; black oxide of copper, ·5 to 3
per cent.; red iron oxide, ·5 to 1 per cent.; or a mixture of two or
three of the above oxides in less proportions. Salts of chromium,
copper, or iron may be used as the carbonates, sulphates, and
chromates.
For Blue Glasses, cobalt oxide, ·1 to 1 per cent. of the batch;
zaffre blue or smalts, 1 to 3 per cent.; nickel oxide, 2 to 4 per cent.;
iron oxide, 1 to 2 per cent.; black oxide of copper, 2 per cent.
For Violet and Purple, manganese oxide, 2 to 4 per cent. of the
batch.
For Rubies, red oxide of copper, gold chloride, purple of cassius,
antimony oxysulphide, selenium metal in small proportions.
For Yellows, uranium yellow, 4 to 6 per cent. of the batch;
potassium antimoniate, 10 per cent.; carbon, 6 per cent.; sulphur, 5
per cent.; ferric oxide, 2 to 4 per cent. Silver nitrate and cadmium
sulphide are also used.
Black Glass is obtained from mixtures of cobalt oxide, nickel
oxide, iron oxide, platinum and iridium. Many very dark or black
bottle glasses are obtained by using basalt, iron ores, or greenstone
in a powdered form, added to the batch ingredients.
White Glasses or Opal are obtained by using phosphate of lime,
talc, cryolite, alumina, zinc oxide, calcium fluoride, either singly or in
double replacements of the bases present in the glass batches.
Many of the colouring oxides give distinctive colours to glass of
different compositions; also the resulting colours may vary with the
same colouring ingredient, according to reducing or oxidising
meltings. Thus, in a batch of reducing composition, red copper oxide
gives ruby glass, but in oxidising compositions the colour given is
green or bluish-green. Iron oxide in an oxidising batch gives a
yellow. In the reducing batch it gives bluish or green results.
Manganese is similarly affected.
Many colouring oxides give more brilliant tints with glasses made
from the silicates of potash and lime than if used in glasses
composed from silicates of lead and soda. For many colours the lead
glasses are preferred. In colouring the batches, the colouring oxides
must be intimately mixed with the batch materials before fusion,
more especially in the preparation of the pale tints, where only small
quantities of colouring are necessary. It is a well-known fact that
careful mixings give good meltings, for then the materials are more
evenly distributed and uniformly attacked during the melting. Careful
and exact weighings are necessary when using colorific oxides, and
a pot is kept for each respective colour melted, so that the different
colours and crystal glasses do not get contaminated with each other.
When open pots are used for colours, the colour pots should be kept
together in one section of the furnace, so that whilst melting,
especially during the boiling up of the batches, the colours do not
splash over into the other pots containing crystal metal.
 As a rule, smaller pots are used for coloured glass; generally they
are only a third of the size of crystal melting pots. When this is so,
they are set together under one arch of the furnace, and the
workman informed which pots contain the respective colours. All
colour cuttings and scraps should be kept separate from other cullet
for re-use. Coloured glasses are expensive, and no waste of glass
should be permitted.
Artificial Gems. In the manufacture of the glasses for imitation
“paste” jewels, every effort is made to procure pure materials and
colorific oxides. The base for making artificial gems is a very heavy
lead crystal glass termed “Strass paste,” which gives great
brilliancy and refraction. The composition of such a paste would be:
Best white sand 100 parts, pure red oxide of lead 150 parts, dry
potash carbonate 30 parts. These should be thoroughly well melted
until clear and free from seed, and the molten mass ladled out of the
pot and quenched in cold water, or “de-graded.” This assists in
making the paste homogeneous. After repeated melting and de-
grading, the paste or cullet is collected, dried, and crushed for use in
making the coloured pastes. Usually, this strass metal is melted in
small, white porcelain crucible pots holding about 5 to 10
kilogrammes of the metal and heated in a properly regulated gas
and air injector furnace. The coloured paste is kept in fusion for a
whole day, after which it is slowly cooled and annealed within the
pot, and the gems cut from the lumps of glass thus obtained. The
following are some of the compositions used in the preparation of
the respective gems.
Opal. Powdered strass paste, 1,000 parts; white calcium
phosphate, 200 parts; uranium yellow, 5 parts; pure manganese
oxide, 3 parts; antimony oxide, 8 parts.
Ruby. Powdered strass paste, 1,000 parts; purple of cassius, 1
part; white oxide of tin, 5 parts; antimony oxide, 10 parts.
Beryl. Powdered strass, 1,000 parts; antimony oxysulphide, 10
parts; cobalt oxide, ·25 parts.
 Amethyst. Powdered strass glass, 1,000 parts; purest
manganese oxide, 8 parts; pure cobalt oxide, 2 parts.
Emerald. Powdered strass glass, 1,000 parts; green chrome
oxide, 1 part; black copper oxide, 8 parts.
Sapphire. Powdered strass glass, 1,000 parts; pure cobalt oxide,
15 parts.
Topaz. Powdered strass glass, 1,000 parts; antimony oxide, 50
parts; uranium yellow, 10 parts.
Garnet. Powdered strass glass, 1,000 parts; antimony
oxysulphide, 100 parts; gold chloride in solution, 1 part; pure
manganese oxide, 4 parts.
Turquoise. Powdered strass glass, 1,000 parts; cobalt oxide, ·5
parts; black copper oxide, 10 parts; white opal glass, made with tin
oxide, 200 parts.
After suitable pieces of glass of the requisite tints are obtained,
they are cut and ground on a Lapidary’s wheel, then polished,
engraved, and set as gems.
Artificial Pearls are now cleverly made in glass. A tube of the
requisite size made of translucent or opal glass is cut into small
sections, which are heated on a tray to softening point whilst set in a
rotatory movement. As the heat increases they gradually melt in and
seal at the openings, when they are removed from the tray and
sorted.
 CHAPTER VI

DECOLORIZERS

Decolorizers are the agents employed by the glass maker to

neutralise or subdue the objectionable tints given by the colouring
action of small traces of iron oxide, which exists as an impurity
present in the materials used or otherwise become accidentally
admixed during the process of the manufacture of glassware.
The small additions of manganese dioxide, arsenic, nitre, nickel
oxide, selenium, antimony, oxide, etc., to glass batches may be
considered as decolorizers. The most commonly used of these
materials is manganese dioxide, so the action of this material will be
explained. Every glass maker finds that one or other of the raw
materials he uses may contain impurities. It is seldom that glass
makers’ sand can be obtained that does not contain traces of iron
oxide present as an impurity. Again, the cullet collected from the
glass house often contains iron scale or rust from the blowing-irons,
which firmly adheres to the glass and gets admixed with the batch
for re-melting. The presence of even very small traces of iron in
glass becomes evident as a pale sea-green tint when viewed through
any thickness of metal. The chemical action of the glass upon the
walls of the pot is continually dissolving a minute quantity of iron
from the and diffusing it throughout the metal, giving it a tendency
to the pale-green tint.
To subdue or neutralise this objectionable tint in the glass, the
glass maker uses certain metallic oxides which give delicate counter-
tints. Only those glasses which are made from the purest materials
can be decolorized to become sufficiently clear to use in making the
best table glassware. In optical glassware, where the use of
manganese is not permissible, the greatest care has to be taken in
the selection and testing of the materials to be used. If manganese
oxide be used in making optical glass, although the eye may not be
sensitive enough to observe the actual color absorption, glass is
produced in which the solar rays are obstructed, and much less light
is transmitted by the glass when used as an optical lens or prism.
Therefore the optician avails himself of those glasses which have not
been decolorized as being more satisfactory for his purpose, as more
light is transmitted by such glasses.
Apart from the pale sea-green tint given to glass by the presence
of small traces of iron, certain of the silicates themselves produce
natural colors. The soda silicate present in soda-lime metal tends to
give a pale bluish-green tint when viewed through any thickness of
glass. The lead silicate has a yellowish hue. Each of these influences
has to be counteracted if clear crystal glass is desired. The
decolorization of glass by manganese dioxide depends upon the
purple tint it gives to glass. This purple color, being complementary
to the pale green color given by the presence of iron, serves and
acts as a counter-tint, and by the absorption of the green light, a
less perceptible coloring is produced. In the case of the
decolorization of glass, we get the red and blue of the purple
subduing the blue and yellow or green tint given by the iron. But
certain other factors are necessary. The purple color from
manganese oxide is given only to glass in the presence of oxidizing
agents; and the absence of sufficient oxidising agents in the glass
batch, the purple manganese colour is unstable and its action as a
counter-tint is lost. Therefore, the glass maker uses strong oxidising
agents in his glass mixtures for crystal effects, usually in the form of
potassium nitrate and red lead, which liberate oxygen. Whilst
undergoing decomposition in the glass melt, the presence of this
free oxygen keeps the manganese used in a higher state of
oxidation, and gives the necessary purple coloration. It is also
evident that, if the glass melting in the pot is kept at a high
temperature for any considerable length of time, this period of
oxidation cannot last, and, after all the free oxygen gas has been
evolved, any further heating tends to turn the glass greenish again
or of poor colour, by the conversion of the manganese into the lower
state of oxidation in which the purple colour is not evident. If by
chance the glass maker has added too much manganese to the
glass, and the purple colour becomes too evident, he resorts to the
use of a small amount of carbonaceous reducing agent, such as a
piece of charred wood or potato, which he plunges or pushes to the
bottom of the pot by means of a forked iron rod or pole, where it
vaporises, giving off moisture and carbonaceous gases which reduce
the manganese purple colour to a lower oxidised colourless state,
and in a very short time the excess of purple colour has disappeared
and the glass appears colourless.
Much of the success of crystal glassmaking depends upon the
proper adjustment of the decolorizers used and obtaining the best
colourless effect. The quality of the manganese is important; only
pure manganese dioxide should be used. In many cases the mineral
ore, pyrolusite, is used on account of its cheapness. This is
objectionable, as much iron may be present in the ore, when its use
as a remedy is worse than the defect. The necessity of taking
advantage of the services of a consultant chemist here becomes
apparent, for, if glass manufacturers would only have their different
consignments of materials examined and tested from time to time,
many of the disappointments and difficulties experienced by them at
present would be obviated. A considerable saving in the cost of
batch materials can be made by the judicious selection of more
suitable qualities in preference to inferior or adulterated varieties. In
many cases, a chemist can substitute for certain of the expensive
batch materials other cheaper materials introducing the same
elements at less expense, and still retain the same quality in the
glass produced.
 CHAPTER VII

THE REFRACTORY MATERIALS USED

Of the greatest importance to the glass manufacturer are the

refractory materials upon which the life of his furnace and pots
depends. A few notes giving a description of them and dealing with
the manufacture of the fire-resisting blocks used in building the
furnaces will be of interest.
The chief and most generally used of such materials are the
goods. The best known deposits of fire-clays in this country are
those in the Midlands, Stourbridge, Leeds, and Glasgow districts. In
each of these districts the mining of fire-clays and the manufacture
of fire-resisting goods for furnace work forms an important industry.
The theoretical composition of a true would be a double silicate of
alumina, and in this pure state it would be of a very refractory
nature. But, naturally, fire-clays show the presence of other bases,
such as iron, lime, magnesia, titanium, and alkalies, which, if present
to any appreciable extent, lower the degree of resistance to heat or
refractoriness of the clay. These other bases may be considered as
impurities or natural fluxing agents. The characteristics of a highly
refractory clay suitable for glass manufacturers’ requirements would
be: (a) that such a clay should show no signs of softening at the
highest heat of the furnace; (b) a squatting point not below Cone 31
or 1690° Centigrade; (c) a high alumina content not below 30 per
cent.; (d) the greatest freedom from impurities; (e) a fine-grained
texture; and (f) a high degree of plasticity. These are the qualities
most essential for glass house work. The figures given by the
chemical analyses of good fire-clays would probably fall within the
following limits—

Silica 49% to
65%
Alumina 48% to
31%
Ferric Oxide 0·5% to
1·5%
Titanium Oxide nil to
1·5%
Lime nil to
0·5%
Magnesia nil to ·2%
Total Potash and 0·5% to
Soda 1·8%

Clays of higher silica content than 70 per cent. would not be

considered suitable as pot-clays owing to the case in which glass
attacks silicious clays. It is important that chemical analyses of fire-
clays should be compared with results obtained from the analysis of
fired or burnt samples, or they should be recalculated to allow of
such comparison, so as to exclude the figures for the hygroscopic
and chemically combined water of the clays.
The writer gives the following particulars of a very suitable for
glass house pot-making. It is plastic and highly refractory, and is
now being considerably used by the trade. The clay is supplied by
Mansfield Bros., Church Gresley. The figures are from a report made
by Mr. J. W. Mellor, D.Sc., of the County Laboratory, Stoke-on-Trent,
and are as follows—

Raw Fire-clay Dried at 109° Cent.

 Silica 46·45 per cent.
Titanic Oxide 2·65 per cent.
Alumina 35·32 per cent.
Ferric Oxide 1·31 per cent.
Manganese —
Oxide
Magnesia 0·09 per cent.
Lime 0·41 per cent.
Potash 1·08 per cent.
Soda ·76 per cent.
Loss when 12·14 per cent.
calcined
over 109°
Cent
The melting point is given as equal to Seger Cone 33
or 1730° Centigrade.

The physical properties of fire-clays vary as well as their chemical

properties. The analysis alone of a is not always sufficient indication
as to its ultimate behavior when in use. Many physical tests have to
be carried out before a clay can be proved satisfactory for a
particular purpose, and much information can be gained by engaging
the services of a specialist upon refractory materials to carry out
petrographic, pyrochemical, and physical tests, and report upon the
suitability of the material for its specific purpose. Fire-clays should be
plastic, and this plasticity should be developed to its utmost to
increase the binding properties of the clay when used. To develop
the plasticity, fire-clays should be weathered or exposed in thin
layers to the action of atmospheric influences. The heat of the sun
and the action of frosts and rain have a direct influence in breaking
up the clay and developing its better properties. The use of new
unweathered clay is the cause of much trouble to the glass
manufacturer who makes his own pots and furnace goods, and on
this account he should insist upon having his clays weathered for
some time before use, so as to have them thoroughly matured.
Before fire-clays are weathered or used for important work they
should undergo a process of selection and cleaning. When first
raised from the mines all foreign and inferior portions, carbonaceous
matter, vegetation, iron pyrites, and stones are removed. The best
and cleanest portions of the are sorted out and removed to the
weathering beds, where the lumps are broken down to small pieces
about the size of an egg, and left to mature and season by
weathering.
This is then spread out in a layer about 2 ft. deep, and, after a
period of exposure to the action of the weather, the heap is turned
by men shoveling the clay from one side to the other. The clay,
under the continued action of the wind, frost, and rain, disintegrates
and slacks down until it is reduced to a mild, fine-grained mass,
which condition shows it to be well seasoned and ready for use.
Fire-clays vary in this respect: some clays season quickly in the
course of a few months, others take years to develop their proper
nature. The former may be classed as mild fire-clays, the latter as
strong fire-clays.
After weathering, the clay is carted or conveyed to the clay-
grinding plant, where it is stored under cover until it is dry enough to
be ground on the clay-mill. Here the clay is fed into a revolving pan,
and crushed under heavy iron runners, and, after passing through
perforations in the bottom of the pan, it is elevated on to screens
which sieve the clay to a requisite degree of fineness. It is then
admixed with a large proportion of ground-burnt and the mixture is
tempered with water until it forms a plastic mass of dough, which is
conveyed to the workshops where the furnace blocks or pots are to
be made. These making and drying shops have false or double
floors, under which steam or heated air is passed using pipes or
flues below the floors, giving the steady and uniform heat which is
necessary to dry the goods as they are made. Heavy goods should
on no account be hurried in drying, lest trouble should occur through
the goods cracking or warping.
 In making the blocks for the furnaces the workman takes a
portion of the prepared clay and tramps the plastic mass into a
wooden frame, or mold, the shape and size of the block required,
with due allowance made for shrinkage. The blocks are made on the
warm floor, which is of cement or overlaid with quarries. When the
mold is filled the surplus clay is cut off and the wooden frame is
lifted up, leaving the clay block on the floor. The empty mold is then
cleaned and refilled. The blocks are left until they attain considerable
stiffness from the evaporation of the water present by the heat of
the room. They are then dressed and cut to the final shape desired,
after which they are further dried until they become quite hard and
white. When thoroughly dry the blocks are removed from the drying
sheds to the kiln for burning.
In burning thick and heavy blocks much care and vigilance is
required in expelling the chemically combined water present in the
clay, and, as the temperature rises and approaches red heat, the
rate of heating should be retarded to allow proper oxidation to take
place throughout the structure of the blocks, and prevent black
cores from being formed. In all fire-clays, besides the mechanically
admixed water used in preparing the clay to a plastic mass, which is
mostly driven off whilst in the drying shed, there exists water in a
chemically combined state. This the combined water is not expelled
below 250° Centigrade, and is tenaciously held by many varieties of
mild fire-clays. Due care has to be exercised in dehydrating goods
made from such clays; therefore the man in charge of the burning
regulates his fires, keeping the kiln at a moderate heat for some
time to allow this chemically combined water to be properly and
completely expelled. This dehydration stage in burning clay goods
occurs between the temperatures of 300° and 650° Centigrade.
After the dehydration stage of burning is completed, the fireman
raises the temperature within the kiln to a dull red heat, when the
next stage in the process of burning begins. This is the oxidation
period, during which any organic carbonaceous matter present in the
clay is expelled. During this stage in burning, goods require
extended time, to allow for the heated air to permeate and get to
the interior portions of the blocks and oxidize the cores; otherwise
the blocks are badly burnt.
After the oxidation stage is completed, the fireman raises the heat
quickly until he obtains a high temperature, sufficient to eliminate
and complete the shrinkage of the goods. When this heat is
sufficient to complete the fire-shrinkage, the kiln is finished and is
allowed to cool down. The blocks, when cold, are then withdrawn
and delivered to the furnace builder.
For the erection of the furnaces several grades of blocks are used,
according to the conditions and nature of the heat they have to
resist. In the presence of reducing agents, fuel ash, or glass, goods
vary greatly as to their suitability. So the local conditions to which
they are to be subjected whilst under heat should be first
ascertained, and the mixtures for the blocks adapted accordingly. So
many differences exist in the pyrochemical and physical properties of
clays that their misuse is often apt to occur if the conditions under
which they are to be used are not properly understood and allowed
for. A may show a the high degree of refractoriness under a fusion
test, and yet be less suitable for a specific purpose than one of less
refractoriness showing better physical properties and of the more
suitable chemical constitution. The size of grain in both the burnt
clay and raw clay used in the mixtures for making glasshouse
furnace blocks is of the greatest importance. In many cases it is
necessary to grade the ground-burnt material used, so that the
proportion of coarse grains to the fine flour can be regulated to suit
requirements. The burnt clay used in making the furnace blocks
should be hard and well burnt, to prevent any after-shrinkage of the
goods when they are used in the furnace. Fire-clay goods for glass
house furnaces should not be burnt at a lower temperature than
Cone 12, and in the construction of gas-fired furnaces and tanks,
burning the blocks at a higher temperature, Cone 14 would give
much better results.
On the Continent the glass manufacturers usually grind and mix
their fire-clays, with the result that they know exactly what they are
using in making their pots and furnace goods, and they are not then
dependent upon outside firms to carry out their wishes. English glass
manufacturers usually buy their clays ready mixed, and as often as
not have perforce to take the mixtures offered by the clay firms.
Unfortunately, in Great Britain many of the firms who supply the
refractory requirements of the glass trade are exceptionally
backward in applying technical knowledge to their trade;
consequently, progress is somewhat retarded in the glass trade as
far as the refractory materials are concerned. So obstinate is this
ignorance of science that quite recently one well-known firm replied
to an inquiry for samples of fire-clays to be sent for important
research work then being undertaken upon the resources of the
country, stating “that, as their clay product was perfect, and
research work was quite unnecessary.” It often turns out that their
conservatism is simply a cloak to hide ignorance, as it is quite
evident to any technicist that there is ample scope for improvement
in the present goods on the market, and such an open opportunity
for a scientific investigation into the nature of their fire-clays,
however well known they may be, should be welcomed with delight,
and every facility and assistance offered for research chemists to
improve their material, and apply tests with the object of developing
the best properties of such refractories for special purposes.
 CHAPTER VIII

GLASS HOUSE FURNACES

The pots within which the raw materials are melted are set within a
strongly heated chamber called the glass furnace. The old circular
type of English furnace usually contains either six, ten, or twelve
pots, and will be described first. The pots stand in a circle upon a
form of hob called the “siege,” which constitutes the floor of the
furnace. In the centre of this chamber and below the level of the
siege is the “eye” of the furnace through which the flames come
from the furnace fire below. The burning fuel is contained in a
circular or cylindrical-shaped fire-box, about 4 ft. deep and 5 ft. in
diameter, and is supported by a number of strong iron bars across
the bottom of the fire-box. Passing under the fire-box, and across
the whole width of the glass furnace, there is an underground tunnel
called the “cave,” each end of which is exposed to the outside air,
which is drawn in through the caves by the draught of the chimney
cone above the fires. These caves are of sufficient height and width
to allow the fireman, or “tizeur,” as he is called, to attend to the
stirring of the furnace fires from time to time. Using a long hooked
bar of iron, he rakes out the dead ashes and clinkers, as they are
formed, and stirs the fire through the bars by prodding the fuel with
a long poker. The coal is fed upon the furnace fire through a narrow
mouth situated in the glass house leading into a chute which runs
under the siege, from the glass house floor level towards the fire-
box of the furnace. The fuel is pushed down this chute and falls into
the fire-box and is fed at intervals of the half to three-quarters of an
hour, according to the heat desired and the draught allowed.
 INTERIOR OF ENGLISH TYPE OF GLASS-MELTING FURNACE

Above the siege and over the pots is a covering called the crown
of the furnace, which is supported by fire-brick pillars. This is built of
the most refractory material possible to be obtained, as the hottest
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookultra.com