Benchmark measures were established such that progress over and beyond the period of intervention could be measured. They take the form of:

• the nature of the support group population in terms of stage and gender
• reasons for nomination
• the attendance of Support Group pupils over a 4 month period  prior to intervention in comparison to a Comparator Group who were selected because they were considered to be well behaved and performing well at school
• a comparison between how Support Group and Comparator Group pupils rated themselves on a Semantic Differential Scale on a range of measures.