Inclusion means ensuring that no matter what an individuals needs or barriers to learning are, that they all have equal access to learning and the same opportunities to achieve in life.
Inclusive education is the most effective way to give all children a fair chance to go to school, learn and develop the skills they need to thrive.
To me, inclusion in schools is not just about providing additional support to children with special educational needs. It's about creating a learning environment that works for all pupils, whether they have a disability, speak English as an additional language, are a member of a minority community, come from a low-income family – or find it harder to learn and achieve for other reasons. Everyone has a right to a good education no matter what their background.
I feel it’s important that teaching professionals reach out to students who can sometimes be overlooked or slip through the net in the school system. Inclusive systems value the unique contributions students of all backgrounds bring to the classroom and allow diverse groups to grow side by side, to the benefit of all.
The Salamanca statement from UNESCO in 1994 states that ‘Inclusive regular school is the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming comments, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all.’
One of my earliest memories from when I first started working in education before my PGCE in 2006. Back then I was as a lesson supervisor, I ended up spending some of my time helping out in the Learning Support Department. Although I didn’t work with the student directly, there was always a young male student, who was in a wheelchair there with a physical disability . He was someone I would say hello to as I entered the support room, or saw in the corridors. It was the first time I’d seen anyone in a school who was in a wheelchair. I remember at the time thinking wow, how far schools had come from my day that someone with a physical disability could access school. Fast forward a few years and I ended up randomly bumping into the same student in the High Street in Oxford and we ended up chatting inevitably about school. What he said really stuck with me. He told me that he didn’t really like school, he didn’t get to go to that many classes with other students, he felt lonely and isolated. He said he felt that the school just found him things to do, like working on the school magazine to keep him busy. I asked him if he’d spoken to anyone at the time about how he was feeling and he said he wanted to but just could never find the right time or the right words. Sadly I’ve never seen that young man again, but I sometimes wonder what became of him. This whole experience really made be re-calibrate on what inclusion actual meant to me.
In terms of including students with SEND, it’s important that inclusion needs to be go beyond a concept used in a school environment, and always be fully put into practice. Many school children will share a class with a disabled child, but sometimes this is where the connection ends. The undoubted pressures on support staff and teachers may mean disabled children are not being given the opportunity to “hang out” with their friends and peers and experience the social side of school life.
Inclusive or differentiated activities can help children, grow in confidence and communicate better after participating in social activities. This could also help foster their interaction at home as well as in school. Where children encounter greater diversity among their peers, their parents may learn to feel less alone and more aware that most other parents are also experiencing difficult and challenging issues. Parent after all need to be included as well.
However, as I’ve said inclusion in schools is not just about providing additional support to children with special educational needs. It's about creating a learning environment that works for all pupils, which is why it is important and i feel that there are a number of ways that all teachers can create a safe, happy, purposeful and inclusive environment. Sometimes the strategy for the one student can benefit all! inclusive education has positive short-term and long-term effects for all students. For example, children with special education needs who are in inclusive classes are absent less often. They develop stronger skills in reading and maths and their peers benefit, too. They’re more comfortable with and more tolerant of differences. They also have increased positive self-esteem and diverse, caring friendships.
Supporting and celebrating diversity and inclusion in school works because it gives all children the potential to achieve, and creates an environment where those with additional needs are not segregated and seen as 'other'; they are part of the same community of learners. Inclusion addresses negative cultural attitudes and misconceptions about people with disabilities or those who are members of minority communities. Celebrating diversity can be embedded into the curriculum for all subjects.
I want to end by telling you about another particular student at another school I worked at to show why inclusion is so important. We were able to admit our first ever student in a wheelchair after many months of making both the site and lessons accessible. The student suffers from a physical disability, so can only walk very short distances and is susceptible to falling. At the heart of the process is the whole concept of inclusion and its application, through working with occupational therapists and physios ,to working out how to access the school environment, planning routes, timetables, building access ramps, having a support assistant, being able to eat lunch in a busy dinning hall with her friends. It’s a whole school approach in supporting the student’s physical, emotional and mental well-being whilst ensuring she gets a good education. It’s about being transparent with parents and the student so that they feel comfortable telling us whats going well and what needs to change. It’s about liaising with coach companies ahead of a school trips and speaking with the staff there to plan routes so that the student can access the site. If one day I bump into this student in 10 years time I want her to be telling me warm and happy memories of school and feeling a sense of belonging, and not someone who felt they were just ticking the inclusion box because they were on role at a school.
That is what inclusion means to me.
Mark Huggins 16.07.2022
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