Newsletter Twenty Two, Autumn 2003

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Newsletter 22, Autumn 2003

This edition of the Network Newsletter reports on the Ethos Network's East Renfrewshire roadshow in June (Including Minorities - Including Everybody). It summarises developments from the Scottish Executive about discipline. It introduces the Parent and Children's Services Network in Clackmannanshire. It looks at new resources and summarises Ethos Network developments.	This newsletter is edited by Kate Betney and produced by MALTS.
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'The Principle of Inclusion' by Patricia Potts

I see inclusion as a simple matter of principle. I define it in terms of participation, as a process of maximising participation of all students in mainstream educational settings. This also means actively reducing processes of exclusion. Inclusion is as much about the way we want to live our lives as a whole, as about raising standards.

Research findings about single-sex education and about highly mobile learners leave us with questions about structural inequality. Selection by gender reduces the capacity of all schools to develop as inclusive communities. Research indicates that, as with gender, the poverty and cultural background of learners is more relevant to the educational participation of learners than their mobility. Educational services should therefore be mobilised rather than learners immobilised.

In the UK at the moment, processes of inclusion and exclusion are both promoted, and exclusionary pressures are often stronger. This is one of the problems of the values system of New Labour, in that efficiency and human rights are both being promoted. So, for example, you get inclusion projects in a school which set the children by ability.

Barriers to inclusion can be overcome if we can work in a context which has clearly stated and agreed core values. When inclusion is integral to formal structures of general national education policy, you might be able to overcome barriers to inclusion if you make appropriate links between education, health, wealth, natural and built environment, gender, faith, language, mobility. You need to strengthen rather than weaken the Local Educational Authorities-wide commitment, otherwise you get contradictions where one school is doing something and it affects other schools’ capacity to be inclusive.

Patricia Potts is senior research fellow at Canterbury Christ Church University College. She also drew attention to innovative work at one inclusive school. See Alderson, P.(ed) (1999) ‘Learning and Inclusion, The Cleves School Experience’. London: David Fulton. Click the book image to buy on Amazon.

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This display from the Bilingual Base at Woodfarm High School reminds us that a very important part of including everybody is making sure that children and their parents who are speakers of English as a second or other language are supported.

Pupils from St Ninian's High School perform 'Belonging'. The Networks were so impressed by this short drama that we have invited St Ninian's to re-create it for our December conference.

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by Rona Kennedy, Headteacher at Kirkhill Primary in East Renfrewshire

While many children with specific disabilities or conditions come to Kirkhill Primary in East Renfrewshire, some come with ‘SWAN’ (Syndrome Without A Name). We should also remember the complex needs of children of ‘mobile parents’, and of facets of school life common to many, such as the underachievement of boys, and behaviour problems that may be associated with problems of affluence as well as of disadvantage.

At the start of an inclusion programme seven years ago, some teachers had a fear of failure and were frightened to try things out. The key to success is to overcome this fear of failure, through small successes – and as a whole team. In-house training on teaching and learning styles provided the breakthrough.

Primary One teachers have established with their children that teachers are not always available to respond to every child’s instant request, and that the children need to learn when to ask, and when not to ask, for help. This has transformed continuous attention-seeking by children. The teachers wear headbands when they are not to be approached individually, and do not wear them when they are available for one-to-one discussion. Following this example, one of our parents, Jackie, who has a son with special needs, now wears a baseball hat at home when she wants not to be interrupted.

Staff Development is important for the whole school, not just for the staff currently directly involved with particular children. When communication is a problem, the dinner ladies as well as teachers and assistants need to understand more. Within the school, auxiliary workers also train their colleagues about the needs of particular children. One issue is finding and funding the staff cover to allow such training.

Well planned induction programmes for the children are essential. Nowadays interpreters are automatically present when meeting with parents who may not have English as their first language.

Parent Jackie summed up by saying ‘I was in Asda, and four children came and spoke to my son. He couldn’t answer, but just to be spoken to was wonderful’.

Short Outline papers about developments at Kirkhill Primary, and about the Scottish Traveller Education Project are available from the Ethos Network, or by clicking on the image to the right to visit our Outline Papers section.