Inclusion is an important part of daily life, especially in schools and in order to be a successful inclusive ppractioners, the term should firstly be defined.

 

“Inclusion is about the quality of children’s experience, how they are helped to learn, achieve and participate fully in the life of school.”

(DfES, 2004, cited in Evans, 2007)

 

Inclusion is focused upon all children having the ability to be able to learn and achieve in an environment that is best for them. To improve myself as an inclusive practioners it is important to look at the professional duties that are included within this. Within the Equality Act 2010, chapter 6 details the categories within Education about discrimination such as sexual orientation or gender. The Equality Act 2010 states that schools should not discriminate against a child in any way throughout the process of school. This could victimising, harassing and not fulfilling their duty to make adjustments according to suit the needs of a child. Allard (2015) discussed within their literature the Equality Act 2010 in regard to disabled children. Allard (2015) describes the act as the providing of a “legal framework that protects children from discrimination and promotes equality of opportunity”. This allows the child to be treated equally, regardless of their Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND). By following the Equality Act 2010, I am able as a practioners to fulfil the duties of an inclusive practioner within the school environment. The Equality Act 2010 details discrimination in a range of many over sectors such as transport, housing and other public and private sectors, in which it touches upon a range of categories which can be transferred between all sectors.

 

It is important to understand what an inclusive school and environment looks like; practitioners believe that inclusion cannot be involved where children are segregated into separate learning environments from their peers. Inclusive education is where children of all diversities, abilities and differences are included and are able to access all that other children are able to. Inclusive education involve the adaptation and changing to be able to meet the needs of all pupils within the classroom and in schools (Deppeler et al., 2010). Prior to my PGCE I have experienced education in state, private and in a special school. From experience within the special school, I believe that some of the pupils would have benefited from being with a state school that could cater and alter in order to meet their needs. It is important for pupils to be with their peers in an environment that was adapted to suit their needs.

 

Within school based training 1 (SBT1) I was in a school where they were not many children with SEND, however a child with my class suffered with autism. The Department of Education stated in the academic year of 2015/2016 there were over 100,000 children in mainstream and special schools with autism (Carpenter et al., 2019). The child fitted in very well to the class dynamics, they were able to take part in group tasks, they were able to work well with others as well as independently. However, if they were unable to vocalise what their problem was, they would start to become angry and take their shoes off and not want to participate anymore. They were a bright child, who loved being involved in classroom discussions as well a hard worker. Apart from moments when the child was unable to address their problem in a way that could be understand they were seen as just another child in the classroom. A theory proposed that children with autism spectrum conditions have a delayed development within their theory of mind, in which they are unable to imagine their thoughts and feelings or make sense of the behaviours they are relaying (Baron-Cohen, 2010). This was apparent in the child in question. They were unable to express themselves of what they were feeling and therefore the first reaction was to take their shoes off and not participate. In this instance it was appropriate to allow the child to calm down in a specially formed corner called the thrive area.

 

Thrive is in annotative that was brought in to my SBT 1 school, the Thrive approach looks upon what it takes to develop a healthy. Happy and confident child who is ready, whilst also being open to learning. The thrive approach draws upon ways to support children and young people to develop their social and emotional wellbeing. During a video detailing the Thrive approach, Dr Paula Holbrook (2018) details that with the Thrive approach they intend to help children become more resilient and to be able to deal with the ups and downs of life. The child in question used the Thrive area to calm themselves down which then allowed them to connect with their emotions and feelings. After using cue cards to describe how we were feeling we were able to find the problem and create a solution. Within SBT 1, we had changed and adapted the classroom to suit the needs of pupils, allowing an area for children to express their feelings.

 

By adapting and making changes for the participants within the classroom, the school and the teacher are allowing all students to follow a curriculum that is common to them all but at their own level. Within schools, the curriculum is already being adapted to suit and challenge different attaining learners (Wills, 2007). In conclusion should it not be important to include all learners and adapt our environments to suit the needs of all pupils including those with Special Education Needs and disabilities.

 

References

 

Allard, A. (2015). Dignity & inclusion: making it work for children with behaviour that

challenges. London: National Childrens Bureau.

Baron-Cohen, S. (2010). Autism and Asperger syndrome. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Carpenter, B., Happé, F. and Egerton, J. (2019). Girls and autism: educational, family and

personal perspectives. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Deppeler, J., Harvey, D. and Loreman, T. (2010). Inclusive education: a practical guide to

supporting diversity in the classroom. London: Routledge.

Evans, L. (2007). Inclusion. London: Routledge.

Home (2019). https://www.thriveapproach.com/. Accessed 10 August 2019.

Participation, E. Equality Act 2010(on-line).

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents. Accessed 10 August 2019.

Willis, J. (2007). Brain-friendly strategies for the inclusion classroom: insights from a neurologist

and classroom teacher. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum

Development.