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Innovative Inclusion    Circles    New Ideas   Research   Friendship    FREE Stuff!!

Send us your ideas, articles, stories and concepts. We will place your story on our web site and will consider publishing the work for if we and others are interested.

Innovative Inclusion

• Including Samuel
  Before his son Samuel was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, photojournalist Dan Habib rarely thought about the inclusion of people with disabilities. Now he thinks about inclusion every day. Shot and produced over four years, Habib's award-winning documentary film, Including Samuel, honestly chronicles the Habib family's efforts to include Samuel in every facet of their lives. The film also features four other families with varied inclusion experiences, plus interviews with dozens of teachers, young people, parents and disability rights experts.

• The Spirit of Inclusion
  Watch this intriguing YouTube Video. You will need to watch it twice!

• Everyone has a Song
  Read this story of an african tribal song that celebrates individually, gifts, identity and inclusion.

• Heading for Inclusion
  Submission to the 2007 review into Primary Education. Heading for Inclusion is an organisation of education leaders dedicated to the principles and practice of inclusive education. Heading for Inclusion welcomed the opportunity to contribute to a discussion on the future of Primary Education. 'Our simple message is that all children have the right to receive a world class education at the heart of their own community – in a fully inclusive local community school (Even the United Nations shares our view!)'.
  Nigel Utton 2007

• View "The Gargoyles of Change" Click here to download the Word file.

• Teams for Inclusion
  ''This is a paper about to be published on the role ofand it draws on over two years experience of the Nottingham City LEA's Inclusion Facilitation Team. It is meant to be provocative and is saying that a radical re-think of roles is necessary if LEA support teams are ever to support schools to become fully inclusive. Send us your reactions, additions and further thoughts''

• The All Age Centre for Independent Living
  A visionary discussion paper by Micheline Mason,
  September 2007. If you are interested in attending a meeting to take this further contact mich@michathome.wanadoo.co.uk

• Educational Psychologists: Barriers or Allies for inclusion? A View from the UK
  Are educational psychologists true allies for inclusion or part of the problem?

• The Big Red Bus
  Chris Johnson (dryden) and Lynn Turner, Educational
  Psychologists have devloped this lovely process designed to help set up a supportive team around a pupil in difficulty. A team is recruited and roles on the 'bus' agreed to meet identified needs. Check it out!

• Educational psychologists as 'critical friends' supporting schools with inclusive education
  Of great interest to inclusive educational psychologists as it maps the story of educational psychologists work.

  Read this excellent paper by Peter Hick, educational psychologist from Oldham as he examines the work of. Ask how, not whether to include!!We like this question too...

• Special Education is Not a Place: Avoiding Setting and withdrawal in Inclusive Schools
  Paula Kluth 2005
  Since the inception of inclusive schooling, teachers have worked hard to provide students with impairments access to both a typical education in the mainstream classroom and to the individual supports and services they need to find success in that classroom. In many classrooms, however, educators are stumped at how to do both resort to pulling students out of the classroom for short bits of instruction, or in some cases, for large periods of the school day.

• Essential Elements of Inclusive Educational Practices
  Read this paper on thinking around inclusion in scotland.

• Childrens attitudes towards Inclusion
  This is the result of unpublished research (2002). Worth a read, by Rachel Watson.

• Slow Inclusion
  Peter Bates a long time advocate of inclusion has done much to bring this dream to life among those working in Mental Health Services. Check out this lovely piece of work 'in praise of slow inclusion'. (small pdf. file) Other exellent papers and developments in the Mental Health world can be found on the National Development Team's web site www.ndt.org.uk

• From The Siege of Beslan Emerges the New Beginnings of an Inclusive School.
  Joe Whittaker, University of Bolton               
  Beslan was brought to world attention when, the succinctly named, School Number One was occupied by heavily armed hostage takers.   More than1000 adults and children were held at gun point, surrounded by explosive devises, held without food or water, in the sweltering heat, for three days in the schools gymnasium. The siege ended after Russian Special Forces engaged in a fierce battle with the hostage takers resulting in the death of 344 civilians 172 of which were children.

  Read what happened to the disabled children and adults that emerged as a result of this nightmare and the wonderfully inclusive instinct that followed. (small 27 kb word file download)

• 'The Power of Imagination'
  So often we have found people do not accept inclusion as possible simply because they have not seen it happening properly. Perhaps they have never seen pupils with certain impairments ever included. Many very well meaning people simply cannot imagine it either... Here Kathy from the US applies failure of imagination and abundance of imagination concepts to the inclusion of disabled children and adults.

• Trading Places
  Kathie Snow discovers that educators would not like to trade places with pupils placed in special schools!

Circles of Friends

• Circles of Support and Accountability for Sex Offendersare an organisation in Toronto, Canada who are building circles of support around sex offenders.
  
  They were not formed to compete with existing service providers. They were formed to assist:
  
  - those considered by many to be the "untouchables", or the most marginalized in our society,
  
  - those for whom there was little or no support
  
  - those for whom there was no support from other governmental or non-governmental service or agency
  
  COSA originated to meet the unique needs of Sex Offenders, because no one else was stepping forward to do so.

• A circle of friends for a child in public care
  Pupils in public care are at such risk of exclusion. Listen to this heartwarming story of a circle of friends in action from Jackie Dearden.

Community

• Asset Based Community Development
  Mike Green, who has worked in a strength - based approach to community development throughout North America, 'Asset Based Community Development' , shared with us in Toronto 2007 a number of very fresh innovative and deep approaches to change and facilitation.

• Community Guides and Connectors
  We love this idea and often work with the idea in our training around challenging behaviour and inclusion. Recruiting well connected community members to link up with vulnearble or isolated individuals or families and to build circles of support or connection around them using their contacts but NO paid professionals or experts. A free 50 page book that describes one approach to this idea is available from the ABCD Institute and you can download it ..... Hidden Treasures: Building community connections by engaging the gifts of people on welfare, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, older people and young people.

New Ideas

• The Problem with IQ...
  Read this paper written by Colin Newton about IQ and the implications of still using IQ scales to measure 'intelligence'.

• Revolutionary common sense!!
  Check out some great articles from Disability is Natural

  "Disability is a natural part of the human experience." When we internalize this belief and merge it with our common sense, we'll create a new paradigm of disability. People with disabilities aren't broken, and they don't need to be fixed. When we change the way we think, speak, and behave-instead of trying to change people with disabilities-the world will change before our eyes.

• Philip Awofesobi's Rap
  This remarkable young man has been employed as a Learning Mentor by the Nottingham City LEA's Achievement Team. He has spent most of his life looked after in Public Care. He has been there. He turns out to be great at including adolescent young men living in Community Homes, supporting their communication and reattendance at school.He is also a great trainer and friend of Inclusiove Solutions! Read more about Philip in 'INclusion Now' Vol 5, available from Alliance for Inclusive Education

• PRUs Are they good or bad?
  Check out the arguments in this paper by Colin Newton and Derek WIlson which draws upon DfES policies as well as research.

• Undercover Teams Bill Hubbard, New Zealand
  A low-intrusion restorative approach to bullying.Undercover Teams are a restorative adaptation of the influential and far-sighted work in the early 90’s of Barbara Maines and George Robinson of the UK. They labeled their support group approach to addressing school bullying as “No-Blame”. At the time and for years later, some people believed that this process was the single answer to school bullying that everyone had been looking for. Undercover Teams represent a unique tool that fits within the family of 'restorative responses'.
  
  Undercover Teams are a 'targeted approach to - repairing relationships. Viewed using a restorative perspective, Undercover Teams (UTs) may not be regarded by some practitioners as ‘fully restorative’ because the victims of bullying and the offending students are not brought face-to-face as part of the process however this fact alone should not undermine the worth of UTs. Rather, UTs can represent a niche process for supporting young people who may be fearful at the prospect of participating in a restorative conference situation. For students who have been bullied for much or all of their school lives, this can often be the case.

• Howard Zehr's and Belinda's wonderful paradigm for exploring how restorative your attitude to behaviour is, has to be worth a look!

• Understand the logic of snoezelens?
  Are bright lights, perfumed air, coloured bubbles and soft music the answer to the “apartheid” that people who have been described as having physical/learning disabilities/difficulties have been subjected to in Education and Community Living?
  
  Joe Whittaker and John Kenworthy, Bolton Institute for Higher Education explore the logic of SAnoezelens...Is there any research to support their efficacy in special or mainstream settings? Perhaps great for special or mainstream staff or any pupil to relax in, but educational impact?? .....
  
  

• The least dangerous assumption!
  Check out this ground breaking and deeply challenging concept.Your thinking and practice around those labelled with the most severe disabilities will never be the same when you take these ideas on board. The paper is very short but very powerful!! READ THIS IF NOTHING ELSE TODAY!

  Putting this idea into practice will require radical thinking and action. Check out this American paper as you wonder what will teams need to really develop inclusion for pupils where communication is a major issue?

• People First Language
  Impairment and disability: a world of difference

  Mole Chapman provides some really useful guidance around the vexed area of terminology.

  'Disabled people use the term 'impairment' to talk about their medical condition or diagnosis or description of their functioning.   On the other hand, 'disability' describes the social effects of impairment.

  'Disability' is not a description of a personal characteristic. A disabled person is not a 'person with a disability' as the person does not own the disability in the way that you might be 'a person with brown hair'. Consequently, the opposite of 'disabled' is not 'able-bodied' or 'abled', but 'non-disabled' or 'enabled'.

  Understanding the critical difference between these two terms allows us to talk separately and clearly about:

  •  a named individual = the person

  •  impairment = their functioning

  •  disability = society's barriers'

  So you might refer to a disabled child, not a child with disabilities...'

  Email Mole Chapman to receive your own free copy of 'Word Power - the art of respectful language' info@equalitytraining.co.uk

• Mentoring of Disabled Pupils by Disabled Adults
  We love this idea and Trudi Clark a Children and Disability Support Assistant from Nottinghamshire is showing the way

• Using puppets to engage, motivate and make learning fun!
  Sue Utley from Lambeth, London uses puppets to inspire us all!!

• The Assistive Technology Boogie
  A musical and educational treat!! A brief but informative look at the role of technology in the lives of disabled people!

• Boyz 2 Men...featured in TES
  Check out this wonderful ongoing piece of work in an inner city primary school.This OFSTED praised work shows the powerful use of drama, art and music in the meeting of emotional needs.For a fuller description click here.

  Creative Partnerships works to give school children in areas throughout
  England the opportunity to develop their potential, their ambition, their
  creativity and imagination through sustainable partnerships with creative and cultural organisations, businesses and individuals.
  For more information, visit them at Creative Partnerships

• The Long View
  We must take the long view in our planning for complex individuals however young they are.
  
  ‘What do you want to be when you grow up’?
  
  How often have you heard this question asked of typical children? What was your own answer as a child to this question? However we so often will not ask this same question of disabled children and families will often say ‘we dare not think beyond today’ let alone into the long term future. So we go about planning for children with complex impairments as if they did not really have a long-term future and adulthood. We make major decisions such as placement in a special school or unit without having regard for the long term implications of such a move. The child when they do become an adult are greatly at risk of vulnerability and isolation from the wider community into which they find themselves a part, or not a part. We live in a society that does not have special shops or special bus stops…
  

• The Bugle
  What about a bit of blowing our own trumpets? The bugle and its five notes provides a fascinating metaphor. Simple but powerful. Does it work for you?
  
  
• 'Ask the Kids! Gerv Leyden
  The pupils need listening to as much as the adults if change is ever to occur.

• Roll of the die
  Need a good set of perspectives to help thinking move forward in a complex situation that is posing an inclusive challenge? Why not simply roll the die..

• Embodied Practice
  4 Principles of Embodied Presence Practice outlined byArawana Hayashi (Pdf- 40 pages)

  Embodied Presence Practice (word doc short)

• We welcome feedback, additions and stories to develop this publication in progress: A Facilitators Handbook Please download, use and feedback on the value of this new publication in development.

Research

• Circle of Adults
  OFSTED name Circle of Adults process as an example of outstanding Practice: Formation of a Circle of Adults to prevent exclusion of a primary age child.
  
  You don’t often get staff meetings like this! The outreach support team invited adults who had contact with the child causing concern to a twilight session and the whole school staff were there. The headteacher of the Dacorum centre led a brainstorming session where the adult circle raised issues and concerns and later, hypothesis, reasons and solutions, in a semi formal setting. Only one person talked at a time and one person took on the role of the ‘voice of the child’ – his representative. Comments, concerns and suggestions came swiftly. They felt angry, the pupil was aggressive and there were complaints from parents. The head of outreach created a large and colour coded ‘graphic’ wall display of the issues as the session went on under headings of ‘Hot Issues’ ‘Relationships’ ‘System Issues’ ‘Hypotheses’ and ‘Strategies’. Amongst the comments made - under ‘hypotheses’-staff wondered if the pupil felt overwhelmed or left out or found it difficult to adjust to changes. The remarks made by the voice of the child included “people say different things” and “people say I am aggressive, but I don’t always mean to be”. The result, a very clear insight by all into the pupil’s needs and following from this, practical plans and programmes of work specifically for this child created by the circle and therefore fitting perfectly into the work of the school. For example, finding a male role model, and a Year 6 buddy, also meeting and greeting each morning. Their solutions, copied and sent to the school later for reference, to make a positive difference - a happy child, learning effectively and no longer in danger of exclusion.
  
  Quick step by step guide to Circles of Adults

   

Friendship