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Enjoy New Ideas, Stories and Concepts
- inclusion
- circles of friends
- innovative inclusive strategies
- new ideas you have or are trying out
- research you have engaged in
- friendship
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.
The Spirit of Inclusion : Watch this intriguing YouTube Video. You will need to watch it twice!
Heading for Inclusion (small word doc) 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
The All Age Centre for Independent Living (small word doc)
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
Undercover Teams (web link) : (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.
Peter Keane on video talking about: Peer Mediation , Restorative work with children and the Role of Support Services in South Tyneside
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. Check out:
24 Principles of Embodied Presence Practice outlined byArawana Hayashi (Pdf- 40 pages)
Emodied Presence Practice (word doc short)
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!
The Big Red Bus (small word 42 kb file download)
From The Siege of Beslan Emerges the New Beginnings of an Inclusive School.
Joe Whittaker, University of Bolton
Beslan was brought to world attention last year 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)
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. 'The Power of Imagination' (small pdf file)
Copyright 2005 Kathie Snow, www.disabilityisnatural.com. Used with permission. Clip art from Adobe In-Design. If you would like a handout (PDF) of this article, please send your request, along with the title of the article ("The Power of Imagination") to: kathie@disabilityisnatural.com.Do not violate copyright laws---request permission before reproducing in any format: in printed publications, in chat rooms, on web sites, etc.
Begin today. Imagine and it WILL be.
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?
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?? ..... (Ed.)
Joe Whittaker and John Kenworthy, Bolton Institute for Higher Education UK
Special Education is Not a Place: Avoiding Setting and withdrawal in Inclusive Schools
© 2005 Paula Kluth
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.
Lets use 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
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
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.
Circles of Support and Accountability for Sex Offenders
Circles of Support and Accountability (link to their detailed manual of practice on-line) are 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.
Trading Places : Kathie Snow discovers that educators would not like to trade places with pupils placed in special schools!
The Assistive Technology Boogie : Click here for a musical and educational treat!! A brief but informative look at the role of technology in the lives of disabled people!
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!!
OFSTED name Circle of Adults process as an example of outstanding Practice:
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.
(OFSTED Report on Dacorum Education Support Centre April 2004)
Quick step by step guide to Circles of Adults 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
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.
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….
Check out Colin and
Derek's thinking on this....
| View
"The Gargoyles
of Change"
Click here to
download the Word file. |
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.
We particularly like the article entitiled:
Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal
For many people with disabilities, life is not unlike the lives
of actors preparing for a play, but with one significant difference.
For actors, opening night signals the end of the readiness phase.
But for people with disabilities, "getting ready" for
the real thing--life--continues indefinitely. Learn what's wrong
with the "readiness" paradigm and what we can do to change
it!
Check out 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
Childrens
attitudes towards Inclusion
This is the result of very recent 2002 unpublished research.
Worth a read, by Rachel Watson.
Or try out this piece of work by Colin Newton, one of the
co-founders of Inclusive Solutions entitled
Circles
of Adults.This is a rich approach
to encouraging teachers to mutually support each other with in depth
problem solving and emotional insights.It works even better with
graphic facilitation and synthesis as we have been discovering.
Speak to us for details.We are currently rewriting this paper...feel
free to feedback to us.We are providing training to model this approach.(see
Training button)
Howard Zehr's and Belinda's wonderful paradigm
for exploring how restorative your attitude to behaviour is,
has to be worth a look!
''This is a paper about to be published on the role of 'Teams
for Inclusion'
and 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''
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?
Are educational psychologists true allies for inclusion or
part of the problem? Check out: Educational
Psychologists: Barriers or Allies for inclusion? A View from
the UK.
The
pupils need listening to as much as the adults if change is ever
to occur. On this theme read Gerv Leyden's :
'Ask the Kids!'
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...Check out The roll
of the die!!
FREE
Stuff!!
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. A
circle of friends for a child in public care
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.
Check out this ground breaking and deeply challenging
concept: The
least dangerous assumption! (Tashie
and Rossetti)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?
Communication
and Learning:Creating Systems of Support for Students with
Significant Disabilities
BY MICHAEL McSHEEHAN, RAE SONNEMEIER, AND CHERYL M. JORGENSEN
One offering will be 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 educational
psychologists as 'critical friends' supporting schools with inclusive
education. Ask how, not whether to include!!We like this
question too...
DAYS
What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?
Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.
Philip Larkin
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Friendship
How do you define it?
We have our own ideas and we would be interested in
yours.
Start here 
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