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2010

Crisis in Captialism

Great Use of Graphics in this Marxist Analysis of our
International Financial Crisis by David Harvey

Visiting Schools in Bologna, Italy

In May 2010 a group of people from the Netherlands and Colin Newton and his son Louis from Inclusive Solutions the UK led by Trix Grooff travelled to Bologna, Italy and visited two middle schools, one 3-5 year old school (scuola maternal) and two primary schools, one of which was in Rimini, over the course of 3 days. Follow the link for impressions and comments based on the observations made and the interviews with staff across the schools. They are limited by the short period of time and by working through a second language but are still very interesting for anyone interested in approaches to inclusion across Europe.

Read more here >>>

Person Centred Planning

Facilitated by Derek Wilson and Colin Newton of Inclusive Solutions

16th, 17th December 2010,

Robins Wood House, Nottingham

Person centred planning is a collection of tools and approaches based upon a set of shared values that can be used to plan with a person - not for them. These tools can be used to help the person think about what is important in their lives now and also to think about what would make a good future.

more information >>

Angry Parent Confronts David Cameron Over Anti-Inclusion Policy

Inclusion has been in the news during the election campaign. Jonathan Bartley, confronted the Conservative leader with his son Samuel as he left an event in South London. Mr Bartley voiced his concern about Tory plans to "end the bias towards the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools".

Please see video link here to watch the full interview.

Then on the BBC programme The Big Questions Episode 17 Jonathon was joined by Micheline and Lucy Mason who very convincingly won the debate about whether special schools lead to discrimination and whether children would be better educated in mainstream schools. You can watch this episode in full for the next few days here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007zpll/episodes/2010 or watch an edited version on Youtube here

Alliance For Inclusive Education Manifesto

ALLFIE is asking all prospective parliamentary candidates to support six simple demands which would ensure that all disabled learners have a right to participate in mainstream education.

ALLFIE has looked at all the political parties' education policies. Unsurprisingly, none of them clearly support disabled learners rights to participate in mainstream education. We need to do everything we can to persuade all candidates standing for Parliament to send a clear message that their party's policies are out of sync with an education system promoting equality and fairness.

ALLFIE's manifesto has six simple demands which would make a world of difference to ensuring that disabled learners have a legal and human right to participate in mainstream education. The six demands are that:

• All disabled learners have the legal right to attend mainstream courses in mainstream education settings.
• All disabled learners have the legal right to individualised support.
• Education buildings to be made accessible to all disabled learners.
• All mainstream course curricula are accessible to and inclusive of disabled learners.
• All education assessments and accreditations are inclusive.
• Disability equality training is compulsory for all education professionals and staff.

We would like you to ask everyone who is standing for Parliament to:

Raise inclusive education as a civil and human right issue for disabled learners in political hustings and meetings being run by organisations, unions and students.

Support ALLFIE's Inclusive Education Manifesto demands

"Inclusive education IS a social justice issue because it creates a society that values all equally - not only does it benefit disabled students, but all students, because they learn the strength of diversity and equality, lose their fear of difference, and develop empathy for others. It is as much about recognising our similarities as it is valuing and respecting our differences. Feeling part of our families and our communities from the beginning of our lives increases our sense of citizenship." Tara Flood CEO, ALLFIE

Read more here>>>

New Movement Differences Page

Understanding Movement Differences can be key to including many challenging children and adults who appear very different and may have labels of autism, Tourette syndrome, or severe learning difficulty.

Check out developing radical thinking on our new page>>>

2009

Person Centred Planning with MAP and PATH: Training

21st, 22nd January 2010,Nottingham

Inclusive Solutions is holding a Person Centred Planning with MAPS and PATH course in the new year. This course is open to anyone who wants to learn more about person centred planning and learn the skills to facilitate and graphic MAPS or PATH.

The course will cover...
• The values of inclusion and person centred approaches
• The roles of process and graphic facilitator
• MAP and PATH
• Essential Lifestyle Planning and other Person Centred tools

Download our flier and booking form to find out more...

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CSIE: Is everyone welcome? Preventing rejection from 21st century schools

CSIE is delighted to announce the forthcoming visit of Jackie Bajus and Laszlo Galambos, senior officers of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, Canada, which has been providing inclusive education for all children for 40 years. Every child who lives within this local authority’s boundaries is offered a place in a mainstream school. CSIE has invited these officers to support the development of more inclusive provision in our country, following the announcement in June 2009 confirming the government’s commitment to “continuing to develop an inclusive system where parents of disabled children have increasing access to mainstream schools and staff, which have the capacity to meet the needs of disabled children.”

Jackie Bajus and Laszlo Galambos will be in England from 7 to 11 December 2009 and will be giving open seminars in a range of locations and participating in CSIE’s conference in Manchester. These events will be of interest to local authority officers, parents, teachers, academics and all others who want to develop inclusive provision for all children and young people in mainstream schools. To book a place, please go to see the CSIE website .

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Holland's First Community Circle!



Derek and Colin set up the first Community Circle in Holland and offered supporting inclusion training in October 2009. Perspectief, Resource Centre on Inclusion and Self Determination: ‘The Power Of …’ on October 1st , 2nd and 3rd at the Agora Theatre in Lelystad, the Netherlands.



"you inspired a lot of people, they really felt empowered,
looking forward to working with you again"

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New Revised OFSTED Framework 2009

The new Framework will assess how well schools promote equality of opportunity and how effectively they tackle discrimination.

Let Inclusive Solutions work with you to provide bespoke training that will promote equality of opportunity and support you in effectively tackling discrimination. (See New OFSTED Framework of Inspection 2009).

Contact us for more details.

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1st Scottish Institute on Inclusion: A Great Success

22nd 23rd 24th September

Speakers
Tom Kholer - Savannah Citizen Advocacy
Patti Scott - Neighbours Inc
Lois Smit - Beyond Welfare
Derek Wilson & Colin Newton –inclusive Solutions.
Heather Anderson and Pete Ritchie
Jaynie Mitchell - Inspiring inclusion


 

 

 

Themes covered...
Citizen advocacy and the intentional invitation
Support Brokerage
Community circles
Circles in Schools
Person centred Planning
Creating Sustainable Communities
Family and individual leadership
Inclusive education
Individual Budgets and in Control Scotland

 


Colin joins Lois Smidt in the modelling of a Beyond Welfare/Community Circle at the Scottish Inclusion Conference - September 2009

Read more here>>>

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Abbie's MAP

Colin joined Marnie a Staffordshire EP to carry out a MAP with staff and family at the mainstream secondary school that Abbie wishes to go in September where her brother already attends. This was a strategically very important meeting for inclusive secondary education in Staffordshire.



 

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Day Zero

Inclusion Day, May 2009

700 pupils and full staff team worked with usat Whitton School - a large Richmond high school.Great strategic work made possible by the imaginative Head of The Whitton Gateway (which is the borough centre for inclusion of students on the autistic spectrum)
Sarah Bright and her Senior Management team. Extremely well received by all involved! 'The general feedback has been excellent and it is set to become an annual event in some form. Robert, who is visually impaired, said it was the very best day he has had at Whitton. We set up a Circle of Friends around him this morning, which also made he really happy.'



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A Day with Paula Kluth: Teaching Students with Autism in the Inclusive Classroom

31st March 2009



This was a very successful day with excellent feedback. Paula Kluth was very well received combining practical input with inspiration.

Inclusive Solutions in collaboration with Lewisham Council.

Download a presentation by Paula here.


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Colin's son Elliot had a job in half term operating this giant message screen....!

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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. Find out more here.

Great Offer on Our Newest Books!!!

Save money when you buy our three newest books Restorative Solutions, Dear Parents and Seeing the Charade together.

Click on the flier to download pdf with more information and order form.

Help Promote Inclusion

Use this opportunity for the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education to remind the DCSF of the imperative for inclusive education.

Download Inclusion: A Call for Action here

2008

Another New Book...

Dear Parents

By Micheline Mason

"an invaluable signpost for both parents and professionals" Able Magazine 2009

The title of this book is deceptively simple and conceals the fact that the reader is about to encounter voices that will speak of the relationship between disabled children and their parents.

The first voice is Micheline’s. Disabled person and parent of a disabled child - this is the voice of the disability rights activist, hero of the education inclusion movement and poet. Of all the books written for parents of disabled children (many penned by non disabled parents, others by ‘experts’ in the field) – there is not one that is quite like this one. Micheline is beautifully placed to offer the wise counsel and urgent warnings for parents that this book contains. Read more....

‘You're Going to Love this Kid'
Teaching Students with Autism in the Inclusive Classroom

A One-Day Workshop with Paula Kluth, PhD
Tuesday, March 31st 2009
Venue: Lewisham Civic Suite, Catford, London

Participants on this one day workshop will learn practical ways of supporting students with autistic spectrum disorders & other disabilities within a mainstream classroom.  Topics addressed include defining ASD, listening to the voices of those with ASD, differentiating instruction in the diverse classroom, encouraging literacy development, making the classroom comfortable for all learners, and supporting behaviours and bodies of students with a range of needs.  This interactive presentation will focus on the importance of pushing beyond participation and inclusion to asking schools to understand every student as complex, as capable, and as a learner.  Place are limited book yours now.

Find out more here....

The 2008 Inclusion Summer Institute, 4-6th June, Trent Vineyard...

Camila Batmanghelidjh, David Sahr, Tom Kohler

... a fantastic success!

Read more about this year's inclusion summer institute here, including feedback from people who were there.

Our New Book!            

Restorative Solutions: Making it Work

Colin Newton and Helen Mahaffey

This is a practical book about how to implement Restorative interventions and approaches in schools. The book gives guiding ideas, principle, theory and values as well as direct scripts for those involved in direct contact with pupils, staff and parents. Restorative Solutions are about inclusion, transforming relationships and radical ways of impacting upon conflict and rule breaking behaviour. All schools in the UK and Support Service staff will want a copy. Parents will also find it an extremely valuable resource for bringing up their own children peacefully.

There is also a pack available featuring a great DVD created in Milton Keynes led by Tom McCready.

Order Book ~ Order Pack

Colin and Helen at the book launch back in June

Inclusive Solutions Meets the Dragons!

Sponsored by The Guardian and the RSA...

Inclusive Solutions enter the Dragons Den..... and get on the long list with our proposal for support brokerage...

A Place in the World – Support Brokerage
This proposed social enterprise development will work through independent support brokers to create personalised solutions with disabled adults through community participation and citizenship, building on individual strengths. It will benefit from international experience and mentoring.

2007

Travellers Conference

Derek and Colin meet and share stage with the President of Ireland at the National Travellers Conference in April 2007. We loved her speech.

Check out: Remarks by President McAleese at the National Association of Travellers Centres' Conference 'The Voice of the Traveller in an inclusive society', Glenroyal Hotel, Maynooth, 25th April 2007

President of the National Association of Travellers, President of Ireland, Colin and Derek

National Association of Travellers' Centres Conference Report 2007 (pdf download)

NOW AVAILABLE!

Field Recordings of Inclusion in action. Check out our video footage on DVDs in our online shop.

Circles of Adults

Circle of Friends

Restorative Justice

Peer Mediation

2005

Inclusive Solutions T Shirts featuring Keys to Inclusion Graphic are

NOW available. Email or fax an order (£15 for a large T shirt) or visit our online store.

Inclusive Solutions: PRESS RELEASE JULY 2005

Responding to Warnock

Inclusive Solutions is a team of educational psychologists who together with a national and international range of associate trainers, teachers and psychologists specialising in inclusive education.

We are very concerned at the negative publicity emerging around inclusive education and the lack of clear and bold leadership in this area from education ministers at this time.

In our extensive experience of working in mainstream and special schools across the UK and tracking the lives of individual pupils with severe and complex needs we are convinced that children and young people do much better socially and academically when included alongside their local peers in mainstream schools. Typical pupils also gain hugely as they learn to live with pupils who may be very different and even very challenging. They are learning to live in a world of diversity. It can make no sense to segregate some pupils from the start of their education and then somehow expect to end up with a more inclusive society once school is over.   This is the real world and it is inherently messy!

Successful inclusion is not a matter of chance but a result of effective planning and provision. Both academic fulfilment and relationships need to be planned for and we have seen at first hand how approaches such as Circles of Friends have made a difference to children's social inclusion and acceptance however challenging their behaviour may be.

The research is in and the rights issues are clear. Children need to be included from the earliest of years in their local community schools. This where they belong and have a right to be. http://www.inclusive-solutions.com/research.asp

International research confirms this many times over.   Listen to Mary Falvey - Professor at California State University in LA:

Since (1977) hundreds of rigorous research studies have been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of integrating and including students with severe disabilities. As a result of a comprehensive review of the extant literature by myself and my colleagues, we were unable to identify even a single research article that that found that segregated service delivery models are more effective than integrated models for students with severe disabilities."

We would have to agree with regard to both research and practice in the UK.

We work with teachers, educators and parents virtually every week of each year exploring the ethical, practical and emotional aspects of inclusive education and have found wonderful humane, positive and individual responses to the issue leaving us in little doubt that no longer should we ask 'should they be here' but rather 'how do we figure out how best to include them?' These words were shared with us by a Scottish mum battling to have her child with autism admitted to and welcomed to his local school.

Join with those across the UK who simply dream of a time when all pupils regardless of behaviour or disability can attend their local mainstream school and be both welcomed and well resourced there.

2004

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 - Read Report

See our Circle of Adults Pack

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New Ideas and Resources

Connecting People

Check out this great article: Connecting People, a new approach to advocacy through a BILD project - community connecting through advocacy, and a community team helping people and their families develop their involvement in community life. This is an an article by Clare Wightman, Director - Grapevine (Coventry and Warwickshire) Ltd recently published in Learning Disability Today about their work.

'To be successful we have to start from a belief in inclusion. A belief that:

• we are all born ‘in’
• all means all
• everyone needs to belong
• everyone is ready
• everyone needs support
• everyone can communicate
• everyone can contribute
• together we’re better'..................................Who could argue?

Making Good Use of Third Places

'This term was coined by Ray Oldenburg in his book The Great Good Place: Cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons (1999). Oldenburg is an Urban Sociologist from Florida
who writes about the importance of informal public gathering places. ‘Third place’ simply refers to associations or connections between people that are based on locations, like becoming a regular in a cafe or bar. A third
place is a place of belonging, somewhere that is comfortable, and conversation is the main thing, a place where you can get known without doing much. There are no qualifications needed and no criteria to be met. It is
important to go at regular times, which works well for people who enjoy routine. We have learned that this method of connecting cannot
be used casually though – you have to be active not passive in your support as you
need to spot opportunities for interaction and relationship building. We have helped people with high support needs to become regulars of local places.'

(Whightman- as above)

Credo for Support!

Click on above link to view a video on YouTube illuminating the need for thoughtful help and support for anyone who needs it. Thanks to the work of Norman Kunc & Emma Van der Klift.

The Big Red Bus

Chris Johnson (dryden) and Lynn Turner, Educational
Psychologists have developed 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!