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Been thinking about my stance on inclusive education, 18 months or so after finishing my MSc in it. Been trying to reconcile why I'm such a fan of specialist education when inclusive education is certainly what we should be aiming towards. #SEND #inclusion
I've realised that in the current education system, there aren't many examples of good, actually inclusive education. And so when mainstream schools fail #SEND children so badly, specialist provisions are where they will get their needs met, and feel included #inclusion
I wrote a dissertation about disabled people's experiences of inclusion in mainstream schools and ended up with so many more examples of exclusion that I had to change my title. The whole system needs to change.
For many I think #inclusion is just seen as having #SEND children in mainstream schools and differentiating work. But unless we make the culture of schools inclusive, unless we provide the same interventions as in specialist provision, we're not including those C&YP.
So for me, right now, it feels important that #SEND CYP have provisions where they feel included, where they don't feel particularly different or "wrong". And for many that is specialist provision. Real change needs to be enacted.
A culture shift won't happen overnight, but I hope it happens eventually. Inclusion is so much more than just differentiating your worksheets and having a TA. It's eliminating bullying. It's making everybody feel part of something. We are not there yet. #SEND #inclusionmatters
