Pathways To Inclusion

"Given the right circumstances, being different is a superpower." Greta Thunberg. Greta Thunberg holding her first climate strike, August 2018, outside the Swedish parliament When Greta Thunberg compared her Autism to a 'superpower', she thrilled a growing movement of neurodiversity advocates, eager for another prominent spokesperson to proudly show the world that autism is a difference not disability. It is an approach that has informed the direction of travel for a great deal of SEN policy and practice in the 21st Century so far. Dyslexic students are described not as having a learning difficulty but as having a dyslexic-type learning preference . The philosophy of neurodiversity is quite simple: Different people's brains work in different ways. For people on the spectrum of dyslexic type difficulties, this will mean a preference for visual, kinaesthetic learning activities. For many on the autistic spectrum, this will mean a preference for rout...

"Charity is No Substitute for Justice Withheld" (Augustine of Hippo) 'St Christina Giving her Father's Jewels to the Poor' by Evelyn de Morgan Why bother paying for a public good through taxation, when you can just get it from charities instead? John Edward, the director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), has responded to the 'heightened political interest' in the charitable status of independent schools by listing their myriad charitable achievements . Some private schools allowed less fortunate children to, at certain times, make use of their playing fields. Others raised money for mental health charities, or the Royal National Lifeboat Association. All appear to contribute towards a substantial fund providing free places at their schools to carefully selected students who wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford one. There is therefore no doubt, in his mind, that they should and indeed would pass the 'rigorous scrut...

"I would never be part of anything. I would never really belong anywhere, and I knew it, and all my life would be the same, trying to belong, and failing. Always something would go wrong. I am a stranger and I always will be, and after all I didn’t really care." Jean Rhys  'Belonging' by Maria Friberg Too many children feel like they do not belong. In their communities, in their schools, in their homes. When I see children who are persistent absentees, who are at risk of exclusion, I see an unmet craving to feel like a valued member of something, anything. I see a desperate search for belonging that can take them to anywhere and anyone who might offer it to them, whose risks and long-term consequences they are unable to safely evaluate. We know that a sense of belonging is critical to the development of a child. We have know this since Maslow , since Bowlby . The renewed focus in the 1990s, through the work of Goodenow , and Baumeister & Lear...