Mount Stuart Primary School: “Inclusive education is an entitlement”

The BBC documentary Inseparable Sisters follows the journey of Marieme and Ndeye, 7-year-old conjoined twins who moved from Senegal to Cardiff with their father, Ibrahima. In the documentary we see how inclusive education isn’t just about life in school but how it positively influences the community outside it. Marieme and Ndeye’s story highlights the importance of liberated leadership, collaborative efforts, and community-centred values of belonging. Their experience at Mount Stuart Primary School proves how the school embraces uniqueness as beauty and understands how intersectional experiences and inclusivity benefit every member of the school community.

On April 16, 2024, Yewande Akintelu-Omoniyi and Michelle Daley met with Headteacher Helen Borley at Mount Stuart Primary School. We discussed Helen’s role in school leadership and strategies for enabling Marieme, Ndeye, and other Disabled pupils to have a liberating and enriching experience.

It was a great pleasure meeting with Helen Borley, especially given the ongoing concerns about how the education system views Disabled children and Young people as a ‘problem’. An increasing number of Disabled children and Young people are missing out on inclusive education in mainstream settings due to structural and systemic barriers, which is very disappointing. However, we were keen to learn how Mount Stuart Primary School has enabled Marieme and Ndeye to feel included and valued through their inclusive practices.

In our introduction, we wanted to find out more about Helen Borley’s background and how she got into promoting inclusive education. Helen has extensive experience as a teacher and headteacher, working in various schools in and out of London before moving to Cardiff in 2017. In addition to her role at Mount Stuart Primary School, she is actively engaged in different areas of education and serves as a Peer Inspector in Wales.

During our discussion, Helen explained the differences between school inspections in Wales and England, carried out by Estyn and Ofsted respectively. She emphasised that Estyn takes a more collaborative approach – it’s about “doing with” the schools, rather than “doing to” them like Ofsted, which can feel more like an audit of leadership and management.

We asked Helen what motivated her to develop an interest in inclusive education?

“I became a SENCo in Southampton. It was a diverse school… [a] school with a lot of challenge. With a very high proportion of children with additional needs. It was there that I really started to do my research, my reading around the subject… it has helped shape my vision of what I think education should be.”

Helen’s experiences have reinforced the importance of consistent expectations for inclusion, directing her towards improving the schooling experience for every child in the school that she leads.

Mount Stuart Primary School

Mount Stuart Primary School is in Butetown, South Cardiff, known for its historic docks. Helen Borley, described it as “the oldest Global Majority community in Europe, with over 400 years of history.” She further elaborated on the socioeconomic background of the area, noting the high levels of poverty. “Our school reflects this diversity; 95% of the children come from Global Majority backgrounds. We have 45 different ethnicities and 43 languages spoken. 75% of our students speak a language other than English at home.”

Helen also mentioned that the school has “Four Disabled children, who are either visually impaired or wheelchair users.” There are “additional needs in classrooms over and above 25% of the 450 that we have on roll.” This means that there “will be children in every classroom with some kind of level of [additional] learning need.”

The BBC documentary focuses on Marieme and Ndeye’s experiences as conjoined twins but also shared their life at Mount Stuart Primary School and their relationships with other children at the school. ALLFIE, was particularly interested in Marieme and Ndeye’s school experiences.

Combating attitudinal barriers & fears

Helen explained that Marieme and Ndeye started the school in Nursery, supported with two assistants throughout the day. She also described how the school facilitated their transition from reception to year 1. In the the documentary Helen shared her initial apprehension about enrolling Marieme and Ndeye, influenced by her own concerns and the concerns of medical professionals. She recalls attending a “multidisciplinary team meeting” at the hospital, where discussions about palliative care and life expectancy were deeply distressing for her and her colleague. Helen said:

“I remember coming out [of the meeting] and I’m not an emotional person at all it takes a lot to make me cry. I came out with [my colleague] and literally we sat in my car, and we sobbed for probably a good 10 minutes. We sat and we sobbed, and we went, ‘that was just horrific’, and it was because the information we were given was just horrific, because they [medics] didn’t know about the children’s strength. They [medics] didn’t know their capacity to get over an infection. They [medics] didn’t know about their physiology.”

In addition to addressing their learning support, medical requirements and “conducting thorough risk assessments”, Helen ensured that every teacher spoke to their students about Marieme and Ndeye’s attendance in the school. She said, “We got every teacher to talk to their class about Marieme and Ndeye’s being in the main school and that they’re two children who are joined in the middle but are just two children. The only issue we have had are [new] children who join the school … and that’s just a conversation with those children.”

The school’s familiarity with diversity explains why Marieme and Ndeye’s inclusion was viewed positively and welcomed. Helen also highlighted that Estyn’s inspection focuses on “helping schools shape their future direction but also emphasises the need to ensure all children are included and making progress.” Inclusivity is central to Mount Stuart Primary School’s ethos. Helen said, “we wrote the vision statement collectively and collaboratively. We believe that children should come to their local school and whatever barrier there is for a child to come to the local school is not the child’s fault, the child is not to blame.” She continued to say, “my view, is about finding ways to eliminate those barriers.”

Educational support services and provisions

We wanted to learn about how Wales supports Disabled pupils in education. Helen explained that “in Wales, instead of EHCPs, we use the ALNET Bill, which is currently undergoing reforms.” She further elaborated that “at Mount Stuart, about 18 children have Individual Development Plans (IDPs). Helen described IDPs as being “run by the school, and they are for children with identified additional learning. To be deemed to have a need that is different from and in addition to anything you would normally offer in a classroom. So, for example, a child may have a diagnosis of autism, or a child may have ADHD, or it may be that they have Global Delay. That system is then supported by the Cardiff Council who have to then agree with the school that the child has identified an ALN (Additional Learning Need). That then goes to a panel and the children are given support via a team. It might be a Learning Team, it might be an Autism Team, it might be a Speech and Language Team, it might be Disability Team. It might be whatever team they are most suited to.”

Helen provided context to ALNET Bill reforms including funding changes.

“If a child has an identified, agreed ALN they are not automatically given funding to meet those additional needs.” She further explained that “At the moment, we are given a pot of money that we are to use with all children with ALN, not just those with IDPs, to ensure they make progress. Now that is complex because for some children the funding is ringfenced, so for children with an identified Disability funding is ringfenced. So a child with VI [visual impairment] or a wheelchair user they get ringfenced funding which is separate to that.”

She noted the school’s challenges:

“As with all pots of money it does not meet the needs that you have in the school so inevitably, there is a fairly large amount of budget that is spent on supporting learning in classrooms, either by additional adults… usually, or additional support via interventions or reading support or emotional and social support.”

School Leadership Practices and Strategies

As we finished our discussion, we asked Helen what advice she would give to new Headteachers on how to build an inclusive educational environment for every child. Here are her thoughts:

• Having a vision:

“A new Headteacher should work on their vision and what they want their school to be. Inclusivity, to me, has to be at the centre of that because children have to be at the centre of that.”

• Personal journey of leadership:

“You go back to finding those models to make it work. It’s not strong enough that people say it’s an inclusive school, where’s your proof that you’re an inclusive school? What have you done to include every child? Headship and leadership, a lot of it is such a personal journey.”

• Driven by a moral decision:

“Inclusivity comes from the top. It comes from an ethos of, whether it’s the right thing to do. That’s a moral decision. I’d like to think my moral compass is quite strong and is a strength of my own leadership.”

• Believing and Ethos:

“So much comes from the ethos that you set. If you set an ethos of, we can do this rather than you can’t do this – that’s where you start. They’ve got to believe it first.”

• Communication:

“What you communicate is that this is the school that we are, and we welcome as many children that we can accept. We adapt our practice to teach the children that are in front of us whether that be dyslexia, or whether that be a physical impairment or whether that be a behavioural issue. Those are things that, as a school, we have a duty to do.”

• Got to Matter:

“It’s got to matter to them at a personal and professional level. Because you do meet Headteachers who say, ‘oh no, we don’t do special needs’, and to me, that’s a moral compass [issue] because no matter how difficult it is, if it’s the right thing you do it, however hard it is.”

• Doing the right thing:

“Sometimes it’s really hard but actually you’ve still got to do it because it’s right. For me, it’s about having that moral compass and having the thought that it’s the right thing to do, and that ethos that it’s a school, and we’re here for children, not that it’s an easy job. Inclusive education is an entitlement.”

• Embedding values:

“As a Head, you’ve got to share that view, that ethos, that belief, and bring people along with you. If people don’t come along with you, they are at the wrong school, and they’ve got to go. If sounds harsh, but you’ve got to come back to that vision, and you have to make sure you’re going in the right direction. I have had those conversations with staff – that is what we believe here, and if it’s not what you believe, then you’re in the wrong school.”