Equal Play documentary highlights our inclusive education campaign for sport

ALLFIE demands that all Disabled pupils and students are included and participate in Physical Education (PE), as part of the education curriculum. Ahead of the 2024 Paralympic games, Channel 4 broadcast the documentary, Equal Play, on Monday 26^th August 2024:

Watch Equal Play | Stream free on Channel 4

The documentary synopsis states:

“This compelling documentary uncovers the transformative power of sport for Disabled people, through the experiences of two British children who are striving to be included”

ALLFIE’s Michelle Daley and Edmore Masendeke worked with Channel 4 and production company Rising phoenix Global, in collaboration with Paralympics GB, to ensure Disabled people’s demands for inclusive education were represented.

This blog highlights some of the key messages and concerns for Disabled people’s education.

Context

The documentary focuses on the lived experiences of two Young Disabled people, Marley who is 14 years old and training to become a boxing coach, and Tammy who is 11 years old and has enrolled in a wheelchair racing club.

It also includes the views of Marley’s parents, Paralympian Hannah Cockroft OBE, Professor Brett Smith, UK Government Advisor on PE for Disabled Children, and Michelle Daley, Director of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE).

The key messages and issues raised in Equal Play documentary align with ALLFIE’s Manifesto demands, including to:

• End all forms of segregated education
• Redirect government SEND funding towards supporting and improving mainstream services
• Combat Social Injustice in Education and establish inclusive education as a human rights issue
• End all forms of curriculum systemic injustice

On ending all forms of segregated education…

The UK government recommends 120 minutes of physical activity per week for Disabled children. However, in the documentary this alarming figure emerges:

“75% of Disabled kids are not doing physical exercise within school… Sport is for all. Sport is something that everyone should be able to join in with.” (Hannah Cockcroft)

Quotes from Disabled students Marley and Tammy back up the critical importance of inclusion in school sports (Trigger warning for mention of suicide):

“If you want to do sports, you have to fight for it. At my first secondary school… I was basically secluded from the rest of the building… I was just feeling really down. It got so bad I legit told my mum I wanted to kill myself… Sport has been quite a major factor in my life. So, if I’d never done sport in my life, I’d be pretty miserable.” (Marley)

“I’m in a wheelchair, but I can do most of the same things that the other children do. Why should I be treated differently?… When my classmates are doing PE, I either do my physio or make a sandwich… Doing physio instead of PE makes me frustrated. I do think it’s unfair that I am left out… When I am in the water, I feel relaxed, calm. Swimming makes me feel that the weight of my body has been taken off me.” (Tammy)

Marley’s parents, Sarah and Marlon, also added:

“Marley’s secondary school said that they couldn’t transition him into Year 9. So, we had to fight to get Marley into a new school… (The new school) was absolutely life-changing for Marley.” (Sarah)

“Sports changed Marley massively in terms of communication, confidence, stability skills.” (Marlon)

ALLFIE demands the UK government:

• Provides sufficient resources to ensure the accessibility and provision of adjustments for Disabled people at all mainstream educational settings.
• Ensures that all mainstream educational settings are equipped and resourced to address the support needs of all Disabled people.
• Adopts a unified and better coordinated approach to addressing Disabled people’s educational, health and care needs.

On redirecting government SEND funding towards supporting and improving mainstream services…

“Inclusive education is not just about the child going to a mainstream school.  It is about the child being able to access the full school life. The external activities that come with that inclusive education experience.” (Michelle Daley)

Many schools urgently require more resources and training to implement the government’s own guidelines on physical education.

“It shouldn’t be down to children having parents who have to advocate for their child to achieve and have the opportunity to have meaningful inclusive education.” (Michelle Daley)

ALLFIE demands the UK government:

• Provides clear goals to provide sufficient resources to ensure the accessibility and provision of adjustments for Disabled people at all mainstream educational settings.
• Ensures that all mainstream educational settings are equipped and resourced to address the support needs of all Disabled people.

Call to Action

Post Paralympics, there will be an open letter asking the UK Government to invest more in access to sport for Disabled children and young people, which we will ask for your support in signing and sharing the letter as widely as possible.

On combatting social injustice in education, and establishing inclusive education as a human rights issue…

ALLFIE’s work is underpinned by UNCRPD article 24 as well as the Social Model of Disability, which states that we are “disabled” not by our impairments but by society’s failure to take our different needs into account. Within education, this includes systems, structures and practices that lead to our marginalisation and exclusion from mainstream educational settings and society at large. We believe that this is oppressive and a social injustice.

This is highlighted in Equal Play documentary:

“It’s not uncommon for Disabled children, Disabled young adults in schools to be discriminated against… We need leaders within education, and particularly from the government, to be able to say, ‘Disabled people, Disabled young children, it’s a human right, it’s simply a human right that they should have good quality access to physical education.’ and to do that we really need appropriate resourcing.” (Professor Brett, UK Government Advisor on PE for Disabled Children)

“We need to recognise that Disabled people are not homogenous. We need to recognise we come in all shapes and forms. And recognise that being disabled is beautiful. The difference is beautiful. And recognise the difference we all bring to the world in a really positive way.” (Michelle Daley)

ALLFIE demands the UK government:

• Re-evaluates the objectives of education and learning to ensure that they are not discriminatory to Disabled people. This includes withdrawing all reservations to Article 24 of the UNCRPD and following the EHRC position with the recognition of a just and equitable inclusive education system for everyone.

On ending all forms of curriculum injustice…

“When you remove a child out of PE, you’re removing their right to the full range of the education curriculum. So, to remove them from PE and substitute that for physio, that is not an equal substitution. That is a medical need. A medical need is not a learning need.” (Michelle Daley)

ALLFIE demands the UK government:

• Develops more dynamic curriculum and assessment systems that do not disadvantage Disabled people on account of their impairments and the lack of appropriate support in PE as well as the wider curriculum.
• Re-evaluate the objectives of education and learning, including in PE, to ensure that they are not discriminatory to Disabled people.

More…

• The Equal Play wider campaign launch will take place at an event in Paris on Monday 2^nd September 2024.
• Support inclusive education as a social justice and human rights issue by putting your name to our six demands: Sign ALLFIE’s manifesto