Editorial – Inclusion Now 49

One of the themes emerging for me from this issue of Inclusion Now is transitions. I’ve found from talking to parents, teachers and young people that many people experience difficulties with transitions. You get everything working – more or less – and then it’s all change again. The Head of Emersons Green Primary School alludes to this in our first article when he talks about his disappointment that many children in his school don’t manage to go on to a mainstream secondary place, and Catherine McLeod talks about the issues of moving both into and out of early years settings.

I recently found myself explaining the forces that lead to children and young people leaving the mainstream as “it’s more about the school’s failure to deal with the child than it is about the child’s failure to deal with the school” and there’s ample evidence for this in the Lenehan review’s findings. And our CEO, Tara Flood, rounds up more voices from around the education sector, including higher and further education, about some of the forces acting against inclusion.

Whether in the UK, in Ukraine or Malaysia, Disabled children and young people shouldn’t just be expected to go somewhere else when the system doesn’t meet their needs.

So it’s good to see a commitment to inclusion from up and coming politicians like Marsha de Cordova, and from teachers and staff like those at Emersons Green. Such examples demonstrate that inclusion works, and that it can happen.

Jess Cahill (ALLFIE’s Communications Officer)