Being afraid in life can stop you from achieving your full potential and doing the things you love the most. It has been a while since I last wrote a blog post. A lot has happened since though. The two 3 biggest highlights since my last post are My trip to Abuja, Nigeria I had the pleasure of meeting with the founder of the Zamarr Institute, a special educational needs school in Abuja. In July, I took a trip to Nigeria with my family to spend some quality time and understand special education within the context of my ethnic origin. I was grateful for the opportunity to observe and understand ..read more

Hi all, It’s been a while. I have been incredibly busy trying to juggle a full time job and studying. The great news is that I officially have a postgraduate certificate in inclusive education & special educational needs. Yipee! 60 credits down, 120 to go. I’m excited to see what the future holds and work towards my Masters degree. I’ve got an exciting dissertation project brewing (stay tuned). For me the journey is still very much at the beginning. I have only touched the surface of the issues relating to inclusive education for children with special educational needs and disability. Sinc ..read more

“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”. Nelson Mandela My parents understood the value of education and always pushed me to learn more in order to be in a more informed position. You can never have too much knowledge and knowledge is power. I have never seen it as a ‘weapon’ but I do understand what he meant by that. Education is there for each person to use as they wish and the knowledge learnt can be used to appropriately challenge perspectives or bring fresh ideas to the table. For example, I am using my education to appropriately challenge discrimination a ..read more

It’s a tricky one. I have a niece who has just found out that her exams are going to be cancelled. I have seen her work so incredibly hard for the last 5 or 6 years attending gifted after school classes, taking on extra responsibilities to boost her experience in preparation for her university application, frustrated when she falls short of the high expectation, she sets for herself. Whilst being female works in her favour, the fact that she is from mixed Black Caribbean heritage and lower socioeconomic status does not. She knows what is at stake. Education brings prospects, prospect improves ..read more

For a second, let’s think of education as “tool”. A useful tool that can be used to shape society for years to come. If you had the power to decide what the tool could be used for, what would it be? Is it more important for education to develop a nation’s economy or society? There is a heavy focus on educational attainment where students and teachers alike feel pressured to perform well. Whilst there is nothing wrong in celebrating individual success or excellence in curriculum areas, should it be at the expense of those who might not be performing as well? I’m conflicted as of course I want e ..read more

We live in a world where children with disabilities are discriminated across the globe. The shear nature of our society is based on trying to improve things and never settling for individual differences that make us unique. In my line of work, I find that more time is spent finding a “better” place for a child to be educated than trying to make the existing school placement more accessible. It is much easier to say that this child does not belong than to be challenged by individual differences. Surely, this goes against the ethos of inclusion which is about acceptance. The most important and c ..read more

It’s been a while since I last posted. As always, I’ve kept myself busy. The work has not stopped as children have made the transition back to full time schooling. Today, I started a new journey. It was the first day of my life as a mature student. I decided to undertake a Master’s degree in Inclusive Education since my last post. Exciting news, right? I look forward to exploring the world of inclusive education more and hope to share my journey with you all. It’s been more than 25 years since the UNESCO Salamanca Statement. The world is certainly a more inclusive place with national policies ..read more

Tomorrow, the GEM Report, the Teachers Task Force at UNESCO and Education International are co-hosting an event on teachers and teaching for inclusion. Inclusion cannot be realized unless teachers are agents of change, with values, knowledge and attitudes that permit every student to succeed.  Below are some of the core points to have come out […] All teachers should be prepared to teach all students ..read more

Ability does not set us apart, opportunities do. In the midst of the global picture, I felt it necessary to share a perspective for any readers to consider. In 2015, I briefly worked for a wonderful organisation called Arrival Education that very simply provided opportunities for those from low socioeconomic (significant BAME percentage) communities with academic potential to get experience within the corporate world to promote upward social mobility. I lasted a week in that job, not because of the organisation but I knew that I had a greater passion for working with children who had special e ..read more

Attention is often something that we all struggle with maintaining at some point during the day but it is something the majority of us can do successfully. One of the things that often comes across when assessing the learning needs of a child is their ability to focus and attend to the task or instruction at hand. I often here quotes from teachers and professionals about a child’s inability to focus and the impact this has on his/her ability to make progress but if the inclusive educator gave it more thought, one of the biggest things that affects attention and focus is motivation. For example ..read more