The following pages provide a timeline of key events and attitudes related to disability and education from the 1760s through the years to the SEND Code of practice in 2014. The resource has been designed to get participants thinking about perceptions of disability through time. Each participant has a page to work from (12 pages available). They should use the prompts provided in the footer to make notes. They should then contribute in turn to a group discussion, starting with the oldest page, leading up to the present day, making comparisons and observations on each other’s time periods. Key questions: • Has any language surprised you? • At what point was inclusive education getting on the right track? • Is education ahead of society or the other way around? • Which disabilities are understood best? • Which disabilities are least understood? Why might this be? • When were people with learning disabilities considered teachable? • What do you think about the sterilisation proposals • Consider how parents would feel if they had a child with a disability • Consider how self-esteem may be effected by societies attitudes • What are the advantages and disadvantages of special schools? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of seeking inclusion in mainstream? • Is true inclusion possible? Further discussion: • Have we now achieved best practice in terms of inclusion? • Describe a perfectly inclusive classroom / learning environment / school.

Force Field Analysis was created by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s. Lewin originally used it in his work as a social psychologist. Today, however, it is also used in business, for making and communicating go/no-go decisions. Having used elements of this theory a lot when working with autistic learners, I find it to be a really effect way to add structure to the process of decision making that can otherwise be too open ended. I have uploaded my most recent version of the worksheet activity.

This resource has been created to support learners who have difficulty getting started, planning, preparing for and working through open ended tasks. Step 1. State the project, problem or situation that needs to be tackled. Step 2. Create wwwwwh questions about it. These questions could be able the logistics of completing the task or project e.g. Why does it have to be done? When does it have to be finished? Who will help me? What does it need to look like? How will I get the resources i need? The questions could also be about the content of the task or project e.g. When is my interview? What will they ask me? Where will it take place? Step 3. Try to answer each of the 18 questions. RAG rate by highlighting green when confident about the answer, amber when clarification is needed and red for when the learner doesn’t know. Step 4 (page 2). Create 3 lists, using the headings provided. Step 5. Seek answers to the ambers (quick wins). Step 6. Plan how to get the answers required and proceed.

This is a simplistic but potentially powerful activity to assess an activity, procedure, environment or resource for accessibility. I have used this lots of times to teach college staff how to make their practice more inclusive without having to be experts on disability. Instructions are included in the download along with: Numerous people / disability cards (cut into individual cards) Red, Amber and Green letters for RAG rating You will also need a hula hoop or similar. Not included! To complete the activity, participants may find it useful to research the common challenges for people with the disabilities provided.

Equality Impact Assessments focused on fairness, access and inclusion. They help us to consider a policy, service or process in terms of how it might affect different groups protected in law. This EIA proforma places more emphasis on disability, prompting consideration of reasonable adjustments thus further supporting your compliance with the Equality Act 2010.

This ‘social story’ style resource is designed to help ease some anxiety associated with lockdown by explaining why we are expected to ‘Stay at home’ to ‘Save Lives’. It will need editing to meet your individual needs.