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Nigel Utton, former headteacher and chair of Heading for Inclusion, explains his views on the government’s proposals to increase the number of grammar and selective schools.

ALLFIE trustee Mike Lambert considers his parenting performance as his daughter turns 21.

Miro Griffiths discusses the implications.

By Francis Peel, Imperial College

Disabled people’s voices are often missing from mainstream history, but texts reveal that a group of blind activists fought for inclusive education during the Victorian times.

Brandon Aughton writes about what inclusion has meant for him as a Disabled child.

If you are reading this, my guess is that you believe in inclusive education for all children and young people, however how do we know when inclusion becomes exclusion? To achieve inclusion in an inclusive setting, is educating a child outside of the classroom necessary? When and if it happens what stops it from turning into another form of exclusion?

Mark Leach writes about Charles Dickens’s portrayals of Disabled children and education

For all inclusionists, the cornerstone aim of the Government’s SEN policy – removing the bias towards inclusive education – is absurd. A short word-play with the definition of inclusion soon shows where this absurdity lies.

Clearing up the confusion

A few weeks ago the government launched the ‘Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs & Disability’ Green Paper and opened its consultation. In the paper it talks about removing the ‘bias in favour of inclusion’ but in ALLFIE’s experience there is no bias, in fact many parents and young people still have to fight to access mainstream education provision.

This week a report commissioned by the government has come out which calls for a decreased emphasis on vocational courses. The Wolf Report suggests that students under 16 should focus on academic subjects and that vocational courses should not be counted on school league tables.