An introduction to inclusive education

Section 127 of the Education and Training Act 2020open_in_new sets out the paramount and supporting objectives of school boards.

The paramount objective is to ensure every student at your school or kura, can reach their highest potential of educational achievement.

This can be achieved by ensuring that students attend, have control over their own learning, feel safe and included, and are given the best chance to succeed.

Inclusive education is about giving all the students at your school an equitable opportunity to fully participate and achieve.

They shouldn't be disadvantaged because of their ethnicity, culture, religion, gender identification, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, neurodiversity, behavioural regulation abilities, physical or learning abilities, or other educational differences and needs.

Your challenge is to build an inclusive school that is welcoming, flexible, and accessible to all students, parents, caregivers, and the wider school community.

It's about adapting to the needs of the learner rather than the learner adapting to the expectations of the school.

What is inclusive education?

The Ministry of Education defines inclusive education as follows:

"Inclusive education is where all children and young people are engaged and achieve through being present, participating, learning, and belonging.

It means all learners are welcomed by their local school and are supported to play, learn, contribute, and participate in all aspects of life at the school.”

In partnership with your community, your board plays a crucial role in providing a learning environment free from racism, bullying, and any other form of discrimination.

Schools should be places where difference and diversity are embraced and celebrated as part of a richer learning environment, helping to prepare learners for life in a globally connected world.

It's important to acknowledge that all students, staff, and their whānau bring their own ethnic and cultural backgrounds and a wide range of unique skills and abilities.

Why is inclusive education important?

Research shows that children and young people learn best when they:

Feel accepted
Enjoy positive relationships with their fellow learners and teachers
Can be active, visible members of the learning community.

Feeling like you belong and are respected for who you are (feeling safe) is key to every student achieving their potential.

Inclusiveness is fundamental to everything we're trying to achieve for our students and staff, as it supports their health, safety, and wellbeing.

Inclusive education is underpinned by the belief that every learner has the potential to make a valuable contribution to their whānau, community, country, and planet.

What are the benefits of creating an inclusive learning environment?

The Ministry of Education's guide to inclusive educationopen_in_new states that inclusive learning environments provide staff, the learner, and their whānau with the opportunity to:

Foster a feeling of respect and belonging.
Positively affect understandings and expectations about inclusion in their community and wider society.
Learn about and accept individual differences, lessening the impact of harassment and bullying.
Be both teacher and learner (tuakana-teina model).
Experience diversity as a source of strength and a catalyst for innovation.
Develop wide-ranging friendships.
Develop strengths and gifts with high expectations beyond formalised assessments.
Work on individual goals and pathways while participating in the life of the learning community alongside their peers.
Be actively involved and challenged to learn, achieve, and experience success in their education and the wider activities of their local school.

What does it look like if we are inclusive of students with special education needs?

At inclusive schools, children with special education needs:

Are present at their chosen school with their siblings and friends
Participate and engage in and out of class, doing what their peers do, but perhaps in a modified format
Learn and achieve, experience success, are challenged, learn within the curriculum, and enjoy things they're interested in
Feel like they belong, enjoy school, want to go to school and have friends.

What is your board's role in ensuring the school is inclusive of (and caters for) students with differing needs?

Your board sets the policies through which the school is controlled and managed, so the policies and procedures need to create an inclusive environment for all staff, students, whanau, and the wider school community.

Here are some ways your board could demonstrate its commitment to inclusivity:

Check if your school's values were developed in consultation with your community.
Actively partner with local iwi and hapu as tangata whenua to ensure all the policies and procedures, as well as the school curriculum, reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity.
Ensure you engage with and have feedback methods for significant groups within the school and wider community. These could be different cultural groups, queer-straight alliances, whānau of special needs students, new or leaving staff and students, etc.
Ensure that students and staff have authentic opportunities to contribute their voices to decision-making processes over matters that affect them.
Ensure students and their parents/caregivers are regularly asked about their experiences. This could be through written surveys, face-to-face hui/meetings, student-parent-teacher conferences, or other suitable ways.
Set high expectations for all students and ensure staff understand their responsibility and are provided with the tools to meet the needs of all students they teach.
Support staff to upskill in areas of identified need.
Thoughtfully allocate resources to support the students and staff as much as is reasonably practicable so that any identified barriers to learning and well-being are removed.
Ensure all school communication uses gender-neutral language (wherever possible), correct use of personal pronouns (if known), and correct pronunciation of names and other words.
Focus on the positive influences each student and staff member brings to the fabric of the school community (strength-based leadership).

Is there any legislation your board should be aware of?

Section 127 of the Education and Training Act 2020open_in_new states that the board must “ensure that the school is inclusive of, and caters for, students with differing needs."

Section 34 of the Actopen_in_new specifies that students with special educational needs (whether because of disability or otherwise) have the same rights to enrol, attend, and receive education at state schools.

New Zealand schools also have binding obligations to include and provide a quality education for all learners under the following:

Questions your board could ask

Do our policies, procedures, and local curriculum ensure the school environment is inclusive and welcoming to all students, whānau/family/caregivers, and the wider school community?
How do we know we're creating an emotionally and physically safe learning environment for all our staff and students?
Do we have a way of regularly getting feedback from our community about how inclusive they find the school environment?
How prepared is our school to welcome students with physical disabilities, behavioural challenges, diverse learning styles, LGBTQIA+ identities, ESOL, and diverse cultural backgrounds?
Are we confident that all students with special education needs receive the support they need?

Templates, resources, and references

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