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1.19 Duncan Forbes Primary School, Inverness

Equal Partners
Duncan Forbes Primary School

This is no blame, no shame, equal partners in care to give child inclusion.

After hearing situations from other professionals, parents and carers, from various organisations, to find a parent/teacher/SFL teacher partnership seems rare and with seemingly an increase in asd's, adhd's, the old barriers between school and home will have to wobble and merge. This is sustainable if equal awareness of child and how it got there and of each other's input: all day difficult teaching (T), all day difficulty in planning and observation (SFL), all day difficult provision of everyday rights and needs (Parent).

May. Difficult child still in diagnosis stream. It was decided to give her extra maths help outside the class. This seemed to move barriers and confuse the child's normal behaviour. The following week the situation got much worse. The partnership realised we had to act quickly as the previous years of this child's time in school showed how badly she could react if people and situations around her remained loose. Together we agreed the parent could be called at anytime should the child need extra support, thus giving the child home to school support, freeing the teacher, freeing the rest of the class, freeing SFL should another child need her or letting her stand back to understand while helping. The situation was explained to the class and a group of friends now help settle the child and include her. The benefit to them is the start up of adult concern for others and of course their self esteem. The child in need's self esteem rises too. This should feed to the outside also as children will be positive to their parents. With the backdrop in the Highlands of 'inclusion', community schools, same as you review etc, this is exciting for future children as long as it remains in the community and not behind the usual education policy head's doors.