Field Lane Primary School, located near Brighouse in West Yorkshire, has taken significant strides in promoting inclusion for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The school has implemented an extraordinary program. It seeks to foster understanding and collaboration among its typical students and the children of the largely disabled neighborhood academy, Highbury School, which today boasts a waiting list for admission.
Field Lane Primary School operates on two flexibly scheduled days. This competency-based approach allows teachers to develop flexible and individualized learning experiences for each student. This unique vision goes beyond just focusing on its current students, especially considering enrollment figures had been dropping in the past years. The collaboration with Highbury School, which co-locates on the same campus, provides valuable opportunities for mainstream and specialist students to interact and learn from one another.
Debbie Sweet, headteacher of Highbury School, inclusive education shouldn’t be an add-on or an extra. She continues, “Inclusion shouldn’t just be checking the box of being able to engage throughout the school. Under her guidance, pupils from both schools enjoy shared time together, enhancing their social skills and understanding of each other’s differences.
Ensuring that mainstream lessons at Field Lane Primary School are still very different to specialist classes. For half the day these kids mingle with their peers from the other school, reaping the rewards of shared learning experiences. This supportive, collaborative environment encourages empathy, understanding, and acceptance among all students.
These two schools are run by Steve Evans, the chief executive of the Polaris Multi Academy Trust. He argues that this approach is necessary to drive their educational vision to success. I think that’s the way to go,” he continues, agreeing.
Field Lane completed the identity of bringing in fun, creative ways to help their pupils grow and learn. Her school provides a rich movement experience too, with colorful characters like dancing animated dinosaurs jumping from screen to screen. That’s what makes physical activity fun and accessible for every child!
Parents have welcomed the shift towards a more sustainable approach at Field Lane Primary School. Tiffany, mother of four children currently educated at the school, tells us: “Field Lane is a great school! Thanks to help from the local council and money provided by Polaris, we’re seeing growing enrollment at Field Lane.” She tells us about the profound effect that it has had on her daughter Mirren, who has developed beautiful friendships with kids from Highbury School.
Education advocacy groups’ spokesman Hamish Heald said more government investment was needed to make inclusion a reality for all children. He stresses that the federal government should put action behind their words. He hopes his state will make the kind of commitment that results in greater equity and improved educational outcomes for every child in the state.
The benefits of this more inclusive model are beyond dispute. Sweet notes that through these interactions, students are learning crucial life skills: “They are showing them how to play, how to take turns, have conversations and resolve conflicts.” She points out that this early exposure better prepares children to be more inclusive members of society.
For all the challenges that the pandemic has caused, at Field Lane I have met the most amazing children who are learning to empathise, understand and accept,” Sweet finishes. That’s where she thinks these hands-on experiences give you a better sense of the real world and what’s out there.
