There was a time when school leaders would set up some special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) training for staff and then disappear off into their office. Today, heads want to lead that training, and there is so much good work going on in schools around developing inclusive practice and applying a confident and deliberate equity lens to leadership and teaching.
My mission with this reading list is to represent what is already working well in the system, as reflected in the research we have today. I hope these texts can help to enrich leaders’ knowledge, deepen their thinking and support their decision making.
Three research reports to inform your thinking
These three reports are a springboard to explaining why the reading I recommend is so pertinent to our recent past and our immediate futures as school leaders who care about contributing to a more inclusive education system.
1. A review of evidence about equitable school leadership, Kenneth Leithwood
This is an excellent primer on the processes that equity-orientated schools around the world adopt. It covers partnerships, curriculum design, pedagogies and establishing a vision that translates into inclusive policies and practices.
It encourages us to refocus on equity, rather than equality (giving additional, rather than equal, attention to those individuals facing the biggest barriers to learning) and highlights the importance of dispositions (our beliefs about children and about how they learn).
2. Belonging schools: how do relatively more inclusive secondary schools approach and practise inclusion?, Toby Greany et al
This report, commissioned by Teach First, makes clear the link between equity, relationships and belonging. The research shows that there is no single “best” way to achieve inclusion, but reveals how a sample of schools adopt an “inclusion for all” approach, while examining the “equity over equality” conundrum.
For example, rather than treating every student equally through the application of standardised behaviour policies, these schools acknowledge that some students need different opportunities and treatment, often working with the wider student body to help them to understand why such differential treatment is not “unfair”.
3. Educator learning to enact the science of learning and development, Linda Darling-Hammond et al
Darling-Hammond’s work is foundational to inclusive teaching and certainly to my own development of inclusive practices and pedagogies. Her writing comes alive for me through the layered diagram in this report, connecting teacher “dispositions” (attitudes to children) to teacher knowledge, expertise and skills, which I picture as interacting and constantly moving parts.
Darling-Hammond argues that for teachers to use their knowledge effectively, they must have first developed their dispositions. She recognises that empathy, social-emotional cultural competence and a commitment to equity affect a teacher’s capacity to teach all children.
There’s no “bolt on” for SEND here; the model shows a fundamental commitment to equitable teaching in teacher development.
Three reads to inform great practice (and get ready for autumn)
1. Developing Inclusive Schools: pathways to success by Mel Ainscow
I love this book because it is so encouraging and respectful of the inclusive work that schools already do. Ainscow argues that inclusion must be seen as a process that is concerned with the identification and removal of barriers, and that is focused on improving the presence, participation and achievement of all students.
The book’s subtitle, “pathways to success”, reiterates that there are multiple routes to undertaking inclusive improvements, rather than a single silver bullet.
This book is my number one read for all leaders who wish to drive change. But, as Ainscow makes clear, an inclusive school is not a solitary venture; capacity building throughout is essential. His book gives you the knowledge and confidence to adopt a whole-school approach to inclusion.
2. Teacher Handbook: SEND, embedding inclusive practice
This handbook from Whole School SEND is the most actionable resource to capture all aspects of embedding inclusive practice. It’s a free download with a hyperlinked content page, making it incredibly easy for time-poor leaders to navigate.
This book offers a terrific briefing in high-quality, whole-school and whole-class inclusive teaching for all pupils, offering subject-specific and even condition-specific guidance.
Leaders, in particular, will find this book a fantastic resource to support the strategic development of enriched and informed whole-school practice. The book offers an overview of key legislation, frameworks and guidance for embedding inclusive practice, but so much more besides that.
It is full of brilliant advice. For example, the “cognition and learning” section focuses on each of the different areas of executive functioning and how to support pupils in those areas. Applicable to everybody, this book is the profession’s best kept secret.
3. Square Pegs: inclusivity, compassion and fitting in - a guide for schools by Fran Morgan and Ellie Costello
This is a fabulous resource for learning more about the different perspectives of families and people working in health and social care. It explores the roles that each of these groups play in supporting children, and the challenge of ”fitting in” when you feel like a square peg being forced into a round hole.
This book is chock-full of compelling stories from parents, school leaders and health professionals. Each one is a gripping story of their lived experience and shares incredible insights. My favourite is the chapter “lessons from a 999 call”, which highlights the professional dilemma of where a paramedic should focus their attention during a crisis and brilliantly captures the importance of parental knowledge.
Three texts to help you go deeper
1. Inclusion: a principled guide for school leaders by Nicola Crossley and Des Hewitt
This book doesn’t try to dictate a definition of inclusive practice, but to exemplify the process of actioning the principles of inclusion by school leaders.
Crossley and Hewitt demonstrate the complexity of this iterative process and how it can strengthen an existing ambition for whole-school improvement. Digestible chapters cover the values and systemic changes needed to move beyond ambition towards better outcomes for young people on the margins.
2. The Inclusion Illusion: how children with special educational needs experience mainstream schools by Rob Webster
Free to download, this book is based on the findings of a large observational study and gets to the nub of how inclusivity is lived and experienced by young people and the staff who support them in mainstream schools.
Webster highlights the often subtle distinctions between integration, segregation and inclusion. He explores how to navigate the “structural exclusion” baked into our system and successfully activate our intention of inclusion for all.
3. Flipping Schools: why it’s time to turn your school and community inside out by Malcolm Groves and John West-Burnham
This is a book that I keep by my bedside. It’s an accessible guide to school improvement that recognises that equitable ambition and adopting an outward-facing model of collaboration will enhance school communities at all levels. The authors argue that you can’t have one of these things without the other.
A few final recommendations
1. Beyond Boundaries: leading great SEND provision across a trust by Natalie Packer and David Bartram
This book offers bite-size insights into practice, championing the work of groups of schools collaborating for better outcomes.
2. SEND Huh: curriculum conversations with SEND leaders by Mary Myatt and John Tomsett
This is another book that allows you to dip in and out of stories of fantastic practices from across the country.
3. The A-Z of Addressing Disadvantage by Marc Rowland
When I adopt an intersectional lens, it’s undoubtedly the brilliant Marc Rowlands that I turn to. His recent book, The A-Z of Addressing Disadvantage, helps us to focus firmly on the child and not on their label.
Margaret Mulholland is the special educational needs and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders
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