In September 2013 I became a personal coach for students in a secondary state school in Southampton. My job was primarily to develop the school’s coaching model based on a specific framework, and to deliver coaching to a group of students ages between 14 and 16. The job was not directly related to inclusive practices to start with, but it allowed me to work with some students with SEN. My job role started to gravitate around those students, and gradually my contribution to SEN intervention became more and more part of my daily duties, to the point that I became the key person for inclusion matters. As a result of this I learned so much. Those young individuals taught me about so many different things, and I realised so much more about my ideas and thoughts about inclusive education, moreover the practical barriers, and the possibilities that we can create.

For the coming year, starting from September, my job role changed completely. I will not run personal coaching sessions, instead I will be the coordinator of the provision/support for students who have SEN. There are far more details about this new role, but for obvious reasons not every detail can be disclosed publicly. What I can openly share here is my own learning journey through this attempt to make learning accessible to a group of young people, who otherwise could end up dropping out education altogether.

Therefore, this blog may regain its original purpose of being my companion and my repository of reflections, ideas, turning points, hopes and hopefully some achievements too. For starters, I am drafting a small piece of participatory research to be carried out by me and a co-researcher, who is also one of my students.  I hope to share as much as possible about the study in here.

 

Watch this space!