How classroom expectations can create barriers for autistic and neurodivergent learners – and how more accessible teaching can reveal what pupils really know. Over the years, I have taught and tutored children and young people across very different settings, from mainstream classrooms and specialist provision to individual tuition. One thing that has become increasingly clear … Continue reading When Our Idea of a ‘Successful Learner’ Becomes Too Narrow
inclusion
Music for Every Learner: Rethinking What Inclusion Means in Music Education
When I began revisiting the music curriculum I had developed during my early teaching career, I initially imagined that I might update the original scheme of work. It had been written for a residential school for autistic children and young people aged from three to eighteen, and was organised as a four-year cycle extending across … Continue reading Music for Every Learner: Rethinking What Inclusion Means in Music Education
Inclusion into What? SEND, SATs and the Structure of the Education System
In recent years, the language of inclusion has become central to education policy and practice. The emphasis is often placed on ensuring that more children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), are able to access mainstream schooling. This shift reflects an important principle: that all children should have access to education alongside … Continue reading Inclusion into What? SEND, SATs and the Structure of the Education System
A New Resource: Understanding the Phonics Policy in England
Over the past decade, the phonics policy in England has reshaped how reading is taught in primary schools. Systematic synthetic phonics is now the central approach used in early literacy instruction, and the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check has become a familiar feature of the education landscape. At the same time, discussion about phonics policy … Continue reading A New Resource: Understanding the Phonics Policy in England
Inclusive Education for Autistic Students: Evidence, Gaps, and Urgent Questions
Research-informed insights from Kate Coldrick on autism, inclusive education, and mental health in schools - bridging evidence, practice, and lived experience. Inclusion is something every school says it values, but what does it look like in practice for autistic students? A new review of 233 studies (Perrelet et al., 2025) pulls together two decades of … Continue reading Inclusive Education for Autistic Students: Evidence, Gaps, and Urgent Questions
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