Week 4: Working with communities, families and stakeholders

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1. Introduction to Week 4


It takes a village to raise a child

As an inclusive teacher, leader or volunteer, working to create an inclusive school you are not alone in your responsibilities. In your professional role you are part of teams, communities and partnerships, all working for the benefit of all children, but particularly those with special needs. Everyone can do something, and we can do more together.

Faced with the data of large numbers of children not accessing or fully participating in school, schools need to do all they can to work with others and welcome in community organisations and stakeholders.

Week 4 of this course will help you to think about examples of partnerships between schools and others including families and community organisations. These may be small or large, run by volunteers or fully funded. What these people share is a strong drive to make changes to benefit all children especially marginalised children .

It is often said that working together is better because it can achieve more, but how to start?

As you work through this week’s examples of partnerships with families and communities please think about your own context and your stakeholders. Perhaps you don’t see them every day or perhaps you know a school which is isolated and would benefit from a wider network of help. At the end of the week, you will be able to visualise a network in the form of a mind map showing who is connected with your school or organisation, or one that you know, and how this network can work together to create an inclusive school.

In total there are nine activities in this week, and the end of course assessment.