How one school built a truly inclusive classroom

When a new pupil with an X-linked condition joined Elm Grove Primary, the staff didn't reach for a special programme. They started with a conversation with his parents.

“They knew what worked at home better than any handbook,” the head teacher recalls. “We took their lead — a visual timetable, a quiet corner, a buddy system — and it turned out half the class benefited from the same changes.”

Inclusion, she says, rarely comes down to a single intervention. It's a hundred small adjustments and a willingness to keep listening. Our education toolkit gathers ideas like these from families and teachers across the network.