Inclusion...Five German education specialists visit South Devon

We recently hosted a group of 5 teachers and education professionals from German partner FAIRbund e.v. All are involved in helping young people with Special Educational Needs and the methods of inclusion in UK education.
We set up a programme that gave a really broad view of what we can offer here in South Devon. We visited Torre Primary School, both of the Dame Hannahs sites (Ivybridge and Seale Hayne) and spent an afternoon at Embercombe. We visited Brixham College and South Devon College, and had lecture sessions with Bill Callaghan and Julie Bose - a full programme that fitted well with all of our visitors.
Here is what they thought...
"A six-day trip to Torquay, the so-called 'english riviera' to learn about inclusion in the UK? We didn't quite know what to expect of that.
So we arrived at the seaside, just being happy about the lovely weather, the beautiful landscape and our great host-families.
But what we were about to experience the following week was far more than this: thanks to all the inspiring, different people we had the chance to meet, our heads got filled with ideas and visions about inclusion, as same as our days were filled with laughter, heated discussions - and new creations of german-english nonsense-expressions (such as 'soft office'...) :) We discovered that true inclusion probably takes much more financial support, well-trained, specialized members of staff and networking between the professions that are involved in this process, as supposed.
We learned about places in the UK where people seem to already 'live inclusion' in their daily lifes (for example at South Devon College or Seal Hayne), and places that seemingly start inclusion by focussing on childhood experiences that consist of 'going back to nature, back to the roots' (such as Embercombe).
Some of the projects and ideas we saw were basically quite similar to ones in Germany (for example Dame Hannahs), while other aspects of the british (education-) system seemed to be rather different to what we know - for instance the focus on universal services as a prevention of families being at risk of needing extended social support, as same as network, public relations and fundraising to provide institutions and organisations with the necessary equipment to realize inclusion.
After this week we were leaving Torquay with our heads filled with impressions and with a big smile upon our faces - as we found out that there are some british people who definitely know how to laugh..."


Kate, Anne, Martina, Daniela, Charlotte