International outreach as teacher learning

Geraldine O’Grady, a teacher in an East London school, visited South India to present a paper on the values and practices of inclusion. Here she writes about the impact of international outreach on teacher learning at home.

I presented a short paper on facilitating inclusion within my special school setting. This aroused great interest as many of the teachers had not fully considered the fact that inclusion still had to be addressed in a special school. I illustrated how Whitefield enables everyone within the school community to be included as far as possible.

Key themes:

• the operational procedures, such as the code of ethics, that are in place to support the principles and values behind inclusion
• the curriculum and teaching and learning strategies, such as pupil-friendly targets, that ensure that the operational procedures are put into practice
• the ways in which Whitefield shares its knowledge and understanding of inclusion, through an outreach programme, both within the local authority (LA) mainstream schools and at an international level.

For a full version of the paper, visit the website of Multi-Agency International Training and Support (MAITS).

To help teachers engage with pupils and develop pupil-friendly targets, the school uses a ‘communication passport’ resource; download examples and guidelines here:

Example of a communications passport: Lola (PDF, 299kb)
Example of a communications passport: ‘Nemo’ (PDF, 256kb)
Communication passport guidelines (PDF, 51kb)

 
The course

We ran a three day course for students and staff at the rehabilitation science department of the Holy Cross College in the city of Tiruchirappalli. There were over fifty participants and we used a combination of formal presentations and practical activities to share information and to help people develop their skills. The topics we presented on were:

• making information accessible
• creating communication passports (practical)
• sensory play and exploration
• exploring sensory activities and identifying key aspects of the activity (practical)
• developing understanding of narrative
• creating sensory stories (practical)
• Carol Gray’s social stories (presentation and practical)

What I learned

Doing this work reawakened my awareness of my own personal values and beliefs, and the reasons why I became a teacher so many years ago. This in turn has affected my present practice in staff training.

For example, when I show visitors and students around the school or go on outreach visits to mainstream settings, I now emphasise personalised learning and discuss how to include individual pupils in ways that are appropriate to their needs.

The impact of international outreach on teachers’ learning at Whitefield Schools and Centre 

I have been fortunate to have been involved in this and other projects over the last four years. Besides the obvious personal and professional benefits to myself, I feel that there have also been benefits for the school.

Enthusiasm and humility

Teachers who have experienced outreach work in countries like India and Pakistan have returned to school with renewed enthusiasm for their jobs.

It helps them to appreciate the wide range of resources and equipment available to them at home, in comparison with some of the settings that they have visited. They also get to meet dedicated, hard-working and creative people who make the most of their resources and inspire their visitors with their imaginative ideas.

New ideas and projects to share learning

Staff have shared their experiences of outreach with others through displays, presentations and a newsletter that highlights the work done so far. The newsletter also identifies several projects that people can get involved in without going aboard, and these have stimulated much interest. 

In the past few years, we have hosted teachers and/or students from settings in India and Pakistan at Whitefield so that they can experience teaching and learning here and also share their ideas and knowledge with staff. These exchanges have been mutually beneficial, and we hope they will continue in the future. 

Geraldine O’Grady
Whitefield School and Centre
Waltham Forest

 
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