Welcome to CSIE’s blog! I am Artemi Sakellariadis, CSIE director since March 2007. Before taking up this post I had taught in special schools, worked for the Portage home-visiting pre-school service in Avon (and, when it disbanded, Bristol) and also worked as inclusion support teacher in Flax Bourton primary school and as Portage Home Visitor and Early Years Area SENCo in South Gloucestershire. I have also held part-time lecturing posts in further education (training learning support assistants at Soundwell College) and higher education (working with education studies students at the University of the West of England and Masters students in Special and Inclusive Education at the University of Bristol). Just before joining CSIE I had spent four years working towards my MEd and PhD at the University of Bristol. My job at CSIE has been the most interesting, most challenging and most gratifying of the lot!

This blog started in 2014, to follow the story of a collaborative project between CSIE and ten schools in Bristol and London. The project sought to document established inclusive practice and to support more schools on their journey towards more inclusion. Educators had told us that they do not always feel confident to respond to all aspects of diversity; they may feel stuck for ideas, not because there isn’t enough advice or support available, but because there is so much information that it is hard to navigate through it and find something meaningful and relevant to their particular situation. Our project tried to bridge the gap between the multitude of detailed resources widely available and the need for practical information at people’s fingertips.

Our joint work on this project created “Equality: Making It Happen – A guide to help schools ensure everyone is safe, included and learning” published by CSIE in 2016. This is an equality toolkit for schools, which received very positive feedback and won an international award.

This blog was originally set up to share the progress of this work and invite more colleagues to contribute to it. I wanted it to be a space for sharing information and ideas and hopefully, over time, a space for lively dialogue. Sadly it has been inactive for almost ten years, because of technical difficulties and other reasons beyond my control.

I am very excited to be reviving this blog in 2025, wishing to share more ideas and spark dialogue about inclusive education. Do come inside, make yourselves comfortable and enjoy the journey!