CSIE has recently hosted a visit from senior officers of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, Canada, which educates all children without exception in mainstream schools. “Each Belongs” has been the Board’s philosophy for the past 40 years and for them, all means all: the qualification for being in a mainstream class in a mainstream school is, as they put it, “over six years old and breathing”. As people whose practical everyday experience lies in making a fully inclusive system work, Jackie Bajus and Laszlo Galambos were able to tell their audiences of professionals and parents across the UK about “How it can be done: learning from the Canadian experience”, the title of a series of CSIE-organised seminars in York, Birmingham, Bristol and London during the week of 7th-11th December. They were also were also able to share their authority’s DVD, recently released to celebrate 40 years of educating all children and young people in mainstream schools. Jackie and Laszlo took a major part in CSIE’s conference “Is Everyone Welcome? Preventing Rejection from 21st-Century Schools”, held in Manchester on 8th December. They also met with personnel from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the National Strategies Team, as well as representatives of CSIE, as part of an ongoing discussion between CSIE and the DCSF that has helped to highlight the common ground we have about developing more inclusive provision for all in the mainstream.

Feedback overwhelmingly described the above events as “excellent”, “inspiring” and “powerful”, to the extent that participants repeatedly called for a national network of enthusiastic supporters of inclusive education for all, extending across teachers, parents and local authority officers. CSIE will be harnessing this momentum by seeking to set up a system for constructive collaboration among participants at the seminars and conference, which will maintain links with the Canadian visitors and with the Marsha Forest Centre, Toronto, who helped to organise and part-finance the visit.