Physical presence and access to the curriculum

For many of the Inclusion Project co-ordinators, particularly those working with primary pupils, the estabhshment of a balance between students presence in or absence from the classroom was a preoccupation throughout the year, and was further complicated by the strong views of the students and their classteachers on the issue. 

Physiotherapy was another activity which took Inclusion Project students out of the classroom unless it could be somehow incorporated into work within it, as for example with Daniel s hand exercises, which the teacher felt would also be useful for other pupils. The development of in-class working by non-education staff such as physiotherapists was often remarked on for its benefits, but it depended to a great extent on the working preferences of the individual physiotherapists involved. 

Secondary pupils were able to have some physiotherapy out of school hours and to fit the rest in with their subject timetables. For primary schoolchildren, with a more fluid structure to their week, there were often problems ofmissingpartofa proj ect or one stage of a learning 

Most primary Inclusion Project pupils also went horse-riding, and swimming at Princess Margaret School (which was stiU open at this time), in school time. This was causing a certain amount of controversy in all the schools because of the amount of whole-class work that was being missed as a result (and, at Heather Grove Primary, because some of the other children felt it was unfair that Inclusion Project pupils should be able to ride when they couldn t). 

However much teachers and Inclusion Project co-ordinators attempted to reduce the time spent by students in cupboards, resource centres or physiotherapy rooms, mere physical presence in the classroom, as noted above, was not necessarily an indication of involvement in the same aspects of the curriculum as the rest of the class. Luke, for example, often worked on his own programme with an LSA even though he was in the classroom  

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