Nuremberg Visiting Lernwirkstatt Inklusion and Bavaria schools. 7-11 of November 2016 A.Latif Fathi

Day one Visit to Altdorf primary school Class 4 – Teacher: Mr Stefan Richter Mainstream class with no bilingual pupils. 1 pupil with hearing impairment The pupil is aided by a helper. Activities: Maths and P.E. Inclusion approach and techniques

Evaluation Although the class is a primary one and didn’t have bilingual learners, it was interesting to observe Mr Richter’s approach to inclusion and the effective techniques he used to include everybody in the task.

Day one /afternoon Presentation “Lernwirkstatt Inklusion” in Feucht (Inclusion in Bavarian schools) By Dr Klenk German and Bavarian education system ‘Lernwirkstatt Inklusion ‘ project and the German system Complexity of the education system and inclusion team

Day two Job shadowing at Feucht primary school special class for ‘refugee’ children. Activities (Music and Maths) Meeting & working with pupils Meeting with teacher Mrs Gubsch after the class to discuss pupils and approach for inclusion.

Day two/ Afternoon sightseeing

Day three job shadowing at Altdorf Secondary school Joining special class for refugees Activities: Music & Art Interaction with pupils

Lunch Meeting with educational psychologists attended to inclusion (Lernwirkstatt Inklusion) and discussing both Scottish and German models of support.

Last day job shadowing at Heuchling Primary/ school with special profile Meeting with the Headteacher Meeting bilingual learners Interacting with/helping in classes

Afternoon Reception at Town hall Discussing inclusion in Glasgow and Bavaria Information regarding the latest wave of migrants and their numbers in schools Family housing Family learning

Evaluation of the Visit It has been a very interesting opportunity to experience and learn about inclusion in Bavaria schools. Although the topics I am interested in (Family learning and employability) didn’t figure in the programme, shadowing colleagues and discussing ways of inclusion in general were worth the visit. The German model is based on an assimilationist approach that doesn’t have in place a structured inclusion service for new arrivals but there’s rather a team that is made up of psychologists, very few DUT (equivalent of EAL) teachers, therapists, disabled rights organisations, supporters for refugees, remedial teachers, SEN teachers, representatives of migrants and assistant teacher (helpers). Key members of this team don’t always get to support bilingual children who, in some schools, are put in a special class with a teacher who wouldn’t necessarily teach them the curriculum. These classes are called “refugee” classes even when they contain non-refugee children. Dr Klenk is trying to improve the model by adopting Tony Booth ideas for inclusion detailed in the document ‘Inclusion Values’. This book is made of 1800 questions regarding inclusion and the aim is to build up own techniques for inclusion by trying to answer some of them. Teacher also benefit from trainings at the Lernwirkstatt Inklusion Centre.

Next steps I am interested in improving the partnership between school and Parents & Carers of EAL learners. An effective partnership will benefit both school, parents and ,most importantly, the child. I’m also interested in running English classes for parents & carers as a Family Learning programme. The objective is to enable P&Cs to communicate with school and other services, and to engage in their children’s education and wellbeing. As a result, P&Cs would be integrated in society and confident enough to take part in the decisions concerning their child’s education and future plans.