Together Towards Inclusion - Toolkit for Diversity

Primary education in Ireland faces the challenge and opportunity of integrating increasing numbers of pupils whose mother tongue is neither English nor Irish. Apart from preparing a curriculum for English as a second language and appropriate teaching material, there is a recognition of the need to provide support not just for English language teaching, but for the development of an inclusive ethos across the curriculum. This toolkit has four sections. The first, Getting ready, addresses the preliminary issues that any school must deal with if it is to be genuinely welcoming and inclusive. The second section, Early days, is concerned with the first steps towards the integration of pupils from other countries, cultures and ethnicities; inevitably the focus is very much on language and the need to develop classroom communication and a classroom environment capable of responding to new linguistic and cultural challenges. The third and fourth sections, Moving onand What next?, respond to the fact that inclusiveness is a never-ending process.