ABSTRACT
At the time of writing, the proportion of children in full-time education with low incidence, highly complex needs is rising, putting more and more pressure on an already stretched mainstream sector. Children with complex needs learn differently. If they learn differently, we ought to be teaching them differently and teaching them different things. Hornby makes a valiant attempt and certainly argues strongly against the workability of a universalist view but ends up describing the current English education system as a model for ‘inclusive special education’. All special schools, which currently educate 46 per cent of pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans, have adapted, rewritten, differentiated, altered and redesigned the National Curriculum ad nauseum. Roger Slee argues that full inclusion has been achieved ‘in schools and communities whose commitment to inclusive education for all comers has been successful’.
