ABSTRACT
The purposes of this book are many. First and foremost, it is intended as a sharing of examples of good practice in inclusive teaching and learning in the early years. It offers detailed practical scenarios of learning activities that have been planned and executed in order to include the full range of learning needs present in particular groups of children. When I was a deputy head teacher, I had responsibility for the organisation of the professional development opportunities for staff in the school where I worked. It was an exciting and salutary experience to find that staff learned most from each other. As trainers and managers, we can introduce theories, concepts and ideas about teaching and learning and about classroom management. But staff become much more engaged and animated when they listen to each other's journeys, reflect upon each other's practice and actually see a colleague translate theory into classroom practice. As a teacher myself, I enjoyed going into colleagues’ classrooms and looking at the displays, the systems for planning and classroom management, and the children's work. What indeed I was experiencing was theory authenticated in practice. That is why this book, I believe, will appeal to practitioners. Here, we encounter examples of lessons that are authenticated in the real world. Moreover, these examples have been chosen as teachers’ best lessons and, through this, offer a valuable insight into how effective inclusive teaching and learning is being perceived in some of our early years settings today.
