‘I WANT TO LEARN TOO, PLEASE INCLUDE ME’~cover print costs

Hi, I’m Jade, the founder of The Art of Inclusion: a neurodivergent mum, an ex senior specialist teacher, and an inclusion advocate.

Working within the education system opened my eyes drastically to just how broken it is across the UK and, somehow, continues to get worse. Becoming a mum fuelled my desire to try to make positive change.

A little bit of background…I was failed terribly at school, back 20 years ago, where I was forced out of full time education at 13 years old due to no understanding or appropriate support offered. I was a statistic lost in the system. Two decades later, whilst many of the same issues continue to be present across schools, I refuse to have the same thing happen to my children.

Since 2023, I have been combining professional and lived experience and working with the SEND and education community to produce a teacher’s guide titled, ‘I WANT TO LEARN, TOO…PLEASE INCLUDE ME.’ It’s essentially a useful book full of explanations and reasonable adjustments, largely to support mainstream schools develop their inclusive practice, but essentially, to support any education practitioner/setting and even parent/carers to have greater confidence and skills in knowing how to support neurodivergent children. Some of the most obvious and basic support measures are just not being implemented at national level or made mandatory which could make such a huge difference to children accessing education…their basic human right!

Having a system focusing so heavily on figures, tick boxes, attendance and attainment continues to feed the current crisis, seeing a drastic rise in the inability to access school (commonly misrepresented as ‘school avoidance’) and children’s mental health decline. Whilst the number of children now being homeschooled is rocketing, currently up to 180,000 as of 2023, and continues to rise rapidly, homeschooling should still remain a choice and not a forced option, which is sadly not the case, given the drastic shortage of SEND places, lack of SEND training and facilities, and the unfair expectations of mainstream to successfully support and educate more and more children with special educational needs whilst being under-staffed, under-funded, under-resourced, and under-trained.

With the growing awareness and acceptance of neurodivergence, comes the greater need for adapting education making it fit for purpose and appropriate for all learners.

Given the education system across the UK continues to fail thousands of children by not meeting their needs, leaving children with no appropriate provision to attend, it’s vital initiatives like these are listened to and supported. Reasonable adjustments can be quick and easy implementations, making classrooms, displays, resources, uniforms, language and communication much more accessible. The guide is effectively a teacher’s bible…something I wish my teachers would have had access to when they taught me, or something that could have helped broaden my knowledge and professionalism as I trained to be a teacher myself. It’s time local authorities and the government started listening to the people who know!

So now the initiative is finalised, I’d like to turn it into a book and get it in front of local authorities, teacher trainers, schools and any education professional that is keen to see the same positive changes as I am. But here is where I’m hit with extensive costs! I need to pay an editor, purchase an ISBN and then cover print costs. The amount is stacking up and I can’t let finances hold me back now when I’m so close to crossing the finish line and supporting children the way they deserve. I need people’s support.

Please help me to make the much needed changes, whether local or at national level, by helping me to produce enough books and put in front of the big decision makers. Yes I’m ambitious and aiming big…the children deserve nothing less!

In a world where you can be anything - BE INCLUSIVE!

Thank you,

Jade Berrow-Hill

The Art of Inclusion