Review by Shekeila Scarlett

Chair of governors, Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form

5 Jul 2025, 5:00

Blog

The Conversation

Purposeful communication

Having navigated the challenges of studying this year while also coming to terms with my neurodivergence, I found it timely and affirming to come across a blog exploring creative approaches to home education for neurodivergent children.

Michelle Choairy outlines five key strategies for creating an environment that supports meaningful learning: breaking the mould, transforming everyday spaces, blending technology with tactile experiences, fostering curiosity, and—my personal favourite—building community.

What struck me most while reading (and scribbling notes) was how each strategy is rooted in meeting individual needs with empathy. It’s about making minor, thoughtful adjustments that help children feel seen and transforming safe spaces at home into supportive, dual-purpose learning environments.

Best of all, the same principles could easily inspire more inclusive approaches to things like homework or revision spaces. Why not make them part of your community-building?

Purposeful reading

One of the things we want all children do at home is read – for learning and for fun – and the above could help with that. In school, our role is to model and support that activity, and this blog is a helpful reminder that to do that, we must be intentional about making their reading purposeful.

Purposeful reading isn’t just about decoding words but about contextualising texts with subject knowledge, so students truly understand why they’re reading – whatever the subject.

The blog’s emphasis on scaffolding, discipline-specific approaches and choosing rich, curriculum-aligned texts made me think about how I, as someone who doesn’t teach, can influence or better support young people I work with to read differently. It requires a shift from encouraging reading as a generic skill to fostering deep engagement with the content.

After all, how else can we hope to empower young people with the confidence to question, analyse and make sense of what they read?

Purposeful inclusion

Lastly, and with Schools Diversity Week just behind us, I wanted to reflect here on something that has grown increasingly important to me since completing a course with the Institute of Equity, University Centre this year.

That course has transformed my approach to EDI, and the bee it put in my bonnet is diversity in leadership.

It’s in that context that I read this blog by Yasmina Koné, and it really resonated with me. It explores how schools can embed cultural awareness into leadership and practice and how doing so benefits the entire school community.

Drawing on insights from HMC’s recent deputy heads’ conference and conversations with Katie Shapiro and Dr Clare Ives, Koné outlines three key takeaways.

The first is the importance of cultural awareness in pastoral care, and Koné calls for concrete investment in staff development. As someone who’s benefitted from similar training, I can’t emphasise enough how necessary this is for meaningful progress.

The second insight was perhaps the most doable: the importance of consistency in the everyday. Inclusion isn’t about grand statements; it’s about making equity and belonging the norm. Small daily acts speak volumes and it goes without saying that inclusion should not require extra effort but should be embedded.

The final insight stuck me the most. It’s about empowering students to be inclusive, right from the start. It reminded me of a TikTok I watched recently, where a young girl – no older than five – was in tears because she couldn’t wear a hijab like her Muslim friend.

In a follow-up video, her parents let her wear one to school, and the child was visibly and verbally ecstatic about it. It was such a touching moment and a perfect example of what happens when young people are exposed to environments where inclusion is normalised.

With the right teaching and encouragement, children instinctively adopt values like respect, curiosity and empathy toward the diverse ways of being they come across.

This blog also rightfully notes that inclusive practice isn’t just the responsibility of EDI leads; it belongs to all of us.

I urge you to read it. Purposefully.

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