Parents

Professional learning opportunities related to inclusive practice:

Inclusion in Practice: The CIRCLE Framework - Secondary information published by Education Scotland about a badged professional learning module which has been designed to support equitable professional learning on inclusive practice for education practitioners in secondary schools and local authorities in Scotland.​ It is based on The CIRCLE Framework, a collaboration between practitioners in Edinburgh City, Queen Margaret University and NHS Lothian, that has been adapted for modular learning by Education Scotland.​​

A guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education published by UNESCO in 2017 and linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 for education.

How to include children with special education needs and disabilities post published June 2017 on the British Council website discusses the benefits of an inclusive approach and the teaching methods used in one particular school.

#IncludED in the Main?!: Report published in 2016 by Enable Scotland which outlines 22 steps on the journey to inclusion for every person with a learning disability.

Communication Access Literacy and Learning (CALL) Scotland: Comprising a Research and Development centre as well as a working Service unit, CALL helps children and young people across Scotland to overcome disability and barriers to learning. Service includes workshops, webinars and resources.

Right to Education: Breaking down the barriers: A massive open online course (MOOC) on Futurelearn by University of Glasgow. Exploring how we can support those who are marginalised and excluded from education. Does education for all, mean all? Follow @UofGInclusiveEd and #FLrighttoeducation on social media.

Scottish Network for Able Pupils: Based at University of Glasgow, this network raises awareness about highly able pupils and works with teachers and schools to disseminate teaching and learning developments within the research field.

Specific to languages

Critical Connections. Moving Forward with Multilingual Digital Storytelling: An international project which involves students, teachers and parents where film making is used as a means to encourage students to engage with language learning and embrace intercultural literacy as well as digital literacy. A handbook for teachers is available to download for free.

Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching: A massive open online course (MOOC) on Futurelearn by University of Lancaster. Gain practical tools and theoretical insights to help dyslexic students learn second languages, with this free online course. Follow #FLdyslexia on social media.

Inclusive Practice in Language Learning: This new blog featuring examples of inclusive practice in language learning is moderated by Catriona Oates, Lecturer at University of West of Scotland.

Multilingual learning for a globalised world: A massive open online course (MOOC) on Futurelearn by University of Glasgow. This free online course will explore multilingual education and how it can impact and improve education and even wider society. Follow @UoGMultilingua and #FLMultilingua on social media.

PRO-sign is a set of descriptors and approaches to assessment for signed languages.  It aligns with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) that is used to assess other non-signed languages. PRO-Sign has been developed by the European Centre for Modern Languages/Le Centre Européen pour les Langues Vivantes (ECML/CELV) based in Graz, Austria.

Moorfoot Primary and Garvel Deaf Centre in Gourock support parents of deaf and hearing children with learning BSL. In conjunction with Education Scotland, SCILT produced a case study which highlights how BSL features greatly within the school, in addition to the other languages taught and engages parents with their children's learning. Parents, pupils and staff share their experience of using and learning BSL and emphasise the value, significance and importance of all language learning and the impact it can have locally and beyond.

Capability Scotland's Corseford school in Kilbarchan in Renfrewshire supports children and young people with complex health, education, movement and communication needs aged 5-18 to achieve their potential. Children in the primary and secondary classes have the opportunity to learn Spanish. In 2015, Corseford won the ‘Making Languages Come Alive (Primary) category at the Scottish Education Awards. For additional information, see the SCILT case study of Corseford’s language provision.

Signs of equality: an article in Issue 68 of the GTCS Teaching Scotland magazine by Janis McDonald, Chief Officer of Scottish Council on Deafness (now deafscotland). Janis proposes that communication through a visual language should be available to all those with hearing difficulties.  The innovative project at Dingwall Academy, which has seen the introduction of British Sign Language (BSL) alongside French, German and Gaelic is one which also features in Issue 28 of SCILT’s open access online journal, the Scottish Languages Review.

Lingo Flamingo: inspired by recent research which shows that speaking a foreign language can postpone the effects of dementia by up to 5 years, this social enterprise works alongside Bilingualism Matters in various communities in Scotland.  The organisation’s mission is to engage with local communities and care providers to offer tailored outreach language workshops to older adults with the aim of delaying the effects of dementia by keeping older adult’s brains’ fit and active. Follow @lingoflamingo1 on Twitter to find out more.

Into Film puts film at the heart of the educational and personal development of children and young people across the UK. They have produced teaching resources with SEN focus to accompany films in a variety of languages:

• Lola rennt/Run Lola run (German)
• Une vie de chat/ A cat in Paris (French)
• CJ7 (Chinese)
• Review writing resource

Ceitidh is the Gaelic language computer voice for text readers and assistive technology. Licenced for schools, colleges, universities and NHS patients, it is available from CALL Scotland.

Books for all Scotland (Glow login required). Ever growing repository of books includes some text books for French, German and Spanish at various stages. "I find this site invaluable because we can download on to iPads and then the screen and fonts can be adapted for dyslexic students and students with sight issues." (Secondary school teacher, Moray)

LEANS Project - Working together with educators, community members and schools, the Learning About Neurodiversity at School project has developed a free classroom activity pack for mainstream pupils and their teachers to learn about neurodiversity. The pack aims to teach neurodiversity concepts in real classrooms and support inclusive attitudes. It will be freely available from June 2022.

D’Almeida, E. (2015) Modern Foreign Languages in the classroom: is inclusion exclusion in disguise? PhD thesis, Aston University [Online]

Autism and bilingualism - fact sheets for parents about autism and language learning. These are available online and to download in 10 different languages.

British Dyslexia Association: Is it possible for someone who is dyslexic to learn a foreign language?

Sound Advice, technology for inclusion (Ireland) http://sound-advice.ie/modern-foreign-languages/ includes the BCC Modern Foreign Languages film clip (7 mins 33) by the National Deaf Children’s Society.