Let’s Rewrite the Inclusion Playbook: Making Learning Accessible

In the second of three blogs, Marius Frank examines the meaning of inclusion at a moment when the term is under renewed scrutiny—shaped by Ofsted’s focus on belonging and thriving, and by the SEND Reforms White Paper Putting Children and Young People First. With schools facing intense pressure around attendance, behaviour, progress and attainment, the blog challenges leaders to ask whether inclusion has become a blurred and politicised concept, too often reduced to labels, compliance or debates about exclusion rather than used as a driver for change.

Drawing on work with hundreds of schools, Frank proposes a shift in language and mindset: from inclusion to accessibility. Accessibility places responsibility on the system, not the child, and aligns with the social model of disability. It asks schools to remove academic, emotional and environmental barriers so that all learners can access learning meaningfully.

The paper is clear that outstanding teaching does not guarantee outstanding learning if a learner’s internal world is anxious, traumatised or unsupported. Neurodivergent learners, many hidden or misunderstood, are disproportionately represented in absence, suspension and exclusion data. While Assistive Technologies, including AI-enabled tools, offer powerful ways to widen access in mainstream classrooms, the blog identifies a critical missing piece: social and emotional accessibility. The next step, Frank argues, is the deliberate creation of neuroinclusive classrooms: designed not to manage behaviour, but to unlock engagement, progress and attainment for every child.

I want to pause for a moment and reflect on a word we use constantly in education, often with good intent, but increasingly with very different meanings attached to it: inclusion.

What do we actually mean by the word “Inclusion”?

I’m writing this at a time when inclusion sits at the heart of multiple pressures facing schools. Ofsted now talks explicitly about belonging and thriving, attendance and behaviour are being brought together in new accountability frameworks, and the SEND Reforms White Paper asks us to rethink how we support children and young people. Yet despite all this attention, I find myself increasingly uneasy about how the word inclusion is being used – and misused – across the system.

When I look across the education landscape, I see inclusion stretched thin. For some, it means a moral commitment to equity and fairness. For others, it refers narrowly to SEND, EHCPs and compliance. In some contexts, inclusion has become shorthand for a perceived lack of discipline, while exclusion is framed as a necessary corrective. The language has hardened. Fixed‑term exclusions become “suspensions”; permanent exclusions become “expulsions”. Inclusion, meanwhile, is sometimes dismissed as a soft or naïve alternative to “proper” standards and behaviour.

I worry that, in this climate, inclusion has lost its power to change anything.

Can we talk about “Access to Learning” instead?

Over the past few years at Microlink, my thinking has been shaped by working alongside nearly seven hundred school communities, as well as by Microlink’s long history supporting accessibility in workplaces, universities and beyond. That experience has led me to search for a different narrative : one that moves us out of binary arguments and back towards something practical, ethical and effective.

The phrase I would like to propose is: Making Learning Accessible

Unlike inclusion, accessibility makes it immediately clear where responsibility sits. It places the onus not on the child, but on the system: on schools, organisations and communities to remove barriers that get in the way of learning, participation and progress. It aligns directly with the social model of disability, asking us to focus less on what is “wrong” with learners and more on how environments, relationships and expectations can exclude without meaning to.

When learning is compromised

When we talk seriously about access to learning, something important happens. We are forced to confront an uncomfortable truth: outstanding teaching does not always produce outstanding learning. Learning will not take place if a child’s internal world is anxious, frightened or traumatised. Neuroscience tells us this clearly. An overwhelmed or dysregulated brain cannot learn, however well planned the lesson.

We see this every day in our schools. We see it in the children who are persistently absent, often because school does not feel emotionally safe or accessible. We see it in exclusion data, where neurodivergent children are disproportionately represented. Many of these children are invisible – compliant, trying their best, but quietly failing to access learning. Others are highly visible, their unmet needs expressed through behaviour that masks deeper difficulties. What sits beneath the surface of this “behaviour iceberg” is often a complex mix of neurodivergence, trauma, poverty, illness and systemic disadvantage.

Using Assistive Technologies to “drop the curb”

Over the last three years, our work delivering DfE‑funded programmes on Assistive Technologies has shown me just how powerful accessibility can be when it is taken seriously. Tools such as text‑to‑speech and speech‑to‑text, particularly as AI has accelerated their effectiveness, can transform access to the curriculum. When these tools are normalised, when children can reach for them as easily as they reach for a pencil, we see potential shifts in engagement and confidence, including for learners who are not formally identified as having SEND.

Social and emotional accessibility

But we also learned something crucial: technological access on its own is not enough.

Again and again, schools told us that something was missing. That missing piece is social and emotional accessibility. Without emotionally accessible classrooms – spaces built on safety, co‑regulation, trust and relationship – the best tools in the world will fall short. This is why I now believe the next step in our thinking must be the deliberate creation of neuroinclusive classrooms.

Welcome to the Neuroinclusive Classroom

Let’s grow a psychologically safe and unburdened learning ecosystem. Spaces where connection, not compliance, is the guiding principle. Where engagement, progress and attainment follow because children feel able to be present, regulated and supported.

For me, rethinking inclusion as accessibility is not about lowering expectations or excusing challenge. It is about building systems that genuinely work for the realities of childhood today. If we are serious about improving attendance, engagement and outcomes, then this is the rethink I believe our system now needs.

The Neuroinclusive Classroom is not a product to buy; it is a movement to join.

We are building a Community of Practice: teachers, leaders, SENCOs and governors, committed to learning together, sharing insights, and reshaping classrooms so that fewer children are left behind.

-If you believe education must do better by all children, not just the easiest to teach;
-If you are tired of firefighting behaviour rather than unlocking learning;
-If you recognise that accessibility (physical, curricular, digital, social and emotional) is the next frontier of school improvement:

Then we invite you to stand with us.

Change the culture. Change the experience. Change the outcome.

Find out more and express your interest here.

25% Discount available to SSAT member schools.

Coming up in my third blog, I will describe the why? and the how? behind a new framing of inclusive practice, in an age where SEND Reform is a reality, and school communities are expected to tangibly demonstrate “belonging” and “thriving”; Welcome to the Neuroinclusive Classroom

Revisit Marius’ first blog: Disabled by Circumstance: Widening our understanding and application of the social model of disability

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Marius Frank, Co-Head of Education at Microlink PC UK Ltd, is a pioneering educational leader with a background in Brain Sciences and neurophysiology. He has held senior roles including Headteacher, CEO of ASDAN Education and strategic lead at Achievement for All, driving national school improvement and inclusive practice. Marius champions Assistive Technologies, trauma-informed practice, and systemic innovation, notably through the Be ThAT Teacher and Raising Attainment with Wellbeing programmes. He is currently developing the “Neuroinclusive Classroom,” integrating AI and neuroinclusive practice to make learning genuinely accessible for all.

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