Including Pupils with Down’s Syndrome

Primary education aim of this booklet

Many more children with Down’s syndrome are now entering mainstream primary schools. This is the result of several factors.
Pressure from parents with support from voluntary organisations led to the 1981 and 1993 Education Acts which encouraged LEAs to integrate pupils with special needs into mainstream schools if the parents so wished; more recently the 1997 Green Paper, Excellence for All Children: Meeting Special Educational Needs, with its push for inclusion, proposed that more pupils with SEN should attend mainstream schools.

Inevitably, many teachers will find the idea of including children with Down’s syndrome into their classrooms daunting and will initially be apprehensive. However, experience shows that most teachers have the skills to understand these children’s particular individual needs and are able to teach them effectively and sensitively.

This booklet is to inform teachers about the learning profile typical of children with Down’s syndrome and good practice in their education, thus paving the way to successful inclusion.