About the Inclusive School Communities Project

The Inclusive School Communities Project, delivered by JFA Purple Orange and governed by a steering group, will build the capacity of at least 12 South Australian schools for the development of inclusive school communities. The purpose of the project is to facilitate improved access and inclusion of students living with disability in mainstream primary and secondary schools in South Australia. People living with disability are involved in co-design and co-production project activities; playing a lead role in the development of inclusive school communities. 

The project methodology is a ‘cascade’ Community of Practice (CoP), where a cohort of school leaders already engaging in inclusive practices form a CoP along with ‘Inclusive School Mentors’, young people living with disability who carry rich experience of their own education journey. The CoP will meet regularly to reflect on and deepen policy and practice geared for diversity and inclusion. 

JFA Purple Orange intends to harvest examples of inclusive education practices, including culture and leadership, drawn from the CoP into an ‘Inclusive School Toolkit’. This will become a continuously growing body of information, across a range of formats and accessible to all schools, which we hope will stimulate the replication of good practices across the system. The first CoP will influence and inspire a second cohort of schools, which will form the second CoP and these schools will undergo a similar process of inclusive school planning and implementation. 

The Inclusive School Communities Project is funded by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Information Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Jurisdictional Based Grants. The project commenced on 1 July 2018 and will conclude on 30 June 2020. We hope this methodology will create sufficient momentum to develop inbuilt sustainability and roll out practice to an increasing number of schools in South Australia.