Linguistic diversity is becoming the norm in an increasing number of English schools, and issues of inclusion, diversity and achievement have become a powerful agenda for change in education policy in England: In England, we have seen a movement away from seeing learning in a second language from a deficit perspective towards a focus on providing equal opportunities in the mainstream and raising the attainment of every student in the school with high expectations for all. (Bourne, 2003) Yet Initial Teacher Education in England operates in a monolingual framework. Despite increasing numbers of pupils speaking a diversity of languages at home, bilingual pupils are still conceptualised in policy terms as a "problem" underlining an absence of linguistic integration. Too often in Initial Teacher Education, bilingual pupils are perceived in schools (if they are perceived at all) as a grouped difficulty requiring English as an Additional Language support: The dominant model of the English education system has been of remediation, aiming to compensate for presumed deficits in the language capacities that bilingual children bring to the school. (Cummins, 2003) This deficit conceptualisation is underlined in the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status (Teacher Training Agency, 2002), against which trainees have to demonstrate competence. Although rising numbers of trainee teachers are learning to teach in classrooms with an increasing diversity of bilingual pupils: 95% of newly qualified teachers who commented were not satisfied with how well their training prepared them to work with children with English as an additional language, (Teacher Training Agency survey, 2003). The positive attributes of bilingual learners, in relation to the preparedness of trainees to teach bilingual pupils effectively, have been largely absent from debates around policy and research. This research, drawing mainly on research sites linked with the Open University's distance learning flexible Postgraduate Certificate of Education, questions the preparedness of trainees to teach bilingual pupils effectively, and argues for a more positive model of bilingualism to be a feature of the inclusion agenda in teacher education. The paper reports findings from a series of case studies of training schools, drawing on interview data, questionnaire responses from trainees and policy document analysis in which national, local, school and individual teacher/trainee contexts are used to raise important questions about how the learning needs of bilingual pupils can be met in Initial Teacher Education.