This paper focuses on strategies deployed by a secondary school located in a very disadvantaged context to prevent absenteeism and early dropout of students. Diamantino School offers compulsory lower secondary education and is one of four secondary schools officially classified as ‘low-performing’ in Seville. Although about a quarter of the students requires special educational support, the school achieves better rates of promotion and graduation than the schools with similar socioeconomic and cultural index (SECI). Ainscow’s (2005) conceptualization of inclusion is applied as an analytical framework for the data analysis in the sense of a never-ending process of analysis of what works and what does not; the use of evidence of various forms to identify and remove barriers and then create or adapt new methodologies and organisational arrangements, focusing on ‘the presence, participation and achievement of all students’; and putting the emphasis on ‘those groups of learners who may be at risk of marginalisation, exclusion or underachievement’. The study has a qualitative case study design and the analysis draws on various data sources such as semi-structured interviews, key documents, and survey data that are triangulated to provide a rich account on school leaders’ and teachers’ perceptions and practices of inclusion. Findings show that the school implements a long list of strategies to promote inclusion of special-needs students, including: a reinforcement programme for core subjects in 4th grade; flexible groupings for the teaching of English; group split and double –even triple—teaching; support activities arranged with a long list of external collaborating entities; their own curricular adaptations in a large number of lessons; etc. Moreover, an important strategy to prevent absenteeism and dropout is the flexible grouping of students: students can change groups even within the same academic year, and the groups are not the same for all subjects. In addition, a group is split when there is a support teacher, or the group is maintained with two or even three teachers in the class. This job of periodically rearranging the groups is very demanding for the leadership team. For this purpose, the team analyses the learning trajectory of each pupil using multiple criteria and often interviews the family. In conclusion, this case study illustrates how a school has developed strategies to accommodate individual students’ needs in collective group settings.

Ainscow, M. (2005). Developing inclusive education systems: What are the levers for change? Journal of Educational Change, 6, 109-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10833-005-1298-4.