Head of Inclusion, Director of Inclusion, SENCO, inclusion lead, leader of provision: UAE schools use several titles for the same job. Whatever the title, the person holding it is accountable for how the school identifies, supports and evidences the progress of students of determination, and they are the person inspectors want to talk to. This page describes the role as it works in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and what to do first if you have just taken it on.
What the role owns
- The register. The single list of students with special educational or additional learning needs, their level of support, their plans and their review dates. The head of inclusion owns its accuracy.
- Identification and admissions. Assessing educational need on entry, advising on admissions decisions, and, in Abu Dhabi, assembling the evidence behind any inability-to-accommodate notification to ADEK.
- The planning cycle. Individual plans with measurable targets, the Assess–Plan–Do–Review rhythm, and review meetings that produce decisions.
- The team. Inclusion teachers, learning support or inclusion assistants, and the wider Inclusion Support Team that KHDA's framework requires in Dubai, with the principal and the champion for inclusive education on it.
- Teachers' practice. Training and coaching so that strategies happen in every classroom, not only in the support room.
- Families and specialists. The relationship with parents, therapists, special education centres and, where relevant, the regulator.
- Evidence. Everything above, written down in a way an inspector or an ADEK reviewer can follow.
What the regulators expect of you
In Dubai, KHDA's framework makes the leader of provision a required member of the Inclusion Support Team alongside the principal, support teachers and the champion for inclusive education, and it expects the school to identify need on entry, to admit fairly and to monitor and report progress. In Abu Dhabi, ADEK's policy expects qualified inclusion teachers rather than relabelled support staff, an inclusion team rather than a lone coordinator, and written evidence before any student is turned away. In both emirates the inclusion judgement in inspection rests heavily on the systems this role runs.
The first 90 days
Days 1 to 30: find out what is true. Reconcile the register against the timetable and the plans. For every student on it, confirm the lead adult, the last review date and whether the strategies in the plan are visible in lessons. Meet every teacher who supports a student of determination. Read the last inspection report's inclusion section twice.
Days 31 to 60: fix the cycle. Set review dates for every plan and put them in diaries. Cut targets to a measurable few. Introduce a tracking habit that takes seconds. Establish or revive the Inclusion Support Team with an agenda that produces decisions.
Days 61 to 90: make it the school's system, not yours. Train teachers on the strategies most of your students need. Agree with leadership how inclusion appears in appraisal, planning and governance. Write the improvement plan from the gaps you found, with dates and owners.
The traps
- Becoming the only person who knows. If provision lives in your head, it stops when you are absent. Write it down and share it.
- Measuring activity, not progress. Sessions delivered is not the question; whether the student moved is.
- Waiting for reports. Both regulators expect a response to need, not to a diagnosis. Start the cycle while the referral is pending.
- Leaving parents to the end. Families who know the plan reinforce it at home; families who are surprised at review contest it.
The tools that make the job possible
A head of inclusion needs a strategy library that teachers will actually use, a plan format that fits on a page, tracking that lives where teaching happens, and a register that is a view of live records rather than a separate spreadsheet. That is the toolset Nooravi is built to be: expert-reviewed strategies, the plan and the evidence in one place, shared with families, ready for the review and the inspection.
Sources
- KHDA — Dubai Inclusive Education Policy Framework (2017)
- ADEK — Education for People of Determination
Job titles, contracts and statutory duties vary by school and emirate; this page describes common practice, not a legal definition of the role.