It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas… actually it's pretty much here, we’re on holiday after this week for a bit of rest and recuperation and, and a good dollop of cheer too, I hope. Do you get time off now? And your school, how's it looking? Is it decorated for the holidays? Maybe teachers have done special lessons to celebrate too. It feels so heart-warming, it adds a glow, everybody loves Christmas, right? While there's much to love, perhaps we should think about our students and our colleagues who might feel like they're on the outside looking in, who is marginalised by all this and, really, how inclusive is Christmas?

Let's just think for a moment about who might feel marginalised at this time of year.

If we live in a country where Christianity is part of the underlying culture, our students and colleagues from other backgrounds might feel ill at ease at this time of year, for sure.

And, of course, many people are struggling with financial hardship and the pressure to buy presents for their loved ones can be overwhelming. So many of us overspend and over consume at this time of year, and many can afford it, that too can feel marginalising.

Perhaps we can think too of how in many parts of the world a northern European or North American version of Christmas with snow and ice, sleighs and winter wonderlands seems just a bit odd. I write from Cádiz, in the south of Spain, I don't think its ever snowed here and yet there's a somewhat incongruous ice-rink in a Christmas grotto in the middle of the town square. Whose Christmas is it anyway?

Others just don't like the fuss, the noise, the disturbance to routine. Here we could think about people within our school communities who might be noise-sensitive, for example. Some of our neurodiverse students might feel uncomfortable by the whole thing.

We should of course celebrate our communities and provide warmth through the colder months and our schools and classrooms can be part of that too. We shouldn't cancel Christmas, but maybe we can just think about who is in and who is out, who's included and who's not and what we might do about it.

There's a wonderful metaphor of a party, appropriately for this time of year, it is often used around the difference between diversity and inclusivity. Diversity is about being invited to the party and inclusivity is being asked to dance. How many people are on the outside looking in and want to be “in”? The challenge, of course, is how we can help each and every person in our school communities be able to join. And also how can we make it fine for them to be less involved too, many people prefer to be on the sidelines and that’s great too. Let's find a way to make it comfortable for all.

Inclusivity is arguably our biggest challenge in education moving forward, and perhaps one of our greatest social issues too. Being inclusive is good for our schools and good for our businesses on so many levels. When more people feel more comfortable in our schools, more people will come, we can help more people learn and everyone wins. Inclusivity brings some challenges, for example, what should we do around Christmas?, and it brings success. An inclusive school is and, importantly, in the years to come,  will be more successful. Inclusivity is good for all individuals throughout our organisations, it's good for society and its good for business.

There are a number of different aspects of inclusivity to explore and engage in as language school leaders and sometimes its difficult to know where to start. At Active Language Teacher Training we want to help. We embed inclusivity in all our Trinity CertTESOL and Teaching Younger Learners courses in different ways, both implicitly and explicitly. We talk at conferences about some of these issues too.

In every session the message is clear, both teachers and language school leaders want and need more; more training on understanding, on approaches and methologies, and more help with individual, specific situations. We'll soon be launching an Inclusivity in ELT stand alone course for all English language teaching professionals.

We're also delighted to tell you about a new service from Active Language Teacher Training called “Inclusivity Direct”, it’s a direct line where you can ask any questions about inclusivity in your schools. Just email us at training@activelanguage.net and we'll do our best to respond within 24 hours Monday to Friday. Inclusivity Direct is only a few weeks old and already we've helped a number of people with their inclusivity questions. Please do use the service, it's freely available and designed to help you.

Managing in TEFL is written by Simon Pearlman and brought to you by Active Language Teacher Training, www.activelanguage.net providers of Trinity CertTESOL, DipTESOL and Teaching Younger Learners courses, see our website for more information.

You can subscribe to Managing in TEFL on LinkedIn or direct to your inbox by emailing us at training@activelanguage.net

This is the last edition of Managing in TEFL, we'll be back in the new year. Wishing you all the best, Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannukah and Bohdi Day to those who celebrate them.