Our brief lesson documentation is based on work done in class 3b. There are 15 regular pupils and 5 pupils with various disabilities in this class. According to Austrian law these 5 pupils make it possible to employ a second full-time teacher, who is present in all lessons.

There is a lot to be said in favour of this kind of integration as all pupils with disabilities in this class live within the catchment area of the school and thereby ensure that all the children in the community are educated together. This, of course, does not mean that learning targets are identical as intellectual and physical resources may be widely different. Generally, the policy is to use the primary school curriculum whenever possible and to switch to the special needs curriculum where appropriate.

What is there to be gained by educating the two groups of pupils together? Primary school pupils learn how to live with disabled children in a natural and uncomplicated way. Sharing the same classroom helps to create a non-competitive and more collaborative atmosphere. The pupils develop an awareness of their own abilities, which in turn boosts their self-confidence. In addition, many of them offer help to slower pupils, they learn how to share, support and co-operate. Moreover, it has been shown in a study that the general level of achievement of regular pupils is certainly not lower in classes with special needs children.

Advantages for special needs children seem self-evident: they are not sent to a "home-like" institution, but are allowed to grow up in their community. They are exposed to a normal learning and living environment, and they learn through experience that their disability does not exclude them from the lives of the others.

Special needs children will, of course, always remain special, but in more than one sense of the word.