This book ought to have a different title: something mentioning multicultural perspectives might have been helpful. Title apart, it is an excellent and well-thought-out volume.

“Inclusive education” has become a multi-faceted idea that encompasses greater levels of participation in general, but Gardner focuses on enabling pupils from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds to work effectively and benefit from their schools.

This is a necessary task since there aren’t many books that focus on multicultural education as an aspect of inclusion, thus making this book as original as it is useful.

Amid strategies to help children with language and advice on making curricular materials more culturally diverse, there is also advice on group work and the work of classroom assistants. The focus is on individual needs (with a range of photocopiable sheets provided) as well as systemic change - for example in developing the work of classroom assistants.

There is a crispness to the writing that is seldom found in books on education. Gardner paints pictures rather than delivering lessons; the result is readable and engaging. This is an estimable book that all schools should possess.