One of the things we forget in schools is that each lesson affects and is affected by the ones that come before and after. While it is commonly agreed that the last lesson on a Friday afternoon, particularly if the weather is bad, can be difficult, few of us look beyond this being a reality of school timetabling – I think this is a mistake.
First, we know that we all get tired: students and teachers. It is important to recognise this. Often there is little we can do about it – but acknowledgment can make a huge difference.
By Friday afternoon, we are ready for home. But this is not the only time that tiredness hits. It might be after a PE lesson, after lunch, or as a result of a busy or difficult weekend, a bad night’s sleep, and so on.
Recognising our emotions and feelings and supporting students to do the same is a key step in self-regulation.
This is important on a daily/weekly basis but also at particular points in the year – transitioning back into school after an end-of-term break, or the added impact of events such as concerts, school trips, sporting fixtures, and proms.
We are often aware of the impact of multiple stresses on students and their ability to focus on and engage with learning. This is why schools track multiple cohorts of students with different vulnerabilities. We hopefully have systems and strategies to support this.
Stress, anxiety, and special needs among many other factors can impact students’ engagement and readiness to learn, but this is only part of the story.
The cumulative impact of school
What we are less conscious of and less prepared to manage and support is the cumulative impact. We understand what happens as students become “hyped up”, but they are expected to be able to self-regulate, calm, and engage in learning afterwards. This is not such an easy matter but is well known to anyone who has attempted to teach maths to a group who have just had art, PE, drama, an assembly full of singing or indeed lunch beforehand.
Managing these changes of pace, expectations and direction is not easy for adults or indeed the most well-regulated of students. It is particularly hard when we don’t acknowledge these difficulties.
We expect, as if by magic, students to be able to turn off their movement, noise and excitement and turn on their focus, concentration, and ability to sit still.
This will not happen without recognition of the issue and support. So how do we do this?
Own and name it
In schools, we spend time on supporting students to recognise emotions and feelings. Often this is in the abstract and we rarely model it. By recognising and naming the change of pace we can support students to manage it.
Further, we can model the strategies that help us to refocus and regulate. For example, “taking a minute”, breathing deeply or simple grounding exercises – five things I can see, four things I can hear, three things I can touch, two things I can smell, and one thing I can taste. There are many other examples.
Talk to other staff and the students
The more we know what has happened in the lessons or times before the students come to us the better. Simply acknowledging that they are excited to come in from lunch or that we know the previous lesson involved a lot of movement and higher noise levels and that this lesson is going to be different is useful.
Meet and greet
Meet and greet the class as they come in. A simple smile and a hello will make the child feel welcome, wanted, and included and will support a positive start to the lesson. This also enables you to make a quick assessment of students’ readiness to learn. Then if required, you can re-set expectations, providing support to the class and/or individuals so they are ready to learn.
Support transitions
The beginning of each lesson is a transition and many of our students struggle with transitions. This is exacerbated if it requires a change of energy level and/or includes the unexpected. The more we can reduce uncertainty, the easier it is for students to transition lesson to lesson.
Techniques include verbal pre-warnings, visual timetables, and (for some) now and next cards. We should not assume that all students can read and process a normal school timetable, particularly when they are anxious. Breaking the timetable down to a day at a time and adding visuals can help. Breaking down the lesson, for example with a visual tracker along the bottom of the board to show the stages, can also be useful.
Alongside any visual timetable, we need to use an “oops card”. Unfortunately, things do not always go as planned, so this card can be used to mark a change from the plan and allows you the opportunity to explain it and make it feel safe.
It is supportive to keep the first activity of each lesson predictable, so the students know what is going to be happening in the first minutes as they settle, re-adjust, and attune to the new setting and changes in expectations. A simple whiteboard slide listing what to do as the students enter (an activity which is similar in structure each time) supports this.
If the students are staying in the same room, but changing to a different lesson, a simple movement break marks the transition from one lesson to the next. This can be moving from the table to the carpet, getting out new books, or just standing up and sitting down again.
Share the planning
If you are lucky enough to have a teaching assistant or other additional adult in your classroom, it is vital to share the planning with them. When teaching assistants know what is coming up in the lesson and how it will be presented, they are able to support students calmly, relevantly, and effectively. However, it is difficult for them to do this when they are not certain what to do or what to expect. This uncertainty and lack of preparedness feeds into their own stress and anxiety levels. This in turn feeds into the anxiety levels of those they are trying to support and so sets up a vicious cycle of anxiety and stress.
For more advice on the deployment of teaching assistants in the classroom, read my recent seven-page Best Practice Focus for Headteacher Update.
Remember not all students like all activities
Often when life at school is becoming stressed, particularly towards the end of a term, we turn to less pressurised activities or learning (videos, fun quizzes). However, for some students, these activities increase rather than reduce stress. They are an “oops” moment that is unexpected and unplanned.
This difference from “the norm” can make this difficult to manage for some students. The rules and expectations are less clear. That is not to say we avoid these activities, but that we remember and consider those who would prefer a standard maths lesson to a Christmas-related one, for example.
Know your students’ triggers
It is important for adults to know, understand and where possible pre-empt students’ triggers. For some this will mean knowing that their blood sugar levels drop after a PE lesson and a timely snack will prevent a meltdown. For others, the noise of a music lesson will be overwhelming, and they will need ear protectors and a quiet five minutes drawing before moving onto the next lesson or activity.
It is also key to share this information so that it travels up through the school with the child.
Support over school holidays
We need to think beyond the school term. As we reach the school holidays, there is an assumption that everyone is looking forward to the change and the break. Yet there are some students (and adults) who prefer the routine and security of school. There are others who fear that their holidays may not be fun. They might be worried about poverty or domestic abuse or responsibilities as a young carer without the relief that time in school allows. For many students school is a place of safety and warmth (literal and figurative).
We need to reassure them that they are not forgotten, even though school is closed. We need to ensure that these students have access to sources of support and a clear safety plan in place if needed.
Final thoughts
We often see the school day as a series of individual lessons, but for students it is a continuous stream of linked and inter-related activities. These clearly have an impact on and are affected by each other and the events that come before and after school. Students do not enter our classrooms as a blank canvas. We need to consider their previous experiences and where needed allow and support a re-set from one lesson or activity to the next.
And remember – the last five minutes of our lessons is the first five minutes of the next. If we send students out late, over-excited and with their belongings half-stuffed into their bags, this will affect how they engage in the next lesson.
- Sara Alston is an experienced SENCO and safeguarding lead who also works as a SEND, inclusion and safeguarding consultant and trainer. Sara’s book Working Effectively With Your Teaching Assistant will be published in February 2023. Visit www.seainclusion.co.uk, follow her on Twitter @seainclusion, or read her previous articles for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/sara-alston