Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 Resources

Know Yourself, Grow Yourself!

This year marks the 11th anniversary of Children’s Mental Health Week – a campaign led by mental health charity, Place2Be. This year’s theme is Know Yourself, Grow Yourself and is focused around the theme of self-awareness and building resilience.

The need to support our young people is pressing; according to an analysis from The Children’s Society, 15-year-olds in the UK report the lowest life satisfaction scores of all the countries across Europe. [1] Helping children face the pressures of modern life means working on personal resilience, as well as encouraging good listening skills.

We’ve put together a range of resources to help pupils become more self-aware and develop personal strategies to nurture their own wellbeing, or to support emotional regulation.

Charging My Mental Battery:
KS2 Primary Resource

We all have things in our lives that absorb a lot of our mental energy. Our brains need recharging sometimes – just like a battery does.

This resource looks at some of the things most likely to be impacting children in Year 5 and 6, helping them build self-awareness and develop personal recharging strategies to improve their mental wellbeing.

Includes: Worksheets, activities and a battery-charging weekly planner.

Download resource

Charging My Mental Battery:
PSHE/Group Work for Teens

This resource helps teens build awareness of things that drain their emotional, social, cognitive and sensory battery.

It provides tips for managing stress as well as encouraging teens to think about different strategies to restore their mental and emotional energy. It also includes a basic energy accounting tracker which neurodiverse students might find especially helpful.

Includes: Teacher guidance notes, worksheets, battery charging weekly planner and energy accounting tracker.

Download resource

Incredible-5-Point Scale

The Incredible 5-Point Scale was originally developed by Kari Dunn Buron and Mitzi Curtis to help autistic pupils with self-regulation.

It can, however, be used to support any pupil who is particularly struggling with emotional self-regulation.

Includes: Guidance notes and downloadable pdf examples, including scales for anger and social anxiety.

Download resource

Active Listening For Teens

We’d all like to think we are good listeners but how often do we listen to reply rather than listening with genuine empathy?

This resource breaks down the skill of active listening and explains some of the key things that good listeners tend to do (and what they avoid!).

Includes: Active listening worksheet for teens as well as four activity ideas for PSHE lessons. Take a look at our accompanying blog.

Download resource

Other Children’s Mental Health Week Resources

Teachwire are showcasing a range of great free resources on their dedicated round-up page.

Visit the Place2Be website to download free assembly guides, activities and top tips for primary and secondary schools. This year they have partnered with Disney to bring you resources using Inside Out characters!

The National Literacy Trust has some great resources for children’s mental health week based around Charlie Mackesy’s book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, including an assembly, lesson plan and KS1/P2-3 and KS2/P4-P7 activities

Info 7 have a great selection of free films that deal with the topic of mental health that are free to stream in your classroom. They are also offering resources including short videos and lesson plans that cover everything from anxiety and bereavement to social exclusion and mindfulness for a broad age range.

Premier League Stars are offering this Building Self-Esteem resource which helps pupils think about their identity and how it relates to self-esteem.

1) The Children’s Society Good Childhood Report 2024. https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-08/Good%20Childhood%20Report-Main-Report.pdf

The Incredible 5-Point Scale is a great visual tool that can be used to help children identify, understand, express and manage their emotions. 

It’s particularly (although not exclusively) useful for supporting autistic children. However, it’s also a resource that is sometimes misunderstood in schools. We’re going to take a look at the best way to leverage the tool and how you can create personalised versions of it.

How was the Incredible 5-Point Scale developed?

The scale was created in 2003 by Kari Dunn Buron and Mitzi Curtis, highly experienced teachers from Minnesota who have many years of experience teaching autistic students. It was designed so that each level represents a different level of intensity surrounding a specific emotion and its associated behaviour/s. Together with helping to recognise emotions and planning how to respond and self-regulate (or seek help), the tool can also be used to explore ‘what happened’ after a problem incident. 

It can be used for almost any kind of emotional regulation such as anger management, learning about social interactions (such as respecting physical space or dealing with winning and losing) or even particular behaviours such as modulating tone of voice.

Autistic children and adults often have a strong preference for using systems, but may struggle with the vocabulary for emotional introspection. Talking in numbers and colours instead of describing or naming an emotional state can help make this activity easier for some people.  

The broad benefits of the scale include its:

• application to any age group
• ability to create a shared language to easily discuss emotions or behaviour
• avoidance of language that could be seen as blaming 
• capacity to quickly communicate needs and generate self-awareness in the moment
• flexibility and the fact that it can be easily personalised to the individual
  
  

How to use the scale and create personalised 5-Point Scales

1. Identify the behaviour that you would like to work on. The child should be involved as much as possible; this will depend on their age and communication capability. A starting point would probably be asking questions such as, ‘What is happening that we would like to stop happening?’ or ‘What is not happening that we would like to be happening?’. This will probably be a behaviour that is underpinned by an emotion / several emotions (e.g., walking out of class, calling out answers or not speaking in school).   

1. Identify the skill or understanding of concepts that needs to be learnt in order for the thing to happen/stop happening (e.g., tolerance to ‘wait’, impulse control or ability to manage fear).
   
2. Break the intensity of feeling into five parts. For example, let’s say the skill you were trying to develop is managing anxiety while interacting with other children. You sit down with your pupil, Joe, and talk about how he is feeling at each level and how this relates to his behaviour.

• For Joe, this might look something like the following;
  
  
  • Level 1: How am I feeling and what is happening? I am feeling happy and relaxed. I am talking with others, playing games and joining in easily.  
    
  • Level 2: How am I feeling and what is happening? I am feeling a little bit nervous, but I can still manage. I might need to ask for a little extra help or take a short break.
    
  • Level 3: How am I feeling and what is happening? I’m starting to feel anxious. My tummy might hurt, and I might avoid talking or doing things I usually enjoy. I need to tell an adult or one of my close friends how I am feeling.
    
  • Level 4: How am I feeling and what is happening? I feel really anxious and I am not sure what to do to make myself feel better. I need to ask an adult for help.
    
  • Level 5: How am I feeling and what is happening? I can’t manage at all. I don’t feel like I can use my words. I need to wave or grab an adult to come and help me.
      

3. Create a visual scale. Talk with Joe about the levels (1-5) and develop a descriptor for each. The different levels will then be assigned different colours. Sometimes a picture can also be used to depict what each level ‘looks like’ for them. If a young person has a particular affinity with characters or animals (Disney, Mario World, Harry Potter, cats etc. you could consider using these).
   
4. Discuss strategies to help manage the feeling when thinking about what each level looks like, together with describing the feeling, ask the child to suggest what they ‘might’ do [i.e., a behaviour] to help. Returning to our example, for Joe this might look like Level 3: I need to tell an adult or one of my close friends how I am feeling. 
   
5. Teach the scale. A story might be a good way to explain to the child what each level means and how it feels. Real-life examples can also be used to illustrate each level. 
   
6. Use the scale – and review it. Encourage the pupil to use the scale to monitor their own emotions and behaviours. A ‘check-in’ at the start and the end of the day can help with this. The pupil might rate themselves according to where they were on the scale at different times of the day. This information could be used to jointly identify triggers or warning signs – and how to manage and/or avoid these. 

[Take a look at our free downloadable examples for social anxiety and anger, as well as generic scales – remember templates are just a starting point]

IDEA: You might want to create a smaller portable version that the pupil can carry around in their school bag and refer to more discretely. Once the young person knows the scale well, they may just need a slimmed-down ‘prompt’ version. Take a look at this example that’s designed to fit on a keyring (below) from Cheshire East Council.

Things to try to avoid when using the scale

1. Taking a top-down approach

• Avoid: Adults taking it upon themselves to create the scale and then discussing it with the pupil, rather than listening to their specific experiences and tailoring it to their individual needs, emotions, and triggers. A template and/or some examples can be a good starting point, but the end output should be personalised.
  
• Why it matters: The scale works best when it is used to generate self-awareness – the only way to do this is if it is produced collaboratively. All levels should reflect emotions or behaviours specific and meaningful to the individual.
  

2. Using it with children who aren’t yet able to reflect and regulate 

• Avoid: Forcing children outside of their comfort zone, by trying to teach the scale when they can’t yet grasp the necessary skills to use it well.
  
• Why it matters: Children need to be able to not only recognise their own emotions (with some support), but also engage in self-regulation afterwards. If you find yourself intervening too much it may be because the child is too young or doesn’t yet have the vocabulary to engage.
  

3. Using the tool for behaviour modification

• Avoid: Using the scale as a punishment/behaviour modification tool or linking it too closely to school rules.
  
• Why it matters: This risks shaming the individual, and increasing anxiety or disengagement, reducing its effectiveness by removing agency and trust. Instead, talk about possible natural consequences of specific actions if required.

4. Not using it consistently

• Avoid: Inconsistent use amongst key adults around the child including other support professionals, teachers, TAs, and (in some contexts parents as well).
  
• Why it matters:  Having different systems to name and label behaviour is going to get confusing very quickly. Having some consistent routines to help self-regulation helps build positive habits.
  

5. Overwhelming complexity

• Avoid: Adding too much detail/ too many levels.
  
• Why it matters: The strength of the Incredible 5-Point Scale lies in its simplicity. Overloading the scale can cause confusion.

6. Not linking to coping strategies in line with emotional regulation development

• Avoid: Missing out actionable strategies for each level.
  
• Why it matters: The scale should gradually be used to guide children toward coping mechanisms – some of which might involve asking for help. Pupils should be encouraged to recognise when they are at Level 2 or 3 in particular, as this is where they might have most success bringing things back under their control.
  

7. Not reviewing the scale appropriately

• Avoid: Treating the scale as static and unchanging.
  
• Why it matters: Children are developing all the time and so are their needs as well as their coping strategies. It may be that the individual no longer needs the scale for a particular behaviour or that they need greater support if other stressful things are going on in their lives or their normal coping mechanisms are exhausted. Sometimes things about the school routine, peer dynamics or available support changes and their Incredible 5-Point Scale needs adjusting to reflect this.

Further reading

Read the original book from Kari Buron and Mitzi Curtis:
Buron, K.D., & Curtis, M. (2003). The incredible 5‐point scale: Assisting students with autism spectrum disorders in understanding social interactions and controlling their emotions responses. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company. 

Kari Dunn Buron’s accompanying blog has some great downloads and her blog covers extended applications www.5pointscale.com/

Autism Classroom Resources have written up a useful introduction to the scale: autismclassroomresources.com/the-incredible-5-point-scale-review-and/

Southwark Council’s autism support team have produced a helpful overview including quite a few examples for anger/volume etc: localoffer.southwark.gov.uk/assets/attach/677/5-Point-Scale.pdf 

Example 5 Point Scale for Maths assignments: from OCALI (Ohio Centre for Autism and Low Incidence) Take a look at several examples of what you can do with a scale by relating it to an individual’s special interests, as well as a video about how practitioners are using the scale.

The Incredible 5-Point Scale Fact Sheet from Autism Empowerment – useful resource that also describes the anxiety curve model: Download the factsheet.

Autism Toolbox: Example of a scale completed for a particular individual pupil:
autismtoolbox.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/5-point-scale-example.pdf

“I talk to people a lot better because in the first lesson, I didn’t talk at all. I talked to Miss … I whispered in Miss’s ear if I wanted to say something … but last time I did it, which was yesterday. I just … I was speaking.” – Alois (quoted in Purcell, Kelly & Woods, 2023)

The quote above is from Alois, a secondary school pupil reflecting on how time spent with his ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) helped build his confidence in class. 

Although there is limited large-scale research on the effectiveness of ELSAs, there are smaller studies, such as the one quoted above, that suggest they can be highly effective across all age groups. Headteachers and class teachers often report reductions in absenteeism, as well as increased confidence and engagement in learning amongst children on the programme.

Here are some key steps to maximise the impact of ELSAs at different stages of your implementation journey.

What are ELSAs and how do they help children with SEMH needs?

The ELSA programme is run by Educational Psychologists and involves training school staff  (usually teaching assistants) in theoretical psychology, active listening and practical activities. The programme is based on the principle that teaching emotional literacy – i.e. the ability to recognise and manage emotion in themselves and others, helps children to thrive.

ELSAs support children who are:

• anxious
• have low self-esteem 
• have problems managing anger and frustration
• have difficulties making friends (are being bullied or doing the bullying)
• engaged in conflict at school (with adults or peers)
• suffering from bereavement or trauma.

Dr Joanna Wood is a lead psychologist at Real Group who has spent a considerable amount of time training ELSAs. “A good ELSA is one who is warm, interested and level with the child” she explains. “It’s not a matter of I’m going to fix you, rather let’s find a way through this together.” 

How to maximise the impact of ELSAs (consideration phase)

Use an implementation framework 

If you are just starting out, it can be helpful to follow a framework to enable you to embed and sustain ELSA. Dr Hannah Fairall, an Educational Psychologist and academic lead working for Real Group, completed her doctoral thesis on ELSA implementation. She has developed this downloadable framework which provides valuable step-by-step guidance.

[DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY: Of Dr Fairall’s Implementation Framework here]

Scrutinise your referral system 

Developing a robust referral system hinges on having a detailed mental health provision map in place, matched to your pupil population. This helps the SENCO and Senior Mental Health Lead work out when ELSA intervention will be tried as a first port of call, as opposed to (for example) using Nurture Groups, or the school counsellor. 

Ideally, the ELSA needs a clear target to focus on, and inappropriate referrals should be filtered out at either end of the scale, i.e.

• Teachers who refer because a student’s behaviour is difficult to manage in class
• Students who need more specialist/long-lasting support 

“There must be a clearly defined element of emotional literacy need,” says Joanna. “You would never dream of implementing a literacy intervention without a consistent referral process and clearly defined target outcomes at the end. ELSA should work in a similar way.”

Creating a simple triage map and formal referral process can contribute to this. “Sometimes ELSAs become so embedded into a school that staff feel there’s no need for formal referral,” warns Joanna, “but it really does help to have a clear system.”

[EXPLORE FURTHER: New to-role Senior Mental Health Leads can learn how to build and enhance the mental health provision map for their setting on our senior mental health lead training courses]

[BECOME AN ELSA: With the Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant with ELSA status]

Look out for ELSAs’ own wellbeing

“In reality, as much as we try to avoid it, ELSAs are dealing with all sorts of very challenging things,” Joanna emphasises. “People who work in education often underestimate the weight of the emotional load that can be passed from child to adult” she explains, “this is why supervision is so very important, but it can only go so far.”

Joanna is keen to point out that an experienced line manager is also important – ideally, someone who has also attended some of the training sessions and is familiar with the content. She also suggests scheduling some time when ELSAs within schools can get together to connect, perhaps a fortnightly Friday lunch break before the weekend. 

Make sure there is whole-school buy-in

The Senior Mental Health Lead will also want to consider how ELSAs will fit into their setting’s vision and provision for mental health and wellbeing.

Everyone in school should be aware of the aims and objectives of the ELSA programme and how the role fits in with others such as mental health first aiders, the SENCO, the pastoral support team and the DSL. 

Recognise that time will need to be allocated not just to running the sessions, but for planning, engaging with supervision, and attending meetings with the mental health team. When it comes to sacrificing lesson time, make sure you communicate this as early as possible to teachers whose lessons will be impacted. 

Focus on ELSA retention and development with clear career development

Because trusting one-to-one relationships are at the heart of ELSA, high staff turnover can be a problem. Creating a clearer career pathway for TAs and more professional development opportunities is just one way to address this. The recently approved Level 5 Specialist TA apprenticeship provides such an opportunity. 

Real Training’s Educational Psychologists have teamed up with our sister company Educational and Sporting Futures, to offer ELSA status if you choose the social and emotional wellbeing strand of the Level 5 apprenticeship. This will allow you to practise as an ELSA while gaining your Level 5 qualification and (optional) HLTA status with supervision provided for the duration of the course. 

Careful timetabling

Potential loss of subject time for ELSA sessions has to be weighed up with the impact of missing activities such as choir or football (which could also benefit the pupil’s mental health). One way to address this is to get creative. “I’ve known ELSAs who get involved in cookery, music or basketball with pupils as a way to help them to connect – it’s all about following the interest of the child and building the relationship,” Joanna says.

Many ELSAs use lunch breaks to try to fit in children as waiting lists can be long. Joanna cautions against this as doing so may mean the pupil misses out on important social activities, as well as putting pressure on the ELSA.

Be clear on targets and measuring wider impact

ELSA work is bespoke, strengths-based and person-centred. Targets are individually constructed with the young person and linked to referral information. “Targets are best thought of as the smallest thing that can make the biggest difference,” says Joanna.

Individual targets could look like the following;

• By Christmas, Adam will be able to identify three triggers that make him feel angry and at least two strategies that help him to control his emotions.
• By the end of May, Sara can include her peers’ ideas in group work at least once a week.

It’s helpful to use some kind of short check-in sheet to keep a record of progress towards targets (see two examples below).

Your school may also want to use more formal assessment methods to measure the overall success of their ELSA programme, such as the Boxhall Profile or the free Goodman’s Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), as well as looking at things like attendance data.

[DOWNLOAD THE TOOLS: Take a look at the ELSA Check-in: How Are Things?
and this Progress Scoring Matrix, provided by a fellow ELSA trainer with kind permission.]

Think carefully about the appropriateness of group sessions 

Although some pupils find group sessions useful for building social confidence and skills, others do not. Qualitative feedback from a recent research study showed that some pupils felt sessions were covering old ground and didn’t always meet their individual needs, while others were uncomfortable with mixed-age sessions.

“Plan group sizes and dynamics carefully,” advises Joanna, “everything must be matched to targets”. It may seem efficient to run group sessions for improving social skills, but in reality, “having a large number of children with limited social aptitude trying to work through the sessions can be unhelpful; the same as it would be for sessions on anxiety.” 

Support the safe development of independence

ELSAs follow a regimented timeline to avoid over-dependency. They might incorporate a visual ladder to help show children where they are in the process or a countdown to indicate when sessions are coming to an end. 

It’s perfectly natural and normal that contact continues informally after a block of sessions has ended. This can be a real positive for both ELSA and pupil. It may be beneficial to build a quick informal check-in into the follow-up process a few weeks after ELSA sessions have finished, so the child knows they will have an opportunity to share their progress. 

How to maximise the impact of ELSAs (mature phase)  

Strengthen connections between key adults around the child

It’s important ELSAs have regular (ideally half-termly meetings) with the SENCO and other adults around the child. Session content is confidential but, with the consent of the child, targets and small wins can be shared. Some things may be relevant to record in a pupil passport so knowledge can be easily shared, or communicated to other professionals, such as those leading Nurture Groups, play therapists or art therapists. 

Improving communication with parents might be another area for development. In a review by Staffordshire Educational Psychology Service, secondary school ELSAs reported that since the pandemic parents are becoming more anxious about their children’s progress and valued a closer relationship with their TA. 

Train a team of ELSAs

It’s always good to have at least two trained ELSAs in a setting but many schools also go on to expand the programme. Aside from extending the service to more young people, a team of ELSAs are also better able to support one another.

Top-up or refresher training

Many ELSAs benefit from deeper training on some elements of the role, for example target setting, neurodiversity, mental health, trauma-informed work, executive function and emotional regulation. Having some sort of CPD also helps the ELSA feel valued in the role.

Strengthen school ethos around core ELSA concepts

For example, attachment and relationship building are key elements in the ELSA intervention, could your school access training about attachment to help cement these principles at a school-wide level?

 [EXPLORE OUR COURSES: Attachment theory is covered in our Social and Emotional Mental Health Needs module.]

Extended services such as transition workshops

If ELSAs are willing and capable, you might want to consider running drop-in sessions and ELSA-run workshops for the rest of the school staff on topics like managing transitions.

Create a resource bank and bring ELSAs together to share ideas

“Obviously interventions should be carried out on an individual-by-individual basis” explains Joanna, “but if there are common issues, other ELSAs or previous ELSAs might be able to say; ‘hey this resource worked really well for a similar aged pupil, why don’t you try it?’ 

Joanna recommends looking at resource hubs such as the one run by ELSA network and ELSA-support or creating your own and encouraging people to leave annotated notes and observations. If there are ELSAs who are particularly confident they might like to do a short video or workshop on how to use the resource that can be used by other TAs or even parents.

If your school is part of a trust it can be helpful to bring ELSAs and pastoral support teams together to share ideas, across Primary and Secondary divisions respectively.  

Don’t let fidelity wane over time

“The most common reason that ELSA fails is because the model gets watered down or forgotten about,” Joanna says. “Make sure systems are in place to regularly check that ELSAs are still running distinct blocks of sessions with clear targets and that they are attending regular supervision.”

Conclusion

ELSAs have gained increasing popularity in recent years with many studies showing TAs, parents, children and Headteachers widely reporting a positive impact. 

It is important that school leaders make the most of the available resources they have to support children with social and emotional mental health needs. Without being ready to meet this need when it arises, many children avoid school completely or are not in a good place to engage in class. As Dr. James P. Comer, a child psychiatrist and Yale University professor so adeptly puts it, ‘no significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.’

The good news is that more frameworks are now in place to help guide schools in the right direction when it comes to implementing ELSA – as well as new fully funded routes to support TA career progression, including ELSA training.

We will all have exposure to significant events in our lives that could be classified as ’traumatic’. Some examples might be an unexpected bereavement or death of a significant other, being a victim of violence or crime, or having a life-threatening illness. For many of us, these will not be consciously remembered or have an impact on our behaviour. However, when these are experienced by young children and prolonged over time they can have an influence on the developing brain, affecting children’s physical response to stress and framing their perceptions of themselves and others.

In school environments, trauma often presents as challenging behaviour, which can escalate to the point of exclusion. Yet with the right understanding and frameworks in place, this need not be the case – school can also be a place where children find a sense of belonging and trauma begins to heal. 

In this blog, we’ll take a look at how trauma impacts young people, run through some of the key things to remember about trauma-informed practice and wrap up with some advice for senior leaders as they embed a whole-school approach.

The Trauma-informed Approach: 8 Key Takeaways

1. Trauma can affect children’s “window of tolerance”

We all have what Dr. Dan Siegel describes as a “window of tolerance” – essentially our capacity to comfortably cope with external stimuli and regulate our own emotional response in return. Most of the time we remain comfortably within our window, particularly if our life experiences are typified by security and stability. When difficult times take us to the edge we can usually bring ourselves back to a state of equilibrium.  

Young people who have experienced trauma, however, may have a much narrower window. They can also be tipped outside it with less provocation. This can generate hyper-arousal – the child in the playground who is causing explosive arguments and ‘fallouts’ with peers, or swearing at adults at seemingly minor incidents. It can also result in hypo-arousal – the child who is emotionally withdrawn, incapable of concentrating and fearful of being left alone with their own thoughts. 

In both scenarios, we need to help these children ‘come back into their window’ before we can problem-solve with them.

2. Regulate the young person’s physical response first

The body often has a marked chemical response to experiencing stress, releasing hormones that impact our physical state (i.e. the fight/flight or freeze mode).  

A trauma-informed framework means first supporting pupils by calming their physical state. Sarah Norris is an educational psychologist and mental health programme leader at Real Training. “Very often in schools, our response to pupils is to talk to them and to try and apply logical reasoning in a situation,” she says, “but actually we should be limiting our language use and trying to work out what they need to help them physically calm down”. 

The idea that we need to tackle physiological regulation before engaging in higher-level cognitive tasks such as reasoning, has been described in depth by American psychiatrist Dr Bruce Perry. His ‘Regulate, Relate and Reason’ framework highlights that different areas of the brain have to be engaged in the right sequence to help children in moments of extreme stress or emotional dysregulation.

The first step in the process is to “regulate” the body and this triggers a feedback mechanism to the brain stem to stop it from producing ‘stress hormones’.  We can do this by using strategies that focus on pupils’ physical modalities.  What works for one will not work for all but some examples include;

• Deep and slow breathing; finger breaths or ‘breathe the square’.
• Sucking, chewing or drinking; cold drinks, crunching ice cubes, eating apples/carrots.
• Physical movement; star jumps, walking a circuit, running laps. 
• Listening to calming music.
• Sensory play using water, sand, and slime.
• Heavy pushing, pull-ups, monkey bars. 

3. Dysregulated adults cannot help dysregulated children

The ‘regulate’ element in Dr Bruce’s model applies equally to the adults in the room as it does to students. Acknowledging your physiological or emotional response to a child’s behaviour means you can be in a better place to respond.

Take a mini-pause before you respond to the behaviour and remind yourself not to react emotionally. “It’s all about tapping into your compassionate response,” says Sarah, “it can be very hard not to react in the heat of the moment, but this is what we must try to do.”

If possible, adopt a neutral body posture, think about your facial expression and tone and avoid communicating with commands and using gestures such as pointing that could come across as threatening. Sarah also recommends trying out things like reducing the tension in your shoulders, unclenching your hands, being aware of personal space and giving the young person time to think about what you’re saying.

4. Relationships are key: Everything hinges on trust and safety

Once both the adult and young person are regulated, we can move onto the next stage – relating to the child. This will be most effective if you’ve already laid the groundwork and established yourself as an adult who is physically and emotionally available.

“Adults need to be the safe harbour in the storm,” Sarah explains, “if you’ve got a child who’s hiding under a desk, or swearing at you in class, that behaviour is communicating something to you. Most likely about their past experiences. What they’re saying to you is; “I need to protect myself. I don’t feel safe.”  

 You can establish a sense of psychological safety in class by; 

• welcoming children into the classroom every day (morning meetings in secondary). If you can, make it special, and make it personal to the individual. 
  
• setting boundaries and limits, having clear expectations
  
• being mindful of your body language and tone of voice
  
• establishing clear routines – schools often use visual timetables but it can be helpful to give more structure to specific periods of time so students know what to expect. For example, structuring a literacy session so that pupils know it will start with a carpet introduction, followed by partner work and discussion and then they will start a writing project.
  
• taking time to listen to the pupils in your class, showing genuine interest in them and being non-judgemental in your responses

5. Children need to be seen and heard

A key part of relating to the child involves validating the young person’s life experience and connecting with them in the moment. “Often we are afraid to name the emotions or feelings that the young person is experiencing because we think that by shining a light on them they will intensify,” says Sarah, “but actually the reverse can be true. By naming feelings we show empathy and understanding, this can help diffuse things.”   

It’s ok to show the young person you don’t necessarily have the answers. A trauma-informed response communicates “I’m trying to think about why you might be feeling this way. Can you help me to understand?”

WINE is a great tool that can help us think about using language that connects rather than shames;

• I wonder if you kicked that over because something has upset you today?
• I imagine that you’re feeling angry and maybe a bit lonely because you wanted to partner with Amy but she’s chosen someone else. I know things are tough for you right now – is there anything else going on that’s making you feel a bit down today?
• I notice that you were speaking loudly and are now breathing quite fast – would you like to go outside and get some fresh air, would that help?

Empathy should always be shown – that must be tough but let’s work through this together. Shall we try…

6. “What do you need to move forward?” Reflecting with pupils should be focussed on meeting their needs.

Reasoning is an important final stage in the trauma-informed approach, but can only happen once you’ve gone through the other steps. Reflective conversations can occur with a trusted adult or someone who is not directly involved. 

There are many tools that support this within a more traditional behaviour management approach and these often have common themes around; what ‘triggered’ the behaviour, what is the unwanted behaviour and what were the consequences. Pupils are then invited to consider how they will behave differently next time.  

Within a trauma-informed approach, however, these reflections are always guided by the principle of meeting the child’s needs i.e. How can we support you? What do you need to do next time? 

7. It’s not about excusing bad behaviour

“The emphasis should be on the behaviour we do want to see, but it’s ok to point out the boundaries,” says Sarah. Indeed, she emphasises that “boundaries are one of the essential components for feeling safe and able to self-regulate.” 

Let’s take an example. What happens if a young person, when asked to do something in class tells you to F*** off. How should you respond? “It’s highly likely that that pupil is struggling with cause-and-effect thinking right now, so the traditional hierarchy of sanctions such as time out, detentions and exclusions will have a limited effect,” Sarah says. “They aren’t going to change the behaviour in the long-term and could just escalate it.”

However, it is ok to emphasise natural consequences that are more closely linked to the behaviour. “Once you have communicated with Child Z “I get you and I hear you”, acknowledged their emotions and helped them calm down then you can absolutely follow up on their use of language,” Sarah says. The student might repair the relationship by writing a letter or having one-to-one meetings, where they acknowledge the impact of their actions on other students’ learning and on the teacher.

8. Think of self-care as part of putting in the work

Sarah describes self-care as “the most important and often overlooked principle” of trauma-informed practice. The old adage of putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others is especially true in this instance,” she says, “if you run out of oxygen you are no help to anyone.”  Some things that she suggests can help include;

• Carving out time to put yourself first – plan time in the day to use breaks more effectively, put away the tech and step outside in fresh air and daylight.
  
• Practising self-compassion – think about how we can be our own best friend, celebrate wins, and reframe setbacks as opportunities.
  
• Seeking peer support – regardless of whether children are actually describing traumatic events, sitting with a young person’s emotions can take an unexpected toll on the adult. Having trusted conversations with a peer can help with perspective as well as sharing ideas when things aren’t working. 

Some things for Senior Mental Health Leads to think about

Promoting staff wellbeing

This might include opportunities for flexible working, duvet days, and accommodations made for staff during particular pressure points in the school year. Consider whether the supervision on offer is adequate as well, particularly for staff who have pupils in their classrooms who are known to have suffered ACEs (adverse childhood experiences).

Establishing sustainable change

In order to bring about any kind of sustainable change in schools it is important to think about your school ethos and values. There needs to be synergy between the tenets of trauma-informed practice and your current ideals, principles and projects so that it is integrated with the rest of your mental health initiatives and wider curriculum.

We cover strategic approaches to managing whole-school transformation projects, in our senior mental health lead certificate course, which also provides further information about trauma.

Thinking about wider policies

It’s not just your behavioural policy that needs to be updated, principles like empowering young people and acting with compassion need to be reflected across your values and demonstrated in your school ethos. For example, how you incorporate pupil voice into PSHE lessons, how you lead your staff and the qualities you look for in new hires. 

Depth/frequency of training required

It might be helpful to think about which staff need to be trauma aware (which is potentially everyone, including front-of-house staff) and who in your team might need more advanced or refresher training to develop their practice and become trauma-informed.

Whole-school approach

A whole-school approach is essential to success. One way to think about this is through developing a tiered framework of support, such as the example below.

Consolidating knowledge and reviewing progress

Over time there can be a degree of ‘drift’ away from the original principles of a trauma-informed approach, as defined in your school context. New staff coming into your school may also introduce slight variation based on how things were done in their previous setting. Some of this you may want to embrace, other times gentle course correction is required through regular communications, CPD, role-playing etc.

Why trauma-informed practice should be your ‘North Star’

Children who have experienced difficult life experiences can often become trapped in a cycle of escalation and shame in our schools, with punitive school behavioural management systems making exclusion much more likely.  

A trauma-informed approach can support staff with managing pupils’ behaviour alongside maintaining positive relationships and building a sense of safety for all.  However, the journey towards becoming trauma-informed as a practitioner and a school seldom travels in a straight line.  

Leadership needs to reassure staff that there will be setbacks and it’s important to set aside time for reflective practice so staff can come together to problem-solve and learn from one another.  Schools that see the greatest success are those that regard trauma-informed practice as their ‘North Star’, recognising that while there’s no magic reset button, it is a journey worth investing in. Ultimately there can be no sense of ‘belonging for all’ without a better understanding of trauma in schools.

Teaching assistants (TAs) play a vital role in making our classrooms more inclusive. In a recent Teacher Tapp survey 88% of teachers said they need more help to support learners with SEND. When asked what would help them the most, the number one answer was more TA support.

Yet many TAs don’t receive a lot of formal training and some schools effectively ‘default’ to outdated models of deployment, capping the impact they can have. This has perpetuated a cycle of TAs being under-recognised for the work that they do. In a recent survey by NCFE (Northern Advisory Council for Further Education) only 11% of TAs said they felt that their role was highly respected and valued. The report’s conclusion noted that while there is “clear commitment” from teaching assistants to continue in the role and develop professionally, “relying on passion alone is not sustainable.”

In this blog we’ll explore how schools can make better use of TA support to improve outcomes for pupils with SEND, referencing evidence-based approaches as well as providing some practical tips.

Build up scaffolding skills to support adaptive teaching

One way to enhance TA support would be to provide more extensive training in techniques such as scaffolding. In the classroom, this means providing just enough support so that pupils can successfully complete tasks that they cannot yet do independently. 

An important feature of adaptive teaching is adapting lessons while maintaining high expectations for all, so that every pupil has the opportunity to meet expectations. TAs can play an important role in this by providing targeted support to pupils who struggle, so that they can experience success. 

The type of scaffolding that is needed during a lesson will depend on knowing pupils’ needs and the barriers that tasks present to them.

For example: In a maths lesson, for a pupil who struggles with writing, it might be helpful to provide a printed graph, rather than asking the pupil to draw the graph themselves, if the lesson objective is about interpreting information on a graph rather than constructing it.

The EEF report Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants suggests a scaffolding framework for TA-pupil interactions. Effective scaffolding starts with the TA providing the minimum amount of support each pupil needs. The initial expectation is that pupils “self-scaffold”, that is, are given time to process, think and try tasks independently while the TA observes their performance. TAs should then intervene appropriately if and when pupils demonstrate they are unable to proceed. Once a pupil begins to master what is required for the task, the amount of scaffolding needed can be withdrawn gradually, until the pupil is able to perform the task independently.

Promote independence

While one-to-one or small group support is an important feature of adaptive teaching there are pitfalls to be aware of. 

The danger of over-prompting and spoon-feeding pupils was first identified in the five-year longitudinal study (2003-09) Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS). This found that, in many cases, TA support had a negative impact on pupil progress. Whereas teachers used strategies to encourage learning, TAs were often focused on task completion, rather than giving pupils space to come up with ideas, with some TAs writing pupils’ answers in for them under pressure to get things done before break times. 

This study demonstrates, not that TAs were inherently ineffective, but that the way schools were directing them was impeding progress. More recently, the MITA (Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants) programme has demonstrated that when TAs are trained to help pupils develop independent learning skills, classroom engagement greatly increases. Effective strategies include:

• Encouraging pupils to feel comfortable to take risks with their learning
• Providing the right amount of support at the right time, and, as discussed above, giving the least amount of support first to support pupils’ ownership of a task.
• Using open-ended questions to promote discussion, and 
• Making sure that pupils have enough time to think and respond, before jumping in.

Rob Webster, who spearheaded the MITA project emphasises that TAs need to let children sit with the problem. Speaking on a recent Special Needs Jungle podcast he emphasises; 

“Thinking time is really important. One of the hardest things is just to live with a bit of
uncomfortable silence for five or six seconds while the child tries to work things out.”

Be flexible

However good support from a TA is, on some occasions, what pupils with SEND need more than anything else is more time with the teacher. Rob Webster, writing in the TES emphasises the importance of flipping roles so pupils with SEND being taught by the teacher while the TA “roves the room and uses their scaffolding skills to help [other] pupils help themselves”.

Sara Alston, speaking on a recent Sec-Ed podcast agrees, emphasising that teachers and TA should work together flexibly, as part of a team around the child. In her opinion, training should enable “anybody in the room to work with any child in the room”, as appropriate.

Be prepared

The EEF highlights the importance of good communication between teachers and TAs.

It is difficult for teachers and TAs to work in the complementary way described above if there is no time to communicate. Schools are busy places and it is often difficult to find the time for TAs to be prepared for their role in a lesson, and to feed back to the teacher about pupils’ progress afterwards. Creative solutions often need to be found. 

Some schools, such as Billesley Research School, have adjusted TA working hours so they can have daily 15-minute briefings with teachers before lessons start. Other solutions include using assembly time or inviting TAs to join teachers for part of their Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time. 

These meetings need not be long. Essentially, TAs need to know:

• The intended learning outcomes – what pupils are expected to produce by the end of the lesson and any flexibility for particular pupils to use other ways to demonstrate their learning.
• What is being taught and why – the concepts, facts, information being taught and the skills to be learned, applied, practised or extended.
• Key vocabulary
• What they need to do in the lesson – the strategies and approaches the teacher is going to use or wants the TA to use to support the whole class or individuals.
• Who they will support – if a TA is not familiar with the pupil(s) they support, understanding their needs and barriers to learning, but also their strengths and what motivates them will be useful.
• How and what they need to feed back to the teacher after the lesson – this is important for assessment and for planning next steps.

It’s worth revisiting Sara Alston’s framework for teachers that provides guidance on how to distil meetings into the learning intention, key vocabulary and outcome in order to maximise limited time. A useful tip is for teachers to annotate their slides with the main learning intentions so that these can be shared with TAs in advance.

Bring TAs into the continuous learning cycle

Some schools already set aside dedicated development time for TAs as part of whole-school teaching and learning sessions. This allows the SENCO to provide SEN CPD to everyone, and one-to-one support when TAs need this. 

In secondary schools, a ten-minute departmental briefing at the beginning of the day might also provide an opportunity for TAs to ask questions when teachers recap strategies and can provide a bit of a confidence boost. Management and reporting structures for TAs can be particularly complex in secondary schools so it’s important that TAs have clear channels of communication and feel that their feedback is valued.

Specialist Teaching Assistants (STAs)

Increasingly, ‘specialist’ TAs are being used to support children within a particular area of SEND. This might include leading interventions both inside and outside of the classroom as well as developing a toolkit of strategies while taking into account individual needs.

The EEF report that the impact of TAs delivering targeted interventions in one-to-one or small group settings shows “a consistent impact on attainment of approximately three to four additional months’ progress”. However, these positive effects are only observed when TAs work in structured settings with high-quality support and training. If TAs who deliver interventions are untrained and unsupported, this can have a negative effect on learning outcomes for pupils.

In September, the new Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant (STA) Apprenticeship was approved by the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education (iFATE). This is a watershed moment as it will provide higher-level training for TAs that can be funded using the Government’s apprenticeship levy. Until this announcement, no funding was available for higher-level TA qualifications – leaving many TAs to pay for training out of their own pocket or make the case for using limited school funds.

Now, SEND experts and educational psychologists from Real Training have collaborated with Ofsted-outstanding apprenticeship provider, Educational and Sporting Futures (ESF) to offer the Level 5 apprenticeship, starting in December. 

Participants will have the option to specialise in SEND, literacy, and social and emotional wellbeing, reflecting the diverse roles and responsibilities of TAs. The hope is that it will raise standards of support and help with staff retention.

Leaders need to show support

If TAs are to undertake a more strategic role in the classroom (as many of them are already being asked to do) this needs to be supported with more in-depth specialist training around pedagogy, SEND and SEMH.

Regardless of whether schools plan to increase or decrease the number of TAs on their books – the staff they retain must be well-trained and well-supported. TAs play a vital role in the journey towards becoming a more inclusive school, and now more than ever they need a strong show of support from teachers and senior leadership teams.

Training may only be one part of the solution when it comes to retaining highly skilled TAs, but arguably it is the most important.

Adaptive teaching involves making adjustments to instructions and teaching materials for children, based on how their needs present in the moment. It is based on the premise that students with additional needs don’t benefit from being handed out segregated worksheets and tasks. Instead, the whole class is encouraged to engage with the same learning objectives and broadly the same (or very similar) content.

The adaptive approach recognises that:

– there are different starting points and ways into a topic
– some children might need greater support or scaffolds to access learning
– every child’s learning pathway can look slightly different.

Teachers are encouraged to continuously modify their approach, content and delivery in real-time, based on how their students are responding during the lesson.

The concept of adaptation appears in the DfE’s Teachers’ Standards but it is only in the last couple of years that the notion of ‘adaptive teaching’ has really come into its own. So much so, that the UK Government has made it a priority in the revised initial teacher training. Most British International schools are also now embracing the adaptive teaching model.

While it is universally agreed that adaptive teaching is the way forward, the extent to which it has been successfully embedded in teaching practice still varies hugely. Before we look at how we can overcome this in both UK and international schools, it’s worth revisiting why it has come about.

Why has adaptive teaching replaced differentiation?

For all the good intentions around differentiation, it became a byword for setting low expectations of children with learning difficulties. The use of “all, most, some” learning objectives, as a classic example, shut off parts of the curriculum to those in the ‘bottom’ tier.

Research suggested that this raised stigma without improving outcomes. In 2019, OFSTED conducted a review and found that ‘in-class differentiation, through providing differentiated teaching, activities or resources, has generally not been shown to have much impact on pupils’ attainment.’ Creating different resources had become a distraction from meeting the present needs of each individual. Sara Alston, a leading voice on adaptive teaching recently summed this up neatly, writing in Headteacher Update: 

“Fear of Ofsted and others wanting to see evidence that differentiation was happening has led over the years to monstrosities such as three-layer planning, multiple worksheets, static ability groups, and low fixed expectations for all.” -Sara Alston, SEN consultant and former SENCO

This is not to say that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are aspects of a differentiated curriculum that will always be required. It is not fair or reasonable to expect children working two years below age-related outcomes, for example, to meet the same learning outcomes as their peers. There will also always be a place for specific, targeted interventions, such as for literacy support.

The below table shows how adaptive teaching attempts to nudge us out of the bad habits brought about by a misunderstanding of differentiation.

What does good adaptive teaching look like?

There is no single blueprint for adaptive teaching that can be easily lifted from a book in the same way a lesson plan can. However, there are common strands to the underlying method, which can benefit a range of children beyond those with SEND, including EAL students, absentees and high achievers.

Meets emotional needs and promotes a growth mindset

Learning must adapt to the child’s present emotional state. If a pupil is already feeling anxious the teacher might need to allow for a movement break or put more scaffolds in place that day. If they are feeling insecure in their understanding, re-teaching might be required. If they are bored or frustrated you might need to adapt the direction of the lesson on the spot or offer choice in how they want to learn.

Follows a cyclical process of assessment and adaptation for individuals

Adaptive teaching requires continual assessment of where students are. This means knowing your students, understanding how much scaffolding they need, acknowledging differing curricula and accepting multiple ways of expressing and demonstrating learning. Adjustments happen in real-time based on continual assessment throughout the lesson, followed by adaptations that might include going down a different lesson path.

Makes effective use of scaffolds but withdraws them when no longer required

There are different ways of approaching adaptive teaching, one popular method is the scaffolds, scale, structure and style approach outlined brilliantly by Alex Quigley. The diagram below shows more about how these concepts work together. The most important thing about scaffolds is that they are removed once the pupil builds confidence – the “I do, we do, you do” model is just one framework you can use to start to encourage independence.

Meets sensory needs as well as balancing cognitive load

If a child’s sensory needs are not being met they will not be in a position to learn. This can be as simple as making effective use of sensory breaks, providing fidget tools, changing the lighting, or adjusting a uniform policy. Some children might benefit from ear defenders or visual supports, or being able to take their shoes off in order to feel the carpet. Writing in the TES, Leyla Gambell, an experienced SENCO, suggests having a range of pre-agreed sensory supports:

“Encourage open dialogue with and between students, where they can ask each other if they are feeling overwhelmed and offer tools to help.” – Leyla Gambell, SENCO

The graphic below sums up the difference between the two approaches.

Adaptive Teaching: Enablers

1. Effective use of pupil passports

Sofia Keigher, Assistant Head at Brighton College Bangkok explains why abandoning target-driven IEPs has enabled teachers at her school to embrace adaptive teaching:

 “We found that teachers were planning to meet targets rather than what was actually being presented as an immediate need in the lesson. They also didn’t take into account the fact that needs were differing in different environments…[..] it created a culture of box-ticking between the SENCO and teacher.” Sofia Keigher – Assistant Headteacher, Brighton College Bangkok

If the pupil has a suspected or identified need, the SENCO and class teacher sit down and if they feel it is creating a barrier to how the pupil accesses the school environment, a passport is created. A Google form is used to capture information from staff as well as one-to-one meetings held to capture pupil and parent voice. 

The passports allow staff to share knowledge of the individual in order to adapt their teaching practice as required, without setting artificial targets. The information covered includes adaptations for students within the classroom and in other contexts such as PE, music or at break times, as well as any formal access arrangements, specific interventions or resources in place. Pupil passports are regularly updated as teachers and support staff, students and parents provide feedback on what is and isn’t working.

Sofia encourages staff to use the passports to help them plan lessons, emphasising that they should be living documents. While the SENCO has overall responsibility for updating them, all members of staff, including TAs are encouraged to regularly share observations.

 “Instead of creating a multitude of worksheets, it’s more about having a look at the lesson plan in order to pre-empt what might come up. So, knowing this individual pupil and their pupil passport what might they find tricky? What potential barriers might crop up and what do I plan to do about this?
It perhaps saves pen-to-paper planning time but maybe not the more kind of pedagogical and cognitive planning time.” -Sofia Keigher

  >  Take a closer look at Sofia’s example passport for a hypothetical pupil with autism, or you can download a blank template here.

2. Better use of formative assessment

For adaptive teaching to be a success, teachers need a good understanding of the knowledge children are bringing to the lesson, as well as more feedback about how things are going throughout. Rather than relying just on quizzing and marking, this could take the form of sitting with students and giving useful comments and feedback, or using hinge questions. Two particular things to consider are:

Live modelling going through your own or a student’s response, both in a whole-class or more directed way. 

Self-assessment, particularly through techniques such as thumbs-up, and thumbs-down pictures to help learners express their own level of understanding.

Class whiteboards can help the whole class show what they know and understand, while mini-whiteboards can be useful for directed learning. Some students might find it helpful to receive feedback in the form of audio notes that they can listen to again later.

3. Training and mentorship

Adaptive teaching is not a complete u-turn from what was being practised before and is what many experienced teachers are already doing. However, it can help staff to try a range of approaches, particularly micro-adaptations, and share knowledge of what is working best for a particular individual or individuals in their class. This can be where a mentor steps in. 

It is also useful for teachers to gain a better understanding of the psychology behind working memory to understand why certain scaffolding techniques work, as well as broadening their repertoire, particularly when it comes to supporting pupils with dyslexia, autism and ADHD.

> DISCOVER OUR COURSES on Cognition and Learning, Dyslexia and Autism or other aspects of SEND to deepen your knowledge.

4. Technology

AI and assistive technology have vast and varied potential to support scaffolding.

Just a few possibilities include:

• Adapting a passage of text to remove tricky words or to help provide additional explanation around a work of Shakespeare
• Generating images to help with the concrete pictorial abstract approach in maths
• Front-loading vocabulary
• Providing translation support for EAL students
• Adjusting instructions
• Using AI (ChatGPT/Magic AI etc.) to describe a graph to pupils, or help generate one
• Leveraging text-to-speech generation for longer narrative passages

Adaptive Teaching: Barriers 

1. Curriculum constraints and fear of deviating from the plan

Teachers may have valid concerns over covering the learning objectives and meeting expectations. Yet ultimately children will have a better understanding of the lesson content if the pace of lessons is adjusted to allow for more independent learning and re-teaching. 

 As Ginette Moore, iSENCO tutor with Real Training comments;

“It’s okay to deviate from the lesson plan or even push it straight in the bin if no one has the prior knowledge to access the content or if a small group of children need to come back to the carpet with the TA or teacher to go over examples again.” – Ginette Moore, iSENCO tutor 

When it comes to concerns about time, using split-off groups and adjusting the scale of the task means pupils can still achieve the learning objective but in a less demanding way.

With greater autonomy can come greater uncertainty and teachers need to know when particular programmes might need more conservative fidelity and when there is freedom to deviate.

2. Strategy overload

On a separate, but related note, in an informative blog, Gary Aubin also makes the argument that the most successful schools don’t “overwhelm their staff with strategies” explaining that fixed lists of strategies in pupil profiles can prevent a teacher from being adaptive. Instead, teachers should distinguish between the core “non-negotiables” within pupil profiles and view everything else like a menu of options that may, or may not, be applicable for the pupil, depending upon their approach to delivering the lesson and its universal ‘built-in’ aspects of inclusion.

3. Behaviour change from senior leadership

Historically, leadership often took the presence of multiple colour-coded worksheets as evidence of accommodation for pupils with SEND. Now the way we evaluate success has changed. Lesson observation records need to reflect the new approach and those observing should put themselves in the pupil’s shoes – is it evident that teachers know their pupils?

Leaders need to put their faith in teachers and allow them to act with autonomy. They also need to ensure communication is clear and consistent across the school. It can be frustrating and upsetting if there is an agreement in place between teacher and pupil that they can take their tie and jumper off in one lesson, only for the student to be subsequently told off by another member of staff for doing so in a corridor.

4. Language and mindset

Writing in the TES, Margaret Mulholland describes how several school leaders have had to actively re-think their use of language. One school in particular has ditched the use of acronyms “LATS” (low attainers) and “HATS” (high attainers) as they felt it was leading them into poor habits. 

Often this comes down to pulling apart some of the things that were previously considered good practice – like “all, most, some” and exploring why this language and accompanying mindset is no longer helpful.

5. Poor utilisation of TAs

Teaching assistants can play a fundamentally important support role when it comes to adaptive teaching, (especially as they often spot things about individual children that the teacher doesn’t) and can also elicit student viewpoints while the lesson is taking place. But if they are jumping in to solve things for pupils too soon, or do not have sufficient depth of knowledge around effective support with scaffolds, their impact is diminished. Better training for TAs would rectify this, as well as more CPD for teachers on how to best collaborate with their support staff as well as more time to collaborate.

> EXPLORE FURTHER. Visit our course page on the Level 5 Specialist TA Apprenticeship to learn more about the new SEND career pathways for teaching assistants.

6. Perceived lack of resources or staff (especially in international schools)

Adaptive teaching empowers everyone and means that frontline SEND support is not just the responsibility of the SENCO. Many schools, particularly those in international environments, have reservations because inclusion teams are small or they don’t have the resources, but there are many low and no-cost ways to make adaptations.

The need for fluid learning journeys

Adaptive teaching can benefit all children, fostering a growth mindset and avoiding the scenario where expectations are capped. It requires teachers to both anticipate and respond to needs, and embrace greater fluidity in learning journeys, student grouping and use of teaching assistant support. It recognises that, at times, the curriculum will need to be adjusted for some, but that this should be the exception – not the rule.

Although adaptive teaching builds from the responsive skills and behaviours that many teachers are already deploying, there can be knowledge gaps within schools. 

Some teachers are also hesitant about the idea of going “off-piste” and deviating from the lesson plan. Speaking on a recent podcast, George Athanasiou, a Headteacher and educational consultant underlined the need to let teachers embrace this. His advice? “Focus on the outcome and let the journey happen organically. Let the children decide how they’re going to reach that outcome. The best lessons are the ones that are completely off the page. And as a teacher, you have to be confident in that.”

Resources

Take a look at our recent webinar on adaptive teaching – you can find the recording here.

Alex Quigley writes a great introductory blog explaining the Scaffold, Scale, Structure and Style approach: https://alexquigley.co.uk/adaptive-teaching-scaffolds-scale-structure-and-style

PrimaryTimery: A great article on adaptive teaching with practical examples and strategies to support memory https://primarytimery.com/2024/03/29/adaptive-teaching-the-four-verbs-approach/

The Center for Family Support: A useful step-by-step guide to creating One Page Profiles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brcjbVkbph0

Daniel Sobel and Sara Alston’s book The Inclusive Classroom, a fantastic guide for Primary and Secondary teachers. It addresses why we should meet needs rather than focusing on diagnosis, and guides you through different phases of a single lesson and how they can be adapted. Sobel, D. and Alston, S (2021). The Inclusive Classroom. Bloomsbury https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inclusive-Classroom-Daniel-Sobel/dp/1472977920

Jon Eaton writes a guest blog about how adaptive teaching has benefitted his Trust: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/moving-from-differentiation-to-adaptive-teaching

A basic pupil passport template can be downloaded here

The Education Endowment Fund (EEF) have good general information about adaptive teaching https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blog-assess-adjust-adapt-what-does-adaptive-teaching-mean-to-you

Sara Alston writing in Headteacher Update: neatly summarises what went wrong with our previous use of differentiation: https://www.headteacher-update.com/content/best-practice/adaptive-teaching-or-differentiation/

George Athanasiou gives a great interview on the School Behaviours podcast where he describes how adaptive teaching can boost engagement, reduce behavioural issues and improve outcomes.https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/podcast/the-impact-of-adaptive-teaching-on-pupils-with-semh-needs-with-george-athanasiou

According to the DfE’s Working Lives of Teachers report, staff working in state schools now have lower levels of wellbeing than the general adult population. To many, this will come as little surprise, especially given known issues with workload and burnout.

While a lot of this hinges on Government policy, there are practical things that school leaders and senior mental health leads can do to ease stress and improve the mental fitness of their staff in the here and now.

We’ve explored some of these below, including some thoughts from teachers and senior leaders, who were kind enough to tell us what’s working at their school.

1. Flexible working

Some schools are enabling teachers to work from home to complete PPA. However, this is not widespread; the latest 2024 NASUWT Teacher Wellbeing Survey suggests that less than half (42%) of respondents had the option to work flexibly.

One teacher told me how much flexible working meant to her:

“A compulsory staff meeting about improving wellbeing can be counterproductive – we’d simply rather have that time back in the day. My school allows us to work from home to do PPA sessions which is great. It means we finally have some of the flexibility that other professions have had for years. Being able to stick a wash on or go for an appointment or do a pilates class earlier in the day and catch up with work later that evening creates a bit of space for us to look after ourselves and have more control over our time in the week.” 

– Hannah, Primary School Teacher 

Other schools, such as Dixon’s Academy Trust have recently made headlines by trialling a nine-day fortnight where staff at any level (including senior management) have every other Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday off. Katie Knighton their Senior Vice Principal has created several videos that explain in detail how they managed the timetabling with minimal reduction in contact time.

2. Reduce staff workload and consolidate after-school commitments

Another way to get to grips with workload is to eliminate unnecessary admin and reduce mandatory after-school commitments. A Deputy Head at a South London Comprehensive told me what they were putting in place this year:

“We’ve invested in our admin team to reduce the burden on our teachers and have centralised systems for things like detentions and reprographics. This year we have reduced our formal assessments from three to two times a year and spaced them strategically across the year. We’re also providing an Autumn and Spring marking and feedback day to allow staff a little more headspace to reflect on class data and next steps. After school, we have streamlined all training and events to happen on a Thursday and ensure they fall within directed hours.”

– Deputy Headteacher, South London Comprehensive

AI also has the potential to save time, but needs a clear policy around its safe and secure use in schools. Many staff in schools are already using it to aid the creation and adjusting of resources, writing emails to parents and recording and summarising meeting notes. Schools and MATs need effective ways to share these pockets of innovation to make adoption easier and reduce anxiety amongst staff feeling left behind.

3. Staff supervision

Supervision used to be largely reserved for staff working in special schools, but over the past year, educational psychologists at our sister company, Real Psychology, have been seeing an increasing number of requests from mainstream settings. 

Teachers, senior leaders and DSLs in particular can end up absorbing a lot throughout the week as they help pupils with significant needs, often taking on secondary trauma. Supervision provides a means to have structured discussions where staff can offload some of the emotional weight and work through solutions, rather than taking it home with them. It differs from counselling in that it focuses more on finding strategies to help with the work you are doing rather than working on yourself and understanding the history and root cause of why you react in a certain way. 

“Often we can assume that because we see each other every day we can check in – especially in smaller primary schools – but there’s a real power to more structured supervision. We are currently developing triads of schools that can collaborate across the trust to provide this enhanced support.”

– Andrew Chadwick, Safeguarding, Inclusion and Ambition Lead, Focus Trust 

You can find out more about different approaches to supervision and understand how to run group or individual sessions in our Senior Mental Health Leadership Advanced Award.

4. Leading by example, creating an open culture and being clear about the right to switch off

Senior leaders need to model good working practices. This includes setting boundaries around work and personal time, saying “no” constructively, or positively engaging with wellbeing activities and celebration days. If you really need to send emails outside of working hours – make it clear that you don’t expect others to respond in the same time frame. A clear policy on the right to switch off can also be useful – only 46% of the NASUWT survey respondents said this was in place in their school.

Often showing vulnerability and empathy is the start of creating a more open culture where staff don’t feel the pressure to be perfect. The main reason teachers don’t seek mental health support in schools is the concern that it would be viewed as a sign of weakness, driving home the need to address this openly. 

Leaders must address the big topics; managing workload, monitoring burnout, and supporting staff who feel stressed, as well as dealing with any potentially toxic relationships. They may also need to challenge their own subconscious bias towards working methods that enact greater long-term harm towards staff than overall benefit to pupils.

5. Staff counselling and mentoring

Counselling can be a valuable safety net for teachers and is often offered as part of a package of support. Parkview Academy, for example, offer six free online sessions of Bupa counselling to all staff; six sessions of face-to-face counselling and supervision sessions with the school therapist.

Mentoring can also contribute to positive wellbeing – with research suggesting positive effects on wellbeing and self-esteem for both for mentor and mentee. Yet a survey carried out last year by the National Institute of Teaching suggested only 1 in 10 respondents in state schools had access to a formal mentor. You might want to use feedback surveys to assess demand in your setting. If you are considering implementing a programme, note that the research also found that it was more effective when carried out voluntarily by someone in the same key stage or subject specialty (and not a line manager).

You can find out more about how to set up effective mentorship programmes in our Coaching and Mentoring in Education course.

6. A clear policy on menopause support

Only 17% of teachers in the 2024 NASUWT survey reported that their school had policies to support women teachers with menopause-related issues. Education Support has some great resources on their site as well as tips for senior leaders about how to have conversations with staff going through menopause. 

It’s also worth considering:

• Have leaders had basic menopause training so they know what reasonable adjustments can be made? 
• Is it feasible to provide classrooms closer to bathrooms or showers? 
• Do staff know when it is appropriate to request time off or more flexible working?

7. Staff wellbeing teams, feedback boxes and wellbeing surveys

Listening to staff voice is imperative. A dedicated wellbeing team can help gather feedback and help initiatives stay on track, but only once you have embedded staff wellbeing into your whole-school strategy with clear and concrete goals. The DfE recommends appointing a designated wellbeing Governor as an advocate to assist if required. 

Most schools now use surveys to monitor wellbeing, but some have more consistent processes around follow-up. Kaleidoscope Independent Special School have decided not to make surveys anonymous but to create an atmosphere of trust and openness in order to use them to provide targeted support.

“We carry out a staff survey twice a year, they aren’t anonymous, which was initially met with a bit of trepidation, but staff have been very forthcoming. Key to success are the follow-up meetings held on an informal basis over two weeks. Staff have cover pre-arranged and are invited for a “brew and a biscuit” where they are encouraged to discuss feelings brought up in the survey.

They are offered support if needed and ideas are shared to improve things, for example, extra time within the school day needed to complete evidencing. We’ve found this works really well and staff feel valued and respected as their ideas are listened to and then plans are put in place to try and support them. The plan is revisited at the next meeting to discover if things have improved.“

– Sarah Shingler, Senior Education Engagement Assistant, Kaleidoscope Independent Special School

8. Equip teachers and TAs with more strategies for SEND and SEMH

Many staff feel out of their depth when it comes to supporting pupils with special educational needs. Fewer than 14% of mainstream teachers have received training in autism, for example, and only 50% of TAs have received training in social and emotional development.

Building skills and knowledge in this area can improve confidence in their teaching techniques, or in the case of teaching assistants, how they deliver one-to-one and rotating group support. Advice on how to communicate with parents can also help reduce stress and build more productive relationships.

There are a raft of new qualifications opening up career pathways for teaching assistants to help them grow in the role. This includes the recently launched Level 5 Specialist TA Apprenticeship, which has a focus on SEND and SEMH.

9. Small wins – Christmas shopping days, domestic leave, gratitude days

Offering benefits such as paid days off to do Christmas shopping, attend a child’s sports day or to support an elderly parent can make a meaningful difference to many people. Teachers leaving the profession often cite instances where they have missed key events in their own children’s lives as factors galvanising their decision. Discounted wrap-around care might also provide more flexibility over how work (or wellbeing activities) can be managed outside of core school hours.

Gratitude days held once every half term or termly can be a good opportunity for staff to show appreciation for one another – sending e-cards or putting physical notes on a board in the staffroom.

Encouraging the practice of positive psychology can also make a difference. A study carried out last year found improved wellbeing in Primary School teachers who could choose to participate in positive psychology techniques either through 45-minute self-interest groups or 10-minute sessions in staff meetings.

10. Provide a choice of ways for staff to connect

The connections we make with colleagues have a significant impact on our wellbeing and sense of belonging, acting as a buffer against stress and replenishing our energy. 

Two teachers outlined the benefits this brings to them and to others:

“My previous school had an interesting approach to CPD. We had to complete a certain number of hours, but half of this was allocated to essential training and then the rest was handed back to the staff to run their own sessions. There was a whole host of activities on offer – rounders with the PE department, making bath bombs in the science department, learning how to batik/silk print in art/DT etc.  

It was a better alternative to sitting in extra INSETs after school and the requirement to stay felt more “fun” and beneficial rather than being for the sake of it. It meant we were able to spend time bonding with colleagues in a more relaxed, less micro-managed environment. It was a good way to learn new skills that weren’t directly related to the job – a helpful reminder that there is life outside of teaching!“ 

Sam – Secondary School Teacher.

“As a qualified yoga teacher, I provide weekly yoga for our staff. These yoga/meditation sessions are run to support our staff in taking time for themselves, straight from school, without any travel involved and for free. The staff that come to yoga are so appreciative, which in turn supports my wellbeing – it’s good to know that you are making a difference. Everyone leaves so much more relaxed than when they arrived.” 

Julietta Howell – Learning Support Teacher, St John’s College Cardiff.

11. Better spaces for staff to relax

More than half (54%) of respondents in the NASUWT survey said their school does not provide staff with a safe and comfortable space to take time out outside the classroom. 

Several schools are taking this on board by either creating dedicated quiet or wellbeing rooms or partitioning their existing staffroom to make it more accommodating. Being able to adjust the lighting, work in a quiet space and even open a window can be beneficial.

This is the staff wellbeing room at Eden Girls School for example: 

And below is the recently revamped staffroom at Lewis Girls’ School.

Conclusion

Teaching is facing an unprecedented recruitment crisis – with more than a third of teachers thinking of leaving the profession. It is fast attracting the label as a career where workload is relentless and wellbeing is pushed onto the back burner.

Action on staff wellbeing needs to be led from the top and embedded into the culture of our schools. This is one of the reasons we recommend senior mental health leads are part of the SLT and have the time and the training to do the role justice. They also need to be conscious of their own wellbeing and focus their energy on things that can make an impact.

Initiatives must be sustainable and backed up by a well-thought-through plan for universal, targeted and specialist support as part of a whole-school approach. Without this, they can come across (at best) like mere band-aids. 

One teacher mentioned to me that the SLT had created a wellbeing wall in the staffroom at the beginning of this year. It had nice things that parents and the children had said about staff or the school, leaflets and advice about where to go for help, or local yoga classes etc. and a stash of sweet treats that staff could help themselves to at break. It was well received at first and the staff felt it was considerate. But, six weeks on, the sweets haven’t been replaced and none of the information has been updated – leaving them feeling the effort was more for show rather than commitment to long-term impact.

What works in one setting doesn’t necessarily apply to all, and also depends on the maturity of your current processes and provision for staff wellbeing. That said, there is definitely value in schools coming together to share what is working.

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant apprenticeship standard has been approved

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (iFATE) recently approved the new Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant apprenticeship standard. This new apprenticeship will not only enhance the skills of teaching assistants and offer them professional development opportunities, but also directly contribute to improved student outcomes.

This apprenticeship will equip participants with core knowledge, skills, and behaviours essential to the role of a Specialist Teaching Assistant. Furthermore, it offers apprentices the choice to specialise in one of three key areas:

• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• Social and Emotional Well-being
• Specialist Curriculum Provision

Schools can use the Apprenticeship Levy to fund this programme in order to develop a broad range of expertise within their teaching assistant teams. This will increase a setting’s capacity to address the growing needs of students requiring additional support.

Involvement from Real Training and Educational and Sporting Futures in shaping the standard

Dr. Siobhan Mellor (SEND expert and Director, Real Group) and Jo Pountney (Director, Educational and Sporting Futures) played significant roles in shaping the Specialist Teaching Assistant apprenticeship standard as members of the Trailblazer group. Their extensive experience in education and apprenticeship delivery helped to ensure the Level 5 standard effectively addresses the needs of both teaching assistants and the broader education sector.

Stay Informed

We are co-developing programmes for the new Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant standard with Ofsted Outstanding Apprenticeship Provider, Educational and Sporting Futures. Further information is available on our course page. If you’d like to keep up-to-date with the latest developments, you can register your interest through this expression of interest form.

Darleen Grimsby – MEd SEND and Inclusion | NASENCO

Darleen Grimsby is currently Deputy Head of a complex special needs school in Norfolk. Recently she has been promoted to a SENCO position with responsibilities across the entire Trust, something she believes her master’s degree played a pivotal role in helping her achieve.

We caught up with her to see how her students (and her career) have benefited from the Masters in SEND programme.

How has your setting benefitted from your new skills and knowledge?

I would say the biggest impact was the reading model that I created and rolled out during my course of study which was one of my assignments on the Dyslexia Leadership and Intervention course. As a direct result of that piece of work, we now have 90% of pupils who are able to access some sort of reading and most of them can be assessed as well. When you consider that this includes children with profound and multiple learning difficulties or complex physical disabilities this is particularly significant for them and for how we support them in our school.

When OFSTED last came to inspect us they were very complimentary and commented that everything that had been done was very well researched. This is all down to my master’s study. I’ve also helped bring other members of my team along with me. It’s not just me building my career,, but it’s supporting those around me to be the best that they can be as well.

My research project focused on supporting the emotional regulation of non-verbal children with autism. It’s not only helped me better understand the importance of a holistic approach – but Norfolk County Council are treating it as a pilot study and are now rolling it out on a much larger scale. When we get the results it will feedback into our plan next term and will hopefully help other schools and parents in the county. 

What did you enjoy most about studying for your master’s?

The master’s programme helped me become a specialist in my field and as a professional carve out what it is that I want to do. It has allowed me to gain the necessary breadth of understanding about special educational needs (and keep my fingers in lots of pies!), while also doing closer study on reading and providing mental health support for non-verbal autistic children. 

It’s also given me the encouragement to go and do what I want to do and investigate what I am truly passionate about.  

How do you think studying for your master’s has helped with your own personal development?

A lot of what I’ve done here at my current setting has been influenced by what I’ve done through my masters with Real Training. I’ve done a lot of research as part of my study programme and put new things in place and I think that definitely contributed towards my career progression. 

In recent job interviews when people have asked me what type of leader I see myself as, because I’ve done my SENCO training and had time to reflect, I’m pretty clear on that.

The masters has also opened so many doors for me on a personal level. My reading model was used as a case study in published in a book by Dr. Sarah Mosley, I’ve just written an article for a magazine and I’ve been asked to put forward a book proposal.  

What did you select for your enquiry-based research project?

I chose to focus on mental health support for non-speaking autistic individuals aged between four and 16 years old. It’s something I’m very passionate about and we’re also seeing a huge rise in the number of children coming into our setting who are non-speaking. Managing their anxiety can be quite a challenge.

I found that access to a well-known adult and a feeling of trust was an essential component for emotional self-regulation. Getting this in place meant that the child felt that their communication needs were being addressed (sometimes even through non-verbal communication such as glances) and their broader needs would also then be met. This helped to reduce anxiety, as well as further re-enforcing that trusting relationship.

There were lots of strategies that both parents and professionals reported to be effective but the presence of a familiar/ known and predictable adult who honored and followed through with what they communicated was a common thread in a holistic approach.

[You can read more about Darleen’s project here]

What are the top three things you have implemented since or during your study? 

• Launched a new reading model that 90% of children can access
• Implemented strategies to help reduce anxiety in autistic children and promote communication-rich environments including using graded core boards
• Started work to introduce guidance to help children access self-regulation techniques – we’re calling it the ‘pre-zones of regulation’ and I’m working closely with our behavioural specialist

How did you find our online learning experience and tutor support?

Online learning for me really worked because I could pick it up whenever and there was no pressure, which really helped. There wasn’t the need to attend classes. Everything being online gave me the freedom to juggle work and childcare, so that completely worked for me.

I found that as I went along I got even more comfortable finding my way around and interacting with peers. The tutors were always there and it was always a really good experience – they answered things straight away.

Would you recommend this programme to others?

Yes! If you are passionate and have that drive then I think it is an amazing platform. This is really cheesy and I can’t believe I’m saying it, but it’s like the world becomes your oyster. 

Learning with Real Training has had such a huge impact because it’s opened up so many doors for me that I really didn’t think would be there. I’ve also been able to bring other staff along with me – that’s really important.