Vanessa's Blog - December: Top 10 tips for a class with no support staff

The outreach team are often asked about practical tips for putting help in place for children without designated 1:1 support. These are our top tips for strategies that will not only support specific children, but also benefit the whole group. Please remember that this is by no means an exhaustive list and we certainly would not expect a teacher to put all of these into place at the same time.

1. Task boards - Lots of children benefit from a task board, or ‘to-do’ which breaks down work into manageable chunks and provides a visual reminder for those who are not good at listening to instructions. In lessons for which you will expect children to check, or edit their work, these can be an important points to include on the list, to avoid the upset of having to do them after they have felt they were already finished. While this can be too time consuming to maintain for an individual child, it could be done on the board as a whole-group strategy, perhaps as the last slide of a presentation you use for the lesson input.
2. Mange your expectations – While we want to be pushing all children to meet their full potential in every lesson, there will be times to accept that the groups working without adult support may need to have different expectations to groups who have an adult sat with them and this may need to be swapped around on a daily basis. Don’t feel bad about giving children tasks that are within their capabilities; there are lots of other important life lessons to be learnt, such as the ability to work independently, the ability to problem solve without adult support and the positive wellbeing gained from completing a task with confidence. One way to differentiate tasks effectively is to consider the way that work is recorded and avoid an excessive amount of handwriting if it is really ideas or facts that you want to focus on.
3. Visuals – Make the classroom rules and expectations really clear with visuals, stuck up for the whole group to see. These could include symbols such as ‘good sitting’ or ‘hands up’, visual rules, choice boards (e.g. options for wet playtime) and class noise/volume controls. Depending on your class, scales might be useful and ideas range from a problem rating scale (from 1 = take a deep breath and carry on, to 5 = tell an adult straight away ) to a handwriting scale (from 1 = scruffy and fast to 5=slow but super neat). See our helpsheet on The Incredible Five Point Scale for more information.
4. Visual Timetable – While some children need their own individual timetable, many can learn to follow a whole class visual timetable. To ensure that your target young person has really absorbed the information, they could be given the job of putting up the timetable in the morning, giving them the opportunity to look closely at what will be happening in the day. As lessons are completed, take the symbols off, or cross out the words and put them into a finished box or envelope, so that the children can see their progress through the day.
5. Job rotas and assigning roles – Job rotas are particularly useful if you have children who tend towards being a class policeman. It can help them to focus in on the task we really want them to do and it is great for the whole class to learn a sense of responsibility. Jobs, or roles could also be used within group work, to make it easier for your children with social communication issues to access sessions that might otherwise involve a lot of negotiation and potential conflict.
6. Movement breaks – whole class movement breaks can be very effective and some schools do this as part of the timetable. We have observed lots of great strategies working well in mainstream schools, including the daily mile, class yoga, class brain gym, peer massage or even dance breaks!
7. Worry book/box – Use a worry book, or box (or mister!) to ensure that your anxious students have a way of expressing their concerns. You will then be able to follow these up at a suitable time, to show them that you are taking their feelings seriously. Some schools do a check-in after playtimes in which the children rate their breaks as 3 – great, 2- ok or 1 – I need to talk to you about something.
8. Modelling - Most classes will contain some children who struggle to follow or retain verbal instructions. Anything that can be modelled is more likely to be understood and technology like visualizers can make this a lot easier. Don’t necessarily assume that they will be able to transfer concepts from your instructions to book or worksheet – they may need to see you fill in the first question or write the first sentence in order to be able to approach this task independently.
9. Timers - A whole group timer on the interactive board can be a great way of focusing the group on a task
10. What do I do when I am finished? - Transition times and the gaps at the end of lessons are by far the trickiest time in a mainstream classroom and these are the times that behaviours are most likely to occur. Extension tasks are not always the answer as children who felt they were finished may be disgruntled at having to do more. Imagine finishing cleaning your house, to be told that you can now move on to your neighbour’s larger house! Let them know from the start of the lesson if an extension task will be involved. Have a really clear plan for what children should do when their work is finished. Ideas can include something from a challenge/thinking skills/special mission folder, calming or relaxation activities (see our helpsheet for ideas), or getting a reading book.