Session Overview

Why capable children can’t get started, remember or finish, and what helps

Some children can clearly do the work, and still can’t get going. They understand the task and want to do well, yet the page stays blank, or they forget an instruction seconds after hearing it. It looks like laziness or not listening. Really it’s executive function, the brain’s project manager, and for a lot of neurodivergent children it runs patchily, however capable they are.

This recorded CPD session takes the parts of executive function that matter most in a classroom, getting started, working memory, planning, time and organisation, one at a time. For each, it shows what it looks like in a real pupil and the small, universal changes that help, the kind you can use in the very next lesson. It’s practical throughout, built for whole school staff with no prior knowledge, and it treats these as real neurological differences rather than a matter of effort.

What you’ll learn:

• Why “won’t” is almost always “can’t, not yet”, and what that changes
• How to spot the child who can’t get started, and help them begin
• Simple ways to take the load off working memory, so instructions stick
• How to support planning, time and organisation without doing it all for them
• The small changes that help the whole class, not just one child
• One thing to try this week, and one to try as a staff

Who this is for:
Teachers, teaching assistants, SENCOs and school leaders supporting a capable child who struggles to start, organise or finish, with or without a diagnosis.