Starting the Year Well for Every Student

This session helps every adult in a school, teaching and non-teaching, start the year well with the students who find September hardest. It looks at what struggling actually is, why it’s so often hidden, and how anxiety and overwhelm ask for different responses, then turns to what any adult can do about it: spotting the children who mask, keeping a wobbling child in the room rather than sending them out, and holding high expectations whilst helping a child reach them. A short film from a neurodivergent young person, sharing what she wished her teachers had known, sits at its heart, alongside a set of small, doable changes that need no specialist training. Staff leave understanding their students a little differently, and with practical things to try from the first day of term.

Learning outcomes:

• Spot when a student is struggling, including the ones who hide it well
• Tell anxiety and overwhelm apart, and match your response to each
• Support a child and hold high expectations at the same time, without treating them as opposites
• Keep a struggling child in the room where you can, and recognise when stepping out is the right call
• Feel confident you can help whatever your role, so support isn’t only the SENCO’s job
• See the start of term through a neurodivergent student’s eyes