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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Yr 3/4 class working at EYFS..help!

4 replies

MissCarr · 30/09/2023 09:40

I really need help. Our SEMH high school has just opened a primary school starting at year 3. I am the advanced behaviour lead and I am going to be taking over one of the Yr 3/4 classes (mixed age groups) due to the teacher going on maternity leave.

Since they started at the start of September we have not done a lesson yet. A lot of them have ACE's, a range of diagnosis and some have never actually attended school. We only have classes of 8, however even this has been too challenging and we have had to split the class to 4 students in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Yesterday was our first day without a fight

My question is what can I do to help settle the class? None of them are ready for learning so regulation is our biggest goal. We have scrapped the curriculum and are trying to do a lot of play based exploration however fights and dysregulation are still happening.
Does anyone have any tips to settle highly anxious, fight or flight children? Any sensory activities, regulation activities? I think we are going to try and set up the classroom to be like an EYFS class however not much can be out as they throw and use things as weapons. They have their own MP3 players set up and sensory baskets on their tables for regulation strategies. I just need activities to get us through the day regulated, showing kindness, nice feet and nice hands.

Please help.

OP posts:
yorkypuds · 30/09/2023 10:08

As an advanced behaviour lead, in a specialist setting, I would hope you have external agencies to refer to for further support.
This is such a specialist question to ask Mumsnet with no knowledge of the children or their EHCPs.

Hayliebells · 30/09/2023 14:33

I agree, you absolutely need specialist support. There's little in the way of help that a random group of teachers on the internet can offer.
Their needs are going to be met much more appropriately with advice from educational psychologists. I can well understand that it's really difficult to get support from EPs, but surely there's a higher than average need in this group, so you're a priority. Advice from teachers who are likely very unskilled in this quite specialist scenario, isn't really a good enough substitute.

toomuchicecream · 30/09/2023 17:30

Absolutely agree about you needing specialist support, but here are some ideas based on my time as a TA in an EBD (as it was in those days) primary school.

The children I worked with thrived on things being as black and white as possible. No grey areas - if it was wrong, it was always wrong. Well established routines, for example, all pupils sitting up straight at their desk (a double table per individual child with gaps in between each one so no one was sitting close enough to touch another) with their arms folded on the table in front of them, to show they were ready to learn, before the teacher started to teach.

As much predictability and stability as possible in what everyone did. Simple structures which were adhered to like glue. Well do I remember the day the teacher decided to take the class to the hall for an English lesson (she was super experienced and had deliberately chosen to do this) - several children couldn't cope with the change of surroundings - I remember one slid to the far side of the hall and span in circles, which she explained to me was because he was uncomfortable in a different space.

Football was banned because it just caused too many arguments and fights!

Very clear system of rewards. After each break there would be time to review with each child how they had done in the previous lesson and break time against their individual targets, giving them a sticker if it was agreed they had earned it. This meant the day was broken down into chunks of about an hour - if they missed getting their sticker for one chunk, it was clear they could get the next one.

Now this might not be considered good practice anymore as it was nearly 20 years ago. But for those pupils it was absolutely what they needed at the time as any kind of uncertainty unsettled them and put them into fight or flight mode.

Some years later I had a very unsettled year 1 class who I'd been told would need lots of child initiated learning because there were so many summer born boys who weren't ready to cope with sitting at desks. I tried. I really tried. But when those summer born boys spent their whole time chasing each other round the room with guns made out of Duplo, I had to change tack. Clear routines and expectations, lots of very short, age appropriate tasks and structured play really helped them to settle.

I wonder whether your pupils would also thrive with this kind of approach? Include all the sensory activities, PSHE, emotional regulation activities etc in their day as this will be really important to them. But take away they need for them to use their lacking self regulation/executive function by making as many decisions as possible for them. Happy for others to disagree with me!

BestZebbie · 10/10/2023 19:56

If demand avoidance is part of the issue, these are pretty good references:
The Teacher's Introduction to Pathological Demand Avoidance: Essential Strategies for the Classroom by Clare Truman, Collaborative Approaches to Learning for Pupils with PDA: Strategies for Education Professionalsby Ruth Fidler and Phil Christie and The Educator’s Experience of Pathological Demand Avoidance: An Illustrated Guide to Pathological Demand Avoidance and Learningby Laura Kerbey.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clare-Truman/e/B098B73GMV?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1696964085&sr=8-3&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-the-staffroom-4909030-yr-34-class-working-at-eyfshelp

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