 How can you get pupils ready for learning when they arrive at school struggling? This video is inspired by a question from Jane Hull who said We have pupils whose whole day can be predicted by the state of mind in which they arrive at school This can be for a variety of reasons such as arguments with parents, disorganized morning routines and a whole host of other reasons I wondered if you had any ideas for short simple interventions or ideas We could put in place to help them reset their frame of mind so they can turn their day around and be more positive Now first things first I love it when you make requests for videos and I love going and researching them and hopefully giving you some suggested answers to your queries So please do comment below or drop me an email if you have something you would like me to make a video about But in answer to Jane's question, and I hope that lots of you will find this helpful I'm going to share a simple three-pronged approach Which is share it, shelve it, shout it and the idea behind this is basically getting to the point where all of our learners are Broadly equally ready to learn because actually when they arrive at school all sorts of different stuff's been going on at home They may be more or less ready to learn just depending on what's happened up to that point in the day and Sometimes as the teacher in the front of the room We can forget that some of our kids have already had quite a tough time before they've even arrived in front of us And then we start expecting them to do something complicated Or that might feel complicated to them and we wonder why they're struggling So sometimes taking a little bit of time at the beginning of the day to help them reset get to a point of calm and readiness for learning Can actually save time in the long run. Okay, so share it, shelve it, shout it Share it so number one is about acknowledging that sometimes our kids will walk in through the school gates and difficult stuff Happened at home and they need to offload it They need the opportunity to get it out of their system and talk to someone about what's going on before they're going to be able to move on So here it can be really helpful if there is a trusted adult who a young person can talk to Particularly if you've got young people who you know are going through a particularly tough time now Or this is a young person who particularly struggles with kind of emotional regulation and that kind of thing Then having someone who they can regularly go and talk to even for a few minutes first thing in the morning Can make a big difference in order to share something you don't necessarily always need to have a trusted adult to hand Of course, it can be that a young person can get a get it out of their system by sharing it in words or through play They just might want to to act it out to write it out Just just get it out to share it with the world take it outside of their head and put it out there That can be really helpful too And the other thing if you want to do this more as a kind of whole class type thing Is you can think about enabling children to share their issues with each other So like this is particularly helpful if there are lots of ongoing kind of friendship disputes going on in your class Allowing children to share this to talk about it in class for a few minutes And then we say and now it's learning time So we're gonna have a specific amount of time where we can share what's going on inside our head and get it out of our system And talk about those friendship issues and that kind of thing and then okay We're done and we're ready for learning and people sometimes worry that this will waste your time But actually I have worked with lots of teachers who have said that having this time to enable all the hub up that comes at the beginning of the day And after the various breaks to just be worked out of kids systems Means that actually get a lot more done in the rest of the lesson and it only needs to be a few minutes a caveat here It's obviously if you've got children or young people in your class who've got big stuff going on in their heads You don't really want them blurting that out to all of their friends So this is more a sharing of general the general noise of day-to-day life in school getting it out of our system And just remember when it comes to things that are on children's mind a The small things are always the big things as far as their concerns so allowing those things to be heard and secondly Children need to feel heard and listened to they don't necessarily need to have their problems solved or fixed Sometimes it's just about hearing what they're thinking rather than necessarily going into rescue mode Okay number two is Shelvert and this is about the idea that for some of the things that we worry about some of the things that might be making it Hard for us to engage with the school day are things that we can set aside time to worry about at a more convenient time And this is a really commonly used tool in therapy Where we might say you know, this isn't an appropriate worry. It's okay to worry about this But actually right now it's really inconvenient. I'm gonna let myself worry about it later now That sounds really kooky But actually if you get in the habit of doing it it can work really really well And it can enable you then to get on with the things that you need and want to get on with and then later on when it's a more Appropriate time then we can dig deep into what it is that's on your mind So this is about really helping kids to differentiate between their kind of their sort of sharing time and their learning time And helping them to feel completely engaged in the moment now in the learning time Because they know that there will be an opportunity to worry to explore to share whatever's appropriate for them later on Now you can do things like give the child an actual physical Appointment card saying, you know either an appointment with themselves to worry about this at break or lunch time Or you know This is a card to allow you five minutes of my time at the end of the lesson and we will discuss what's worrying you then So giving them the opportunity to shelve the worry either to revisit it themselves or with a trusted adult But essentially acknowledging I get that there's stuff on your mind right now It's really important that you get the opportunity to talk about that or to deal with it in some way That opportunity will come at this time trying to be quite specific about that can be really helpful for some kids too So they know exactly when they're going to be able to worry about the things that are on their mind An idea number three is shout it And this is about trying to get those anxieties those worries that anger out of the system And this is particularly if you have a child who was arriving at school in a state of overwhelm And they're not ready to learn because actually they're you know here Ah, we all have those moments right and for some children They're in this state and there's no way that they're going to be able to sit down quietly in class and get on with things So here we're thinking about shout it and it's not just about shouting It's about any way of getting all those feelings out out out And it's not necessarily even about actually specifically talking about addressing or hearing those worries Sometimes it's just about working out that anxious energy that might have built up So that can be through things like shouting or singing or something kind of verbal can be helpful if there's an appropriate space And if our child feels happy to do it some kids tell me they like screaming in their head or screaming into a pillow or cushion for example too Being physically active can really help like literally doing jumping jacks or running around the playground or doing something that just kind of literally burns off That anxious or angry energy can be helpful too or else something that's kind of physical But kind of more contained if you need to do that for a child So like smashing Play-Doh or writing stuff down and ripping it up or something of that Basically, you're thinking of anything and you know, you'll find what works for you what works for the particular child It's anything that helps them to just get it out get it out of their system Help them feel better about it. It's kind of cathartic Type ideas that we're looking for here I'd actually love to hear what different things you have found really helpful for helping children to get out That kind of anxious and angry energy What's worked well in your classroom in your school comment down below and I'd love to make a video Compiling all those ideas another time. So remember pupils will arrive at school in very different states of readiness to learn and Actually, if we don't take a little bit of time and thought and energy to support those who aren't yet ready to learn Then we're gonna find that they're the ones who are gonna really fall behind and struggle And we'll often find that things get worse and worse and worse throughout the school day But if instead if they're arriving really anxious angry upset or worried if we can help to get them more to a place of calm They're gonna keep up with their peers They're gonna be ready for learning and ultimately you're gonna get more done Even though you gave a little bit of time to this at the beginning of the day I'd love to hear your thoughts about how you can get the day off to a good start Do you have other ideas that you would like to add here? Obviously if they begin with a sh that's even better because share it shelve it shout it just sounds lovely It's such a loser But you know they can begin with other things if you like to know genuinely if you have ideas You'd like to share, please do comment them below I'm I'd really love more of you to take time to comment on my videos because I know that people do read through the comments And you can give ideas to each other too, and where there are particularly great ones Then I can turn those into another video later on too Okay, and I'll just make a quick recommendation of a book that I love that's full of activities that you could do If you are supporting lots of children at the beginning of the school day Perhaps you're someone who runs a learning or nurture zone or you'd like some activities that you can set your child Doing in the classroom whilst you're attending to all the other children too So this is a great book and everything written by Bonnie Thomas is great This I particularly love more creative coping skills for children And it's got loads of photocopiable activities in it that you might find helpful And I'll put a link in the description below so you can go take a look if you want to so until next time Stay safe. Take care. Be kind to yourselves And if you haven't done so please hit the subscribe button So you'll be kept up to date with my new videos every Tuesday and Friday. Okay, until next time