The Unteachables Podcast

#144: How to actually support students with additional needs... in a mainstream classroom... with zero support...

• Claire English • Season 7 • Episode 144

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How do you actually manage special needs in a mainstream classroom (when you’re not getting the support you need)?

Ever looked around your classroom mid-lesson and thought:
“How the heck am I supposed to meet 30 different needs all at once?”

Yeah. Me too.

This week, I’m kicking off a new mini-series answering your most-asked questions, starting with one I get all the time:
“How do I support students with special needs in my mainstream classroom? There has to be more help out there.”

Spoiler alert: There should be more help. But in the meantime, I’m walking you through what you can actually control, without burning yourself out or playing superhero.

I’ll give you a front seat to:

  • The real talk I wish I got at uni about inclusion
  • Why “just differentiate” is the most unhelpful advice ever
  • The classroom systems and routines that actually make a difference
  • And the role your own nervous system plays in it all

This one’s not about perfection. It’s about doing what’s possible—in a way that’s human, sustainable, and actually helps kids thrive (including you).

Let’s dive in.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why you can’t meet every need, and why that’s not failure
  • The power of systems over individualised strategies
  • What real inclusion looks and feels like
  • The two biggest game-changers: routine + regulation
  • How to support neurodiverse and neurotypical students at the same time

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

Connect with me:


SPEAKER_00:

Oh, hi there, teachers. Welcome to the Unteachables Podcast. I'm your host, Claire English, and I am just a fellow teacher, a toddler mama, and a big old behaviour nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behaviour and classroom manage has left us playing crowd control, which is not something I subscribe to because we're not bouncers, we're teachers. So listen in as I walk you through the game-changing strategies, and I mean the things that we can actually do in action in our classrooms that will allow you to lean into your beautiful values as a compassionate educator and feel empowered to run your room with a little more calm and dare I say it, a lot less chaos. I will see you in the episode. Hello, welcome back to the Unteachables Podcast. It is so nice to have you back with me. Uh, or if it's your first time, hello, my name's Claire, and what we do here is just all things classroom management. So if you need a bit of support with that, you're in the right place. If you're thinking, oh nah, I'm all over it. My behavior management, my classroom management is ace, I've got no problems, then maybe don't listen to this podcast. Uh maybe I need to come and learn from you, but uh, or maybe you're lying because I don't think anybody is 100% all over classroom management. I think we've always got something more to learn, more to try. Uh, tis the nature of human behavior. So uh yeah, welcome. I'm glad you're here with me. So I decided to do a few QA's over the next couple of months. I wanted to answer all of these questions that I've been getting in my inbox all the time. I get the same kind of questions. So I wanted to pull out those questions that I've been asked the most, and I wanted to answer them here on the podcast over the next couple of months. We're going into the last quarter of the year, or we are in the last quarter of the year, we're pretty deep in it now. Um, so I wanted to do some things that were going to be like, you know, oh my gosh, like yes, I've been wondering that as well. Let me try that. Um, no better time than the present. The first QA I would like to uh answer today is how to manage special needs in a mainstream classroom. And this person said, there has to be more help out there. And yes, there does, there should be more help out there. Um and I chose this as the first one because it's a big one that not only do I get a lot coming into my inbox, but it's one that I have asked time and time and time again over the course of my career. I remember stepping into my first classroom and going, what the actual heck? Like we spoke about inclusion and we spoke about, you know, meeting the needs of all of these young people. But then when you are actually in front of said young people who are all, you know, at different levels and behaving in different ways and have different needs, it is a lot easier said than done to be like, hey, like, yeah, inclusion, sweet. Uh so do I believe in c in inclusive classrooms? Of course I do. Of course, I believe that every student needs to be catered for, and I believe that every student uh should have access to a mainstream classroom. Do I also think that some students probably require more support or a more therapeutic placement than what mainstream can provide for them? Yes, I also do think that. Do I think that inclusion is done very poorly because students are chucked into classrooms and teachers are then expected to, you know, without any support or any resources or any additional training on needs, like, you know, cater for these uh specific student profiles? Also, yes, I think it's done very poorly. So what do we do? Because I it's not a differentiation problem. It's not that you just have to differentiate for 30 different learners and then you're all sweet. We're often dealing with the most complex trauma. We're dealing with students with sensory processing challenges, ADHD, autism, and meeting everybody's needs and keeping the class calm and getting through the curriculum is take is going to take more than just a little bit of differentiation. The way that people also talk about differentiation is not my cup of tea either. It shouldn't be that we're just like giving students different levels of work. Anyway, that's a whole different episode for another day. Um, anyway, yes, there should be more help out there, but how do we actually do this in our classrooms? How do we cater for additional needs? How do we, how do we actually live this idea of being an inclusive classroom? I like to start with what we can control. I mean, when I say I want to start there, like I always start middle end there, like I always just talk about the things that we can control. Because yes, you should have more training and more support for students, like to cater for students who have additional needs, but I don't have control over that. I can't go into your school and say, hey, like give Courtney some extra training or hey, Greg needs to be supported with some more resources or a TA or something like that. But what I can help you with are the things that you can control in the classroom to create an environment that is more inclusive. But let me start with just a bit of a hard truth, which is that we can't meet every single need in the classroom 100% perfectly because we aren't 30 different humans ourselves. Like you've got 30 kids in the room, some with an like, you know, an ADHD profile, like autistic individuals, we have students who have learning disabilities. We can't specifically meet every single need, which is why I focus on systems in creating a classroom where everyone's nervous system has a chance to feel safe and successful, where I'm providing structure, I'm providing routines, I'm providing true differentiation where students can feel successful. So there are things that we can do on a more wide scale with our class that helps to make it inclusive, to make it safe, to make it an environment where we are trying to meet the needs of every single student in the best way we can. And I say in the best way we can because we can't do it 100%. It's just impossible. Like I've had classes where I've had 50%, 60%, 70% of students on individual healthcare plans or individual education plans, whatever you call them in your pocket of the world. I can't look at every single one of those planned and say, okay, here are the adjustments. What I can do is take all of those adjustments and try to put things into a structure, into a routine where I'm actually fulfilling my responsibilities as a teacher and someone who needs to be inclusive without having to address every single student individually because it's a part of my teaching practice. So that is what I'm going to be talking about in today's episode. How to do that, how to set up an inclusive classroom environment. The first thing that you need to really get down pat is your visuals and your routines, because those kinds of things increase predictability and clarity, and it just reduces that cognitive load. And it's just a game changer for students who are neurodivergent. But for every single student, it's just best practice because when students come to our classroom, and I've spoken about it in other episodes, where like the mental health crisis at the moment in our society, with not just our young people, but with teachers and adults as well. But our young people are turning up to class. I can't remember the exact statistic of like how many percentage were ready to learn. I think it was like 20% ready to learn. But the stats were that one in three primary school students are struggling with um anxiety or depression, and one in, sorry, one in four primary students and one in three secondary students are struggling with anxiety or depression. So like every single student is going to benefit from routines and structures that increases felt safety. Because when we increase predictability, when we're giving more clarity, when students rock up to our classroom knowing exactly what they are going to be expecting from us, knowing that we're going to provide them a map to their learning, that we're going to be a consistent figure for them in the way that we are doing things with our pedagogy, our lesson planning, but also like the person that we are, it is going to reduce the stress response in our students and we're going to see less dysregulation, which is going to be golden when it comes to classroom management. So the tangible things that we can focus on doing in terms of increasing the routines in our classroom and that consistency, making sure that the routines that we use are really familiar. So we have that same entry routine. I've got episodes on like how to craft a really strong entry routine, but knowing that when students get to the class, they've got a starter activity, it's going to last for three minutes. It's a pen to paper activity, it's going to be able to, like everyone's going to be able to be successful at that. They know that they've got a map to their learning that's either projected onto the board or given to them on a piece of paper that they can tick off as the lesson goes on. They know that they need to be lining up outside in a certain way and that you'll be greeting them and like, you know, getting them into the classroom in a way that's I think I did speak about on an episode, but like, you know, walking through that invisible barrier to go into the classroom. So you're regulating the room. So students know when they get to the classroom that that entry routine is solid and that is what they're going to be following. Uh, transition routine. So when they go into group work or back to individual work or any of that messy middle, um, what are they going to be expected to do? Are they going to know that you're going to guide them with visuals and really be clear on your expectations? When they finish the lesson, is there a routine for that last, that final five minutes of the lesson? If they finish early, do they know what to do? If they're, you know, they're packing up to get ready to go outside. Do they know what like really being clear and explicit about the routines in your classroom and following those routines? That is going to be so, so, so crucial for your overall classroom management and making sure that the lesson is as calm as it can be and as regulated as it can be. But that is also inclusive practice because students who require routine, they're going to benefit from that. Students who have high anxiety, students who have disorganized attachments, it's all relational practice that is going to be so golden for them as well. So what's good for those students is good for all students. So, as well as your routines, using things like timers, using things like success criteria, anything that supports students to understand what your expectations are of them when they're completing a task. So students are really clear on what they have to do and how to do it. Again, that's excellent practice for students who require that additional support. That's like that is differentiation in action. It's not about giving 30 different tasks to different students at different levels. It's about embedding those pedagogical practices that support students to understand how to be successful at something and you know, giving them a leg up to do that if they require it. So scaffolding, task cards, checklists, timers, um, success criteria, anything that is going to help them to be really crystal clear on whatever they have to do. Like just making success as visible as possible. The next thing you can think about when it comes to using routines and visuals and like being really like explicit in your expectations is the language that we're using, like using consistent language. So instead of, you know, can you please go and do this? You can say, when I say go, you'll do this. So really consistent, explicit language around what your expectations are instead of kind of wishy-washy open-ended requests. Um, and you can make that really visible um visual as well. You can have that as a slide on the board for say transitions or anything really in the classroom. So embedding visuals, embedding really clear, like expectations of your students, providing them with scaffolds and examples and checklists and timers, embedding things into a really consistent routine, all of that is going to reduce cognitive load. It's going to increase predictability, which then will decrease um uh dysregulation. Uh all of that is going to be the mark of a very beautifully inclusive classroom. If you look at students' individual plans, so much of that will be around differentiating the learning, making sure you, you know, provide scaffolds, making sure you are really explicit, things are timed, things are clear, there's routines, there's consistency. There's so much of that language in these plans. So instead of just trying to do it for one student, making your classroom practice like based around that, like I teach that just for general classroom management. I don't teach specific inclusion because I know that every single thing that I do in the classroom is being inclusive to the students who require additional support. The second thing I want to talk about that is, you know, less about kind of like planning the lesson and more about ourselves is just our own regulation. Because when we are dealing with the cacophony of like different needs and different um profiles and all of the things that manifest in challenging behaviors in a traditional classroom setting, oh boy, that is a recipe for us feeling dysregulated, out of control, disempowered, like feeling like in terms of like our power and mastery in the classroom, us feeling really like lacking in that, like we can't do our jobs properly, feeling really despondent. Um, so it's really hard, right? So really focusing on our own regulation is so important. Really focusing on using a steady tone, our face remaining quite neutral, you know, using a really slow pace, a gentle pace, because what can happen when we're talking about co-regulation? Co-disregulation is also a big factor in why we can struggle in the classroom. When we have 30 students who are dysregulated, who are struggling in that setting, and then we come in, it's just as easy for us to join them in the storm than it is for us to co-regulate for them to come into our calm. So it's easy for us to become dysregulated in that naturally dysregulating environment of classroom behaviors that are manifesting. So I think just being aware of that, that we are very easily dragged into. I don't want to say dragged into, but we can be dragged into dysregulation just as easily as we can regulate. I mean, it's probably easier for us to be dysregulated than it is for us to regulate with our class. It is something that takes a lot of practice and a lot of kind of um self-awareness and us being able to take care of ourselves. And it's it's a it's a really hard task sometimes in a classroom, but it is so important in terms of like the tangible things that we can do to co-regulate with our class rather than feel like we have to, you know, power over control or get like swept up in the dysregulation. So, yes, using a steady tone, really focusing on our face, our pace. Um, instead of yelling corrections across the room, just using proximity or nonverbal signals, remembering to stop and not be yelling over the noise or trying to teach over the chatter and just bringing it all back to a place of calm and I say control in the way that we are in control of ourselves and we are taking a deep breath and we're aware of our body language and what our shoulders are doing because our own regulation is so contagious. The calmer we are, or the more regulated we are, the safer you are as a teacher and the safer your class will feel. Um, and I mean emotional safety and that felt safety that students can have in your classroom. So, as well as the kind of tangible um like classroom management structures and routines and like teaching and learning stuff that we need to be doing with students who have additional needs, we really need to be thinking about how we're fostering that felt safety in our classroom through our regulation. Of course, the things I spoke about before when it comes to like the expectations we're setting and the differentiation and the routines and the structures and the clarity and all of those things are also even more so actually going to foster felt safety in your classroom. And it also will help you feel more regulated because you'll feel like all over it. But really just being aware of the weather that we're bringing into the classroom. So the one thing that I'm always just telling people to do, and something that I do myself, is before your lesson, if you know it's gonna be a tough one, if you know you've got that particular kind of class where there are so many different needs, and you're like, oh my gosh, like some of these kids, I just don't know how to support them in the best way I can. Like their behaviors are really like trying to tell me something about what they need. I don't know what they need. If you're feeling like that before a class, please just stop, take a breath, and tell yourself, all I can control is how I am and how I respond. I can't control their behaviors. I can't control how they're, you know, showing up in the classroom before they come to that this classroom. I don't know what's going on. I can't control those things. I can't control their knees profiles, but what I can control is what I'm doing in my classroom, my routines, my structures, the way that I'm running my lesson and myself, my own regulation. So keep going back to what can I control? I can't control the fact that my university didn't teach me how to deal with all of these different needs in a classroom setting. I can't help the fact that everything is on my shoulders. Like I can't help the fact that my principal or, you know, my leadership team are just like putting kids in my class without talking me through what they need or what their profiles are or how to best support them. But I can control what I'm doing in this classroom right now. And for me, that has been just a godsend throughout my entire career because I've always gone back to what can I control. I haven't been bogged down in the blame or the shame or you know, like I can't do this anymore. I mean, I have at other times in my career, but like not now. But what was I saying? Yes. So just always remembering what you can control because it is a much more empowering and proactive place than the alternative, and it's going to get you far further, far further, much further than the alternative. Okay, but it's okay to be frustrated, it's okay to care so deeply and feel like it's not enough. And please remember that you are not failing your students. You are doing the work of 20 people at once in that room on your own, trying to work it all out. So if you were the one who asked me this question, or if this question has also been on your heart, which is, how can I cater for the needs of all of these students? There has to be more help out there. Please remember that yes, there are things that you can do. You are not lost on things to do, but the support that you are giving to students might look a little bit different than what is presented to you by people who aren't in the classroom. Like they write these plans and they're not teachers, and or maybe some of them are. But um, I'm just talking from experience that the people who have written these, like, you know, adjustment plans have actually no experience in the classroom and you know, don't know what it is actually like to cater for the needs of so many students. So please remember that as well. Uh, it's it's hard because it feels hard because it's really hard. But just keep going back to what real inclusion looks like in a mainstream classroom, which is us remembering how hard it is, us giving ourselves a break, us being as regulated as we possibly can, and then putting in the structures, the routines, the things that are really visible, uh consistent, predictable for our students that is going to support neurodiverse and neurotypical students one in the same. That is what real inclusion looks like for me anyway. So I hope that this was helpful if you've had that question on your mind. And I look forward to bringing you some more of these QAs because yeah, it's just it's great to talk through these. I I mean, I just did a big ol' waffle, I think. But it's nice to brain dump my responses to this because I also get these kind of questions in the behavior club, and it's nice to be able to point people in the direction of like a really explicit response to explicit questions. So um, if you do have a question that you'd like me to answer, you can pop over to uh my Instagram, which is at the dotunteachables, or you can email me your question at claire at the unteachables.com and I will add it to the list. It would be wonderful to be able to answer your question. And that is all for this week. I shall see you at the same time in the same place next week. Bye for now, wonderful teacher.

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Claire English

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