Practical Strategies for Inclusive Classrooms

by Dr Pooky Knightsmith

Increasingly, schools are feeling the growing demands of supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), as classrooms become more diverse and teachers are asked to meet a wider range of needs than ever before. Creating truly inclusive learning environments can feel challenging, particularly within the constraints of busy timetables, high expectations and limited capacity. Drawing on her extensive experience, Dr Pooky Knightsmith shares a series of practical, low-burden ideas that help teachers remove barriers to learning and support all students more effectively. These approaches focus on small, thoughtful adjustments that can make a meaningful difference to inclusion, engagement and wellbeing across the school day.

Six Moments That Matter – at a glance:

• The first five minutes predict the next fifty-five. A calm, low-demand arrival protects cognitive capacity for everything that follows. Invest in soft landings.
• If they didn’t follow the instruction, the instruction wasn’t accessible. Multi-step instructions require working memory. When working memory is limited or loaded, the instruction doesn’t get through.
• “I don’t know what to do” usually means “I can’t work out how to begin.” Starting a task requires processing, planning, sequencing, and initiation. Any of these can be the sticking point.
• Body doubling works. Some students can’t work alone but can work brilliantly alongside. Your calm, focused presence doing your own task can unlock their ability to do theirs.
• Unstructured time is only restful if you find it restful. For some students, break times are the hardest part of the day. Recognising this changes how we support them.
• Capacity changes throughout the day. The student who managed at 9am may be running on empty by 2pm. Adjust to current capacity, not morning capacity.
• How today ends shapes how tomorrow begins. A chaotic ending can undo good work and set up anxiety about returning. Predictable routines protect the whole day.
• None of these strategies are complicated. They’re small adjustments to what you already do. The power is in consistency, not complexity.

Arrivals

Walk into most primary schools at 8:45am and you’ll see a familiar scene: coats being hung, book bags sorted, conversations about weekends, registers being taken, instructions being given. For many children, this is a gentle warm-up to the day. For others, it’s already overwhelming.

“By the time I’ve got through the door, found my peg, hung up my coat, found my book bag, worked out where to sit, and answered three questions about my weekend, I’m already exhausted. And it’s not even 9 o’clock.”

Count the demands embedded in “arriving at school.” Finding the right peg. Hanging up the coat properly. Locating the book bag. Navigating the social expectations of greeting peers. Processing the sensory environment: the noise, the movement, the unpredictability. For students with sensory sensitivities, executive function differences, or anxiety, this is significant cognitive and emotional load before any learning has begun.

Why the First Few Minutes Matter

The principle is simple: cognitive resources are finite. Every demand uses some of them up. If a student spends significant resources just getting through the door and settled, they have less available for reading, maths, and everything else that follows.

This isn’t about wrapping children in cotton wool. It’s about being strategic. If we want students to have capacity for learning, we need to think carefully about what we’re asking them to spend capacity on before learning even begins.

Creating Softer Landings

Sensory buffer.

The first ten minutes don’t need to be at full volume and full brightness. Dimming lights slightly, reducing background noise, and keeping the start of the day calm creates a gentler landing. This benefits everyone, not just neurodivergent students.

Predictable greeting.

When the greeting is the same each day (same words, same tone, same place), children don’t have to process novelty. They know what to expect. Predictability reduces cognitive load.

Soft start activity.

Something low-demand already on tables when children arrive: colouring, drawing, a familiar puzzle. No instruction required. The child can settle into the space without immediately having to process what they’re supposed to do.

Reduce the admin.

Does the coat need to be hung up right now? Does the book bag need to go in exactly the right place immediately? Consider which demands are genuinely necessary first thing, and which can wait. Save demands for learning.

• Soft landings protect capacity for everything that follows
• Predictability reduces processing load because children know what to expect
• Low-demand starts allow settling without immediate cognitive demand
• Reducing unnecessary admin saves resources for what actually matters

 

Reflection Questions

• What does arrival currently look like in your classroom? How many demands are embedded in the first ten minutes?
• Which students seem to arrive already depleted? What might be contributing to this?
• What’s one small change you could make to create a softer landing?

 

Giving Instructions

Every teacher knows the frustration: you’ve explained the task clearly, checked for questions, started them off, and within thirty seconds, someone’s hand is up. “I don’t know what to do.”

It’s tempting to conclude they weren’t listening. But “not listening” is rarely the actual explanation.

“When she says loads of things at once, my brain just stops. I heard the first bit but then it all went fuzzy. And then I don’t know what to do, so I just sit there.”

When Instructions Don’t Get Through

Multi-step instructions require working memory: the ability to hold information in mind while doing something with it. If a child has limited working memory capacity (common in ADHD and other neurodevelopmental differences), or if their working memory is already loaded (from sensory overwhelm, anxiety, or earlier cognitive demands), multi-step instructions simply don’t stick.

What looks like “not paying attention” is often:

• Auditory processing differences making it hard to distinguish the instruction from background noise
• Working memory limitations meaning only the first (or last) step is retained
• Cognitive overload from everything that’s already happened that morning
• Anxiety about getting it wrong which consumes cognitive resources that could be used for processing

The reframe is important: instead of asking “why didn’t they listen?”, try asking “what got in the way of this getting through?”

Making Instructions Accessible

Chunk it.

One instruction at a time. Wait for completion before adding the next. “Open your book to page 12” is enough. Once they’ve done it, then: “Read the first paragraph.” Sequencing instructions is our job, not theirs.

Say it, show it, leave it.

Verbal instruction, visual backup, written reference they can return to. Some children process visually better than auditorily. Having instructions visible on the board means they can check without having to ask.

Check the room, not the student.

“Does everyone know what they’re doing? Thumbs up” is less exposing than singling out individual children with “Did you understand?” This allows students to signal confusion without public embarrassment.

First step only.

Instead of explaining the whole task, just tell them how to begin. The overview can come later. Getting started is what matters first.

Scripts for Giving Instructions

“First, open your book to page 12.” (One step. Wait. Then the next.)

“I’ll say it, show it, and leave it on the board.” (Multi-modal, reference available.)

“Does everyone know what they’re doing? Thumbs up.” (Check without exposing.)

“Your first job is just to write the date and title.” (Start small. Momentum follows.)

• Chunking isn’t dumbing down; it’s making your teaching accessible
• Visual backup allows students to check without asking
• Checking the room protects students from embarrassment
• Starting small builds momentum

 

Reflection Questions

• Think of a student who often “doesn’t follow instructions.” What might actually be getting in the way?
• How do you currently provide visual backup for verbal instructions?
• What’s the longest chain of instructions you typically give at once? Could you break it down further?

 

The Student Who Can’t Get Started

Every classroom has them: the student staring at the blank page, pencil untouched, apparently doing nothing. The temptation is to assume they’re not trying, being defiant, or simply need to “just get on with it.”

But “just start” doesn’t work when starting is the problem.

Why Starting Is Hard

Starting a task isn’t one skill; it’s several:

• Processing: Understanding what’s being asked
• Planning: Breaking the task into steps
• Sequencing: Knowing which step comes first
• Initiation: Actually beginning

For students with executive function differences (common in ADHD, autism, and other neurodevelopmental conditions), any of these can be the sticking point. They might understand the task perfectly but be unable to break it into steps. They might know exactly what they want to say but be unable to initiate the physical act of writing.

“I know what I want to say. I just can’t make it come out. It’s like there’s a traffic jam between my brain and my hand.”

The knowledge is there. The pathway to action is blocked. Our job is to clear the traffic jam, not add more cars.

Strategies for Starting the Engine

Give the first line.

Write the opening sentence for them, or say “Your first word is…” This bypasses the initiation barrier entirely. Once there’s something on the page, momentum often takes over.

Body doubling.

Sit nearby working on something yourself. Your calm, focused presence doing work helps them do work. No interaction needed. This is well-documented in ADHD research: some students can’t work alone but can work brilliantly alongside another person.

Shrink the task.

“Just write one sentence” or “Just do the first three.” Small and achievable beats big and overwhelming. You can always expand once they’ve started.

Talk before write.

Let them say their answer out loud first. Speaking is often easier than writing; it gets the ideas flowing. Once they’ve said it, they can write down what they said.

These aren’t crutches. They’re scaffolds. You’re not doing the thinking for them; you’re helping them access their own thinking.

The Power of Body Doubling

This is worth knowing about specifically. Body doubling means having another person nearby, working on their own task, while you work on yours. The other person doesn’t need to help, teach, or even interact. Their calm, focused presence is enough.

For students who struggle with initiation and focus, body doubling can be transformative. The student who “can’t work independently” may be able to work brilliantly with someone simply sitting nearby. Try it before concluding they need constant direct support.

• The blank page is the enemy. Once there’s something on it, momentum often follows
• Initiation is often the hardest part, not the task itself
• Body doubling requires no teaching, just proximity
• Shrinking the task makes starting feel possible

 

Reflection Questions

• Which students in your class struggle to get started? What’s your current approach with them?
• Have you tried body doubling? What happened?
• What’s the smallest possible first step you could give for a task?

 

Unstructured Time

We call it “free time” or “break,” implying rest and recovery. For many children, that’s exactly what it is. But for others, unstructured time is anything but restful.

“Everyone says break is a rest. It’s not a rest for me. It’s the hardest part of the day. Too loud, too unpredictable, too many people, too many decisions.”

What Makes Unstructured Time Hard

Structure, counterintuitively, reduces cognitive load. When you know what’s expected, you don’t have to figure it out. Lessons have a structure: sit here, do this, the teacher guides you through.

Break times have none of that. You have to decide where to go, who to be with, what to do. You have to navigate complex social dynamics with rules that shift constantly. The sensory environment (playground noise, dinner hall echoes) is often at its most intense. For students who find social situations confusing, sensory input overwhelming, or decision-making exhausting, “free time” is anything but free.

The result: students who managed beautifully all morning fall apart by afternoon, because break time didn’t restore them; it depleted them further.

Making Unstructured Time Survivable

Structured choice.

“Library, playground, or quiet room?” is easier than “What do you want to do?” Choice within limits reduces decision fatigue whilst still offering autonomy.

A job to do.

Handing out equipment, helping a younger class, tidying a space. A role provides structure and purpose without requiring adult supervision. For students who struggle with the formlessness of break, having a task can be genuinely restful.

Quiet refuge available.

Somewhere calm, genuinely accessible, without requiring negotiation or special permission. Students shouldn’t have to prove they’re struggling enough to deserve a quiet space.

Buddy or bridge.

An identified peer or adult who can help navigate the social complexity of unstructured time. Someone who’ll include them in a game, sit with them at lunch, or simply be a predictable friendly face.

The goal isn’t to remove unstructured time. It’s to make it survivable for students who find it overwhelming. When break time isn’t draining, there’s more capacity for the afternoon.

• Unstructured time has hidden cognitive costs for some students
• Structured choice offers autonomy without overwhelm
• Having a role provides structure without adult supervision
• Quiet spaces should be accessible without requiring negotiation

 

Reflection Questions

• What options currently exist in your setting for students who find unstructured time difficult?
• Which students seem to return from break more depleted than they left?
• What’s one thing you could add or adapt to support them?

 

When Energy Flags

The student who engaged brilliantly at 9am sits slumped at 2pm, apparently unable to do anything. It’s tempting to interpret this as attitude, defiance, or lack of effort. But capacity genuinely changes throughout the day.

“By 2 o’clock my brain feels like it’s full of cotton wool. I can hear the teacher but the words don’t mean anything anymore.”

Why Afternoons Are Harder

Circadian rhythms affect alertness for everyone. Most people experience a natural dip between 1pm and 3pm. But for neurodivergent students, this dip is often more pronounced:

• Cumulative cognitive fatigue from masking, processing, and managing sensory input all morning
• Sensory accumulation throughout the day reaching a tipping point
• Executive function resources that were available in the morning now depleted

The student who “refuses” in the afternoon often “couldn’t” by afternoon. Their resources are spent. Same child, different capacity.

Working With Energy, Not Against It

Movement.

Two minutes of stretching, a walk to deliver a message to another classroom, standing while working. Movement restores focus in ways that sitting still cannot.

Task variety.

Switch between listening, doing, discussing, writing. Changing the mode of working refreshes attention. Twenty minutes of one thing is often harder than five minutes each of four things.

Lower the demand.

If capacity is genuinely depleted, reduce what you’re asking for. A shorter piece of writing. Fewer questions. The essential learning without the extras. Completion isn’t the only measure of success.

Sensory reset.

Cold water on wrists, fresh air at the window, a change of lighting. Small sensory shifts can restore alertness when cognitive resources are low.

Fighting fatigue with more demands doesn’t work. Working with it (adjusting expectations, providing breaks, varying the task) keeps students in the game.

• Afternoon capacity is not morning capacity. Adjust accordingly.
• Movement restores focus in ways that demands for stillness cannot
• Lowering demands isn’t giving up; it’s responding to reality
• Sensory resets can help when cognitive resources are depleted

 

Reflection Questions

• How does your afternoon teaching differ from your morning teaching? Does it account for reduced capacity?
• Which students consistently struggle after lunch? What might help?
• What movement or sensory breaks could you build into the afternoon routine?

 

End of Day

The last ten minutes of the school day are often the most chaotic. Chairs scraping, bags being packed, last-minute reminders, questions about homework, children jostling to line up. For students who struggle with transitions, sensory input, or working memory, this is overwhelming.

“The last ten minutes are always chaos. Everyone’s packing up, there’s noise everywhere, people are asking about book bags and letters, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to remember. I get home and I’ve forgotten everything.”

Why Endings Matter

A stressful end to the day doesn’t just affect that afternoon. It shapes the evening (coming home dysregulated, unable to settle), the night (anxiety about the next day), and the following morning (reluctance to return to a place that ended badly).

Conversely, a calm, predictable ending protects everything that happened during the day. The learning stays positive. The child goes home regulated. Tomorrow feels manageable.

Creating Calm Endings

Transition warning.

“Five minutes until we start packing up.” Advance notice allows mental preparation rather than a sudden shift. For students who struggle with transitions, the warning is essential.

Same routine daily.

Pack up, check planner, chairs under, line up. When the sequence is predictable, children don’t have to figure out what comes next. Predictable endings require less cognitive effort.

Written reminders.

Key information in the book bag, on a card, or sent home digitally. Don’t rely on students remembering verbal instructions given during the chaos of packing up. If it matters, write it down.

Individual goodbye.

A moment of individual connection, even brief. “See you tomorrow” with eye contact. This isn’t time-consuming, but it ends the day with relationship rather than logistics.

• Chaotic endings affect more than that afternoon. They shape evenings and tomorrows.
• Transition warnings allow mental preparation
• Same routine daily reduces cognitive load
• Individual connection ends the day with relationship

 

Reflection Questions

• What does the end of day currently look like in your classroom? How regulated do students leave?
• Which students seem most affected by chaotic endings?
• What’s one change you could make to create a calmer close?

 

Bringing It All Together

None of these strategies are revolutionary. They’re small adjustments to what you already do: softer arrivals, chunked instructions, support for initiation, options during unstructured time, flexibility when energy flags, predictable endings.

The power isn’t in any single strategy. It’s in consistency. One soft landing won’t transform a child’s school experience. Soft landings every day, reliably, over time, will.

Pick one moment to focus on first. Try one strategy consistently for a few weeks. Notice what shifts. Then add another.

Small changes, consistently applied, create significant change.

 

Underpinning Research

The strategies outlined in these notes draw on research across executive function, cognitive load theory, sensory processing, and inclusive education.

Executive function, the brain’s management system for planning, initiating, and completing tasks, is well-established as a key area of difficulty for many neurodivergent learners. Diamond’s foundational work on executive function components (Diamond, 2013) identifies working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control as core processes that underpin the ability to start tasks, follow instructions, and manage transitions. Research consistently shows that explicit scaffolding for initiation and task breakdown significantly improves outcomes for students with executive function differences (Dawson & Guare, 2018).

Cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988; Sweller et al., 2019) provides the framework for understanding why multi-step instructions overwhelm some learners. When working memory is loaded beyond capacity, information is lost. Chunking instructions, providing visual backup, and reducing extraneous demands are all strategies that reduce cognitive load and improve accessibility.

The phenomenon of “body doubling,” where the presence of another person working nearby supports focus and initiation, has gained research attention particularly in relation to ADHD. While formal studies are still emerging, qualitative research and clinical accounts consistently report its effectiveness (Hallowell & Ratey, 2021). The mechanism appears related to social facilitation and external regulation support.

Research on sensory processing differences highlights the cumulative impact of sensory input across the school day. Schaaf and Lane (2015) document how sensory overwhelm depletes cognitive resources and affects regulation, explaining why students who manage in the morning may struggle by afternoon. Environmental modifications (reduced noise, dimmer lighting, quiet spaces) are evidence-based approaches to supporting sensory regulation.

The importance of predictable routines for neurodivergent learners is well-documented across autism and ADHD research. Predictability reduces the cognitive load of uncertainty and supports regulation (Howlin, 2021). This applies particularly to transitions, including arrivals and end of day, which research identifies as high-risk moments for dysregulation.

 

References

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2018). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.

Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135-168.

Hallowell, E. M., & Ratey, J. J. (2021). ADHD 2.0: New science and essential strategies for thriving with distraction. Ballantine Books.

Howlin, P. (2021). Adults with autism: Changes in understanding since DSM-III. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51, 4291-4308.

Schaaf, R. C., & Lane, A. E. (2015). Toward a best-practice protocol for assessment of sensory features in ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(5), 1380-1395.

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257-285.

Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Paas, F. (2019). Cognitive architecture and instructional design: 20 years later. Educational Psychology Review, 31, 261-292.

For speaking, webinar or writing enquiries, email pooky@inourhands.com

To access online courses and resources, visit: pookyknightsmith.com

 

About Gateway Alliance

Gateway Alliance is a leading provider of professional development and school improvement services that enable schools and MAT’s to deliver exceptional education. We have been inspiring schools through transformational CPD programmes for over 13 years. Specialising in primary education, we collaborate with partners to deliver high-quality. evidence-informed professional development, training and support services to schools.

Every year over 500 schools actively participate in our networks and professional learning programmes. For more information on our networks and what we offer, click here .

The author of this blog Dr Pooky Knightsmith was the lead speaker at our SENCo Network Conference 2025. For information specifically about our SENCo Network please visit here.