By now, you know your class. And if we are honest, you know exactly who has taken most of your attention since August.
Where our eyes go
Our focus is drawn to the students whose needs are obvious: the child who disrupts the lesson, the child who can’t cope, the child who needs us right now.
Those students get all eyes on them. They are observed, discussed and referred, and they get the right support.
That is how it should be. But it means our attention has a direction, and few of us ever question it. We look where the noise is, and many of us fall into that path without realising.
So this term, try something that doesn’t come naturally: turn your focus the other way.
The ones who don’t find you
In every classroom there is a student who has spent five weeks working hard to be invisible.
They follow instructions, stay in their seat, and never appear in a behaviour log. On paper, they are coping.
But coping is not learning. What you see in class is the effort. What their families see at the car door is the collapse.
Signals worth noticing
- Starting work only after watching others
- Rarely finishing a task, but never asking for help
- Volunteering for every errand that gets them out of the room
- Disappearing at the same point each day
- Calm in structured lessons, struggling in unstructured time
None of these is a diagnosis. A pattern of them is a question worth asking.
A one-week noticing practice
Pick the three students you know least about. Each day, note down:
- When did they start working?
- Where did they go at transitions?
- What happened just before they disengaged?
By Friday, you’ll have fifteen observations, which is far more useful than any first impression. Take them to your inclusion lead or SENCO. Bring what you saw, not a label.
Choose three
The students who show their needs will always find you, and in time they get the support they need. The quiet ones deserve the same. But they won’t come to you. You have to go looking for them.
This week, choose three.
Book a consultation with #ProfessorSherleyLouis for a free One-Week Noticing Log.
Prof Sherley Louis is an inclusive education and sensory inclusion strategist and Head of Inclusion, working with schools, families and communities across the UAE and MENASA region.