Quality First Teaching (QFT)

Pupils who display difficulties with SEMH will often display challenges in areas such as (but not limited to):

• Focussing and paying attention in class or for longer periods of time.
• Making and sustaining friendships.
• Attending school.
• Trusting adults in positions of authority.
• Forming secure attachments with others.
• Avoiding expectations (homework, attending assembly, arriving on time etc).
• Appearing withdrawn or anxious.
• Having low self-esteem and isolating themselves.
• Displaying challenging or disruptive behaviour.
• Being anxious.
• Regulating emotions.
• Communicating emotions.
• Seeking control over their environment and other people.
• Sensory processing.
• Developing habitual behaviours such as rocking.
• Overfriendliness or excessive clinginess.
• Demonstrating excessively ‘good’ behaviour to prevent disapproval.
• Failing to seek or accept appropriate comfort or affection from an appropriate person when significantly distressed.

SEMH needs alone can be a significant barrier to learning for some pupils. In such cases, these pupils should be considered for SEND under the category of SEMH in the same way that any other SEND need would be supported.

Presenting behaviours should always be considered as a ‘symptom’ of a potential underlying need or unmet learning need. We may also think of this as ‘behaviour as a form of communication’. It is essential for educationalists to be mindful to ‘unpick’ what is happening/ has happened to individuals to try to understand and address underlying SEMH needs rather than solely focusing on addressing on the presenting behaviours and making assumptions about a child/ young people’s communication.

Assessment through teaching, observation and tracking progress is a starting point for schools. Schools will want to consider:

• Attendance data.
• Attainment data.
• Behaviour data.