Itʼs the Mixture that Counts

I currently teach more than 30 children in my year six class, some within a wider spectrum of high sensitivity, autism, selective mutism and forms of ADD or ADHD. From slow learners to multitasking gifted children, everyone should be able to nurture and develop their love of learning and make their own individual progress. There are no special needs teachers at our school and therefore the boundary is drawn where special educational needs are identified. We offer all state qualifications and although we have to teach with the same goals, the boundaries are wide. This is how my normal teaching day unfolds, for which as a class teacher I have sole educational and teaching responsibility. Actually, this is my day-to-day work, so it feels completely normal and not difficult at all.

It is only when information events or open days are organised and the question is raised, «How do you manage something like this? How do you do justice to everyone? Aren't there over 30?», that I mostly become aware again of what I actually have to manage on a daily basis.

The nice thing about being a class teacher is certainly the community that grows and the familiarity with each individual child. We just know each other so well. I see my class every day for years and know every single type of learner, interests and of course the special effects. When I plan a lesson, I simultaneously visualise who will react to it and how – and who needs what in terms of access to learning, encouragement and challenge in order to have a sense of achievement.

In year one, the major foundation stone of good habits is laid. Shared routines give everyone a sense of security and also help autistic, highly sensitive or impulsive children in particular to settle down. This dependability is very important in order to be able to be open to new things and simply also to remain strong. A school day like this is very demanding on many levels, especially for neurodivergent children. They often benefit particularly from routines that involve movement. Movement releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is often present to a reduced extent in children with ADD or ADHD as it is broken down more quickly. Dopamine ensures better attention and willingness to learn. As part of my further training as a health educator, I specialised in the topic of ADHD. Once the common rituals and routines are securely established in the first school years, different social forms can increasingly be cultivated and thus a learning culture can be built up in which mistakes, helpers (actually, mistakes can be helpers) and questions are interesting and welcome.

In order to awaken and maintain a love of learning, it is important to allow the children to work independently. The focus should therefore always be on the learning process rather than purely on results. The children gain important experiences on their practical learning path, which needs to be related to life: they compile their own acquired expertise in animal books or travel diaries, practise arithmetic first by playing shops, years later in small pupil companies or they perform theatre in a historical context. Here the subject matter comes to life and this is exactly what the children need for their next developmental steps.

The three teachers

I like to think outside of the educational box and when I come across interesting methods that can enrich my everyday Waldorf education, I like to integrate one or another of them. My teaching is generally pupil-centred. So I also use the concept of the three teachers based on Loris Malaguzzi, one of the founders of the Reggio Emilia approach. Because in my lessons, we quite deliberately have the three teachers: the first teachers are the children themselves, who motivate and support each other. Children learn excellently from other children, from whom they are allowed to learn things by watching or by receiving explanations from one child to another. Access to learning content which comes through mutual help is always welcome and ultimately helps the whole learning group to progress. After all, the children are not competitors, but team players. They know exactly whom they can best ask what. So appreciation and recognition are also part of normal everyday life.

The second teacher is myself, who organises the lessons, pays attention to the connection with life and in doing so makes many learning paths possible. In the group session, we first go over the existing knowledge, clarify questions and how we are going to proceed, and discuss the day's work. This is followed by a work phase in which the children decide for themselves whether they want to work alone, in pairs or in a small group. All projects and tasks are then geared towards self-learning. This makes it possible for me to jump from workplace to workplace and also on occasion spend more time with individuals who need a little more 1:1 support. Afterwards there is time to consolidate the results.

The third teacher is the classroom, which offers both retreat and counselling opportunities in a loving and age-appropriate atmosphere. Over time, especially since the corona restrictions were lifted, I have deliberately introduced or changed many things. The tables are no longer aligned facing the front, and there are places where the children even sit with their backs to the room. Among these places are special areas for resting, which are separated by a large plant. Children who are easily distracted as well as autistic children who like to withdraw appreciate this. Incidentally, these children are particularly good self-learners.

We also have a class set of stacking stools that we can use to quickly get together to sit in a circle. There is a basket with various fidget toys such as squeeze balls and rings and a basket with so-called «Ruhewürfel» cubes, which can also be used to signal to me if there are any questions or comments. The cubes are a good way to communicate without hand signals and are very suitable for autistic, shy or speech-impaired children. In the group session, regardless of whether it's a storytelling part or a class discussion, the children can do a little colouring or knead with a putty rubber on the side. So far, it has not been my experience that certain secondary activities are a distraction during lessons. Rather, they can help to keep focused.

Our room equipment also includes mobile partitions for setting up individual workspaces, which the children may use themselves. There are also yoga mats for children who sometimes like to work on the floor, kneeling or sitting. Not every child can spend hours on hard chairs or stools. They can also bring their own comfortable cushion for the chair and keep it in the classroom.

Last but not least, there is a gong in the classroom. When this sounds, the working volume is reduced – so it’s not only me who decides whether things are too loud. Any child who happens to find it too loud can go there and strike the gong. This signal always applies. Any perception of volume is allowed and accepted.

I hope this makes it clear that differentiating within the class is so much more than the quantity or difficulty of tasks. And if it is managed carefully and with many small adjustments, it hardly needs any extra effort for children with special needs.

For the sake of clarity: this way of working gives me very many opportunities – and yet sometimes I nevertheless can't do everything on my own. There is an assistant for a neurodivergent child in my class.

My teacher's eye captures many things every single day, but it also reveals limits. If support within the school alone is not what the children need or is not available to a sufficient extent, external help may be necessary for a time. This requires a culture of open dialogue with the parents. Parents are also aware of our existing boundaries, which doesn't always make it easy to talk about them. Maintaining an awareness of these boundaries for all the love and relationships, and keeping an eye on the good composition of the learning group as a whole is a great responsibility and a task that looks to the future.