Show and Tell:
Bringing Neuroinclusive Practice to Life in
an All-Girls Secondary School
Shana Guttentag has been using the Neuroinclusive Educator approach in her all-girls secondary school for over a year, embedding an understanding of regulation, executive function and brain development into everyday school life.
In this Show and Tell, Shana will share how the approach has transformed both her own practice and her students’ understanding of themselves and one another. Students have learned to recognise the state their brain is in, identify what may be affecting their ability to learn and choose strategies that help them regulate, focus and follow through.
The impact reaches far beyond the classroom. Students describe becoming more compassionate towards others, more aware of their own needs and more hopeful about their capacity to develop skills over time:
“It made me more aware that each person’s brain works the same but in a different way. There’s no judging anyone else.”
“I try to do mindful activities to relax my brain before I need to focus or work hard at something, and it really helps.”
“If you practise focusing, even if it’s hard for you, you’ll eventually master it. And that applies to anything that is hard for you!”
This session will offer an honest and practical insight into what becomes possible when young people are given the language, knowledge and strategies to understand their brains — and when neuroinclusive practice becomes part of the culture of a school.