CONCENTRATION SKILLS
| Provision |
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| Curriculum |
In class differentiation and individual targets to develop concentration skills. The balance and breadth of the curriculum may need to be adjusted to accommodate different learning styles reflecting a rigid or a variable pattern of attention. |
| Staffing |
Staff skilled in planning, delivering and monitoring the differentiated curriculum. Staff make adjustments to the breadth and balance to incorporate programmes aimed at developing attention or compensating for its restriction. Support available from advisory services. |
| Resources |
Motivating resources which are used in relation to a specific programme to ensure focused, direct attention. |
Environment
and Facilities |
Environmental audit to identify need and promote ‘good practice’. Provision of a flexible learning environment which can be used to enhance concentration, such as areas with reduced visual or auditory distraction. |
| Examples |
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| Assessment |
|
| Maintains attention for very short periods of time on the required activity when facilitated by adult verbal and visual prompts, despite attention either to a highly variable range of stimuli or to an unusually rigid focus. |
| Examples |
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| Example |
Thread
6 - Band 4 |
| Early Years Provision
Criteria |
| Teachers use objects from around the room to teach mathematical language to describe shape, position and size. These are used specifically to illustrate points and focus children’s attention. When working with children on tabletop activities, staff use a quiet area at the side of the room. Furniture and screens reduce the amount of distraction. Staff plan these sessions so that they are short and end with a favourite activity. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Early Years Assessment Criteria |
| Adam (3:5), who attends a nursery class, is easily distracted from table-top activities or from looking at books, by the movement of other people. He breaks off from looking at the materials and asks questions about other children, or staff, or about anything that’s not related to the activity. Attempts to regain his interest and attention to the activity are not immediately successful. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 1 Provision Criteria |
| Staff use naturally occurring rewards as part of a learning sequence to help maintain attention. New learning tasks are kept short and are followed by easier tasks that maintain skills and then these are followed by activities selected by the student. Work on speaking and listening is introduced using puppets which help focus the student's attention. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 1 Assessment Criteria |
| Charlotte (Y1) is naming objects in a book and matching them to picture cards or real objects. She is always more interested in the task at the next table and requires prompting to return her attention to the activity and to complete it. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 2 Provision Criteria |
| Staff have built up a collection of items that grab students’ attention including computer programs and constructional materials that illustrate lessons. Staff have found the use of head-phones and audio-cassettes help individual concentration across a number of subjects. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 2 Assessment Criteria |
| James (Y4) finds it very difficult to concentrate on the sheet of illustrations in front of him, while the teacher is going through them with the group. He is more concerned to slide his pencil under the paper and to reach a ruler on the floor with his foot. He fidgets whenever he is expected to listen. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 3 Provision Criteria |
| The learning support area includes some individual study stations, which offer minimal distraction, where students can work observed or supported by staff. All students using the learning support area are time-tabled to work at a study station, but those with concentration difficulties have greater access. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 3 Assessment Criteria |
| Caroline (Y7) needs help to remember to line up the pence and decimal points correctly to record and order amounts of money. She is easily distracted and when she has looked away from the sheet, she forgets the task requirements unless she gets supervision. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 4 Provision Criteria |
| Teachers have been discussing with students in Y10 strategies to help them to improve concentration. Some of the ideas are: using kitchen timers to remind groups to work, writing out a record sheet to tick off completion of stages or sections of work, and planning breaks after so much of a task has been completed. The school provides access to quiet work areas and more frequent checking of students' work in progress in a proactive, supportive way. |
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| Example |
Thread 6 - Band 4 |
| Key Stage 4 Assessment Criteria |
| Alan (Y10) still finds it very difficult to stay on task. He often spends time just watching others or looking at things around him or breaks off from the task to tackle a different exercise. He finds it especially difficult to follow through multi-part tasks. |
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