🧘‍♂️3 Quick Wins for Regulating a Dysregulated Class 🎨📺

Classroom Regulation Strategies: 3 Fast, Evidence-Based Ways to Calm a Dysregulated Class

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I post weekly strategies and insights for professionals supporting children with social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) needs.

I’m Kieran, a former teacher and current Youth Justice Education Officer. Each week, I share evidence-informed tools, practical advice, and real-world reflections to help you create safer, more inclusive learning environments.

📌 In this post: Easy and effective regulation techniques.

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The class feels off. You feel it too. Here’s how to gently reset the tone, without needing a full replan.

There’s a unique kind of tension in a classroom that’s just on the edge.

Not quite meltdown territory. But you can feel the energy fizzing. Pupils are louder, less focused, and more reactive. The usual strategies aren't landing. Transitions feel clunky. You’re adjusting constantly.

Sometimes this isn’t about behaviour. It’s about nervous system overload.

And while it’s tempting to push through, to “just get the lesson done”, taking a few minutes to regulate the room often leads to better outcomes for everyone.

So here are 3 quick, low-prep activities that can calm chaos, restore rhythm, and help everyone catch their breath 👇

1. 🎨 Art Tasks and Word-Sorting = Regulation in Disguise

When pupils are dysregulated, they often need something to do, but not something that demands abstract thinking or high-level verbal processing.

That’s where low-demand, visual or kinaesthetic tasks come in.

Try:

• Finish the picture (start a doodle on the board, pupils copy and complete)

• Word sort (cut up words from your topic and ask pupils to sort by type, order, or importance)

• Draw your mood using colour only, no faces or characters

• Alphabet recall: pick a topic, and work together to find A–Z words (e.g. Animals, Adjectives, Countries)

🎯 Why it works:
These tasks provide structure and focus, without pressure. They support visual learners and give overstimulated pupils a safe outlet to reset, a strategy recommended in DfE guidance for managing emotional regulation needs (DfE, 2018).

🧠 These activities work particularly well when pupils are verging on dysregulation but still communicative, the “Escalation” phase of a behaviour curve.

2. 📺 Movement or Video Reset, With a Purpose

When things feel stuck, sometimes the best move is to stop entirely.

Use a quick movement break or guided distraction via the interactive whiteboard to reset the nervous system and create space for re-engagement.

Here are some reliable video options that don’t just calm, they captivate:

• Marble races or eliminations (YouTube: Marble Runs, Jelle’s Marble League)

• Football quiz videos (Who Scored? Guess the Team? Logo reveal rounds)

• This or That quizzes (great for younger or non-verbal pupils)

• Premier League highlights (short clips with familiar visuals and sound)

• Rhythm follow-alongs or gentle PE with Joe-style body movement

🎯 Why it works:
These aren’t just distractions; they’re visual grounding techniques. They reduce auditory overload, offer predictable structure, and shift focus from internal overwhelm to external observation.

💡 Top Tip: Introduce these first in a ‘free’ afternoon or time when the academic work isn’t the priority. Introducing these videos without warning will most likely result in overexcitement and further dysregulation.

When these videos are playing and the majority of the class are hooked, discreetly have a word with the pupil(s) who you identified as being the most dysregulated. Check in with them to see if they need anything (food, water, active break, their key adult etc.)

🧑‍🏫: I used to watch these videos with the class during nurture breakfast. They were familiar with the type of videos, so when I felt I had lost the class, putting one of these on the screen brought almost instant focus and regulation.

3. 🧘‍♀️ Use Mindfulness for Group Regulation (Not Just Individual Calm)

Mindfulness can feel hard to introduce, but used right, it’s powerful for whole-class rhythm.

Here are some quick, accessible strategies that work even in a noisy or unsettled classroom:

• “Listen for the bell”: Play a chime sound and ask pupils to raise their hand only when they can’t hear it anymore

• “5–4–3–2–1” grounding: Ask pupils to name 5 things they see, 4 they can touch, 3 they hear, etc.

• “One breath together”: Breathe in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4. One breath can reset the tone.

• Mindful doodling: play ambient music and invite pupils to doodle freely for 2 minutes, no rules, no words

🎯 Why it works:
These activities slow down the amygdala’s threat response. They activate the parasympathetic nervous system and create a sense of shared calm. This supports guidance in the DfE’s Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools, which recommends “calm, consistent classroom routines that support emotional literacy and self-regulation.”

🧠 Pupils don’t need to understand mindfulness for it to help, they just need to feel safe doing it.

💭 Final Thought: Regulate Before You Educate

We’re not taught this enough in training:

A dysregulated class won’t learn, no matter how good the lesson is.

But we can build in quick, respectful ways to bring the group back from overwhelm.

Every time we:

• Pause rather than push through,

• Offer structure without pressure,

• Prioritise nervous system safety over content pace

We show pupils something powerful:
That school isn’t just about work. It’s about learning how to be, together.

Which one of these routines are you going to try? Let me know in the comments!

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