Rethinking Mental Health:
A Week That Transformed a SEND School
How do you teach mental health when students communicate through movement, sound, and sensation, rather than always using words? This is the challenge at The Cavendish High Academy, a specialist school for students with severe learning difficulties (SLD), profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), and complex autism along with many other schools across the nation. In one extraordinary week, they reimagined BrainWaves’ lessons with profound results.
Donna Tofts, BrainWaves Lead for the school, explains their experience below.
BrainWaves: Reimagined for SEND
BrainWaves is a neuroscience-informed curriculum designed to build emotional literacy and wellbeing. But for Cavendish’s unique students, it evolved into a trauma-informed, sensory-accessible, and student-led framework. Here, neurobiology became visual, regulation physical, and emotional learning deeply human. Students used Widgit symbols for amygdala reactions, co-regulated through movement, and addressed sleep challenges head-on.
Planning a week that changed everything: BrainWaves in Action
Each day of “BrainWaves Week” tackled a vital theme:
- Monday: Brain and Emotions – Students met their “inner Grumpy Monkey,” learning about the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex through visual stories and tactile play.
- Tuesday: Importance of Sleep – Sleep moved center stage. Staff and parents reframed tired behavior as a biological need, not misbehavior, with a focus on calming routines.
- Wednesday: Wellbeing Through the Senses – Gratitude jars, mirror affirmations, and sensory walks helped students explore emotions. Staff co-regulated through music, touch, and dance.
- Thursday: Online Safety, Real Emotions – Students mapped digital lives, explored emoji emotions, and voted for school improvements to boost safety and kindness.
- Friday: Cavfields – The Festival of Me – The week culminated in a celebration of student identity through art, music, and family showcases, revealing music as a universal regulator for safety.
Beyond the Buzz: Real Impact
This innovative approach yielded significant benefits:
- Staff Anchor: Provided a shared, neuroscience-informed language for interpreting behavior.
- Home–School Unity: Workshops helped families reframe behavior and build deeper insight.
- Curriculum Integration: BrainWaves is now embedded across PSHE, SOUL Time, and thematic learning.
- Tackling Diagnostic Overshadowing: Staff are more attuned to signs of anxiety and withdrawal, strengthening referrals and safeguarding.
- A New Kind of Student Voice: Students without spoken language shared their mental health journeys through symbols and narratives.
BrainWaves at Cavendish demonstrates how powerful it could be when neuroscience, trauma-informed care, and sensory integration truly meet. It’s not just inclusion; it’s innovation.
What Comes Next?
Recommendations include embedding BrainWaves into all-staff CPD, continuing to adapt lesson outcomes, co-producing future resources with students and families, and extending community engagement.
When we shift from “What’s wrong with this student?” to “What’s happening in their brain?” – everything changes.
Cavendish didn’t just deliver BrainWaves; they made it belong to their students.
About the author
Naomi French is a Research Partner Liaison Manager at BrainWaves, responsible for supporting schools and sixth form colleges on the BrainWaves Research Programme. She was previously a year 6 class teacher and subject leader for PSHE.