Evolve Skills Academy

How do we support pupils experiencing demand avoidance without escalating anxiety?
This is something many school staff are trying to navigate every day.
Join us on Wednesday 24th June for a free webinar designed to help educators better understand:
• What demand avoidance is
• Why it happens
• How it may present differently from one pupil to another
• Practical approaches that can help reduce overwhelm in school environments

🗣️ Meet the speaker
Rachel Waggett is a Speech & Language Therapist and Neurodevelopmental Specialist with extensive experience supporting neurodivergent children and young people.
📅 Wednesday 24 June 2026
⏰ 4:00–4:45pm
💻 Online (Microsoft Teams)
🎓 Free CPD webinar
💬 Live Q&A included

If your school is looking to build confidence around understanding and supporting demand avoidance, we’d love to see you there.
Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-teaching-pupils-with-demand-avoidance-tickets-1989646489209?aff=oddtdtcreator&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=webinar_june_2026

🔦 Understanding demand avoidance in schools 🔦

In many educational settings, demand avoidance is still commonly misunderstood.
Pupils may be described as:
• “defiant”
• “controlling”
• “oppositional”
• “choosing not to engage”

But often, these behaviours are rooted in anxiety, overwhelm, and difficulties managing expectations.
Understanding what may be happening underneath the behaviour can make a significant difference to how staff respond.

In our upcoming free webinar, we’ll explore:
• How demand avoidance can present differently between pupils
• Why traditional approaches may escalate situations
• Practical, evidence-informed strategies schools can use
Aimed at teachers, SENCOs, pastoral teams and school leaders.

Link to register https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-teaching-pupils-with-demand-avoidance-tickets-1989646489209?aff=oddtdtcreator

FREE WEBINAR FOR EDUCATORS
📅 Wednesday 24 June 2026
⏰ 4:00–4:45pm
💻 Online (Microsoft Teams)
🎓 45 minutes of CPD
💬 Live Q&A included

Join us for a free practical webinar exploring demand avoidance in educational settings.
🤝Led by Rachel Waggett, Speech & Language Therapist & Neurodevelopmental Specialist, this session will look at:
• What demand avoidance can look like in school
• The anxiety that often sits underneath it
• Why some pupils may resist, negotiate, shut down or avoid
• Practical, supportive classroom approaches

This session is designed for SENCOs, teachers, pastoral teams and school leaders wanting to build confidence supporting pupils experiencing demand avoidance.

Sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-teaching-pupils-with-demand-avoidance-tickets-1989646489209?aff=oddtdtcreator

Many pupils who struggle with demands in school are often misunderstood. 😰
What can sometimes look like “refusal”, “avoidance” or “non-compliance” may actually be rooted in anxiety, overwhelm, or difficulties managing everyday expectations.

For staff, this can feel difficult to navigate in busy classroom environments:
• Why does one pupil avoid even simple requests?
• Why do some children mask at school but struggle later?
• What helps reduce anxiety rather than increase it?
These are conversations we’re hearing more and more in schools. 🗣️

That’s why we’re running a free webinar for educators focused on understanding demand avoidance in educational settings, and exploring practical approaches that can support pupils more effectively day to day. 💻

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-teaching-pupils-with-demand-avoidance-tickets-1989646489209?aff=oddtdtcreator

☝️A lot of schools we speak to are not short on intent when it comes to supporting neurodivergent pupils, the challenge is usually consistency.
Different staff have different levels of confidence, approaches vary between classrooms, and over time a lot of responsibility can sit with the SENCO to hold everything together.

🤝Our school subscription was designed to take some of that pressure away. It gives every member of staff access to the same structured neurodiversity training, so understanding is not dependent on individual experience or informal handovers. Teachers, teaching assistants and support staff can all work through modules in their own time, without needing to step away from the classroom.

💡The subscription includes full access to all of our education modules, with new content added over time. Staff can complete training at their own pace, with certificates available for each module and progress tracking to give a clear picture of engagement across the school.

What this tends to support is a more joined-up approach. Staff are working from the same understanding, strategies are applied more consistently, and SENCOs are able to focus more on whole-school development rather than repeated individual guidance.
If your school is thinking about how to build more consistent SEND support across staff, this is something we are continuing to develop through our learning platform.

More information is available via the link in the comments.
https://evolveskillsacademy.com/sectors/education

The updated Education Inspection Framework places continued emphasis on how schools support all learners to access education meaningfully.
This includes how well settings understand and respond to difference, not just in policy, but in day-to-day practice.

For many schools, the challenge isn’t awareness, it’s consistency and how support is applied across classrooms.
It's about how confident staff feel in adapting their approach, and how clearly expectations are understood across the whole school.
Neurodiversity sits within this, not as a standalone initiative, but as part of how inclusive practice is embedded across teaching, environment and communication.

🤝This is where a whole-school approach becomes important.
One that supports staff to:
• Recognise and respond to a range of needs
• Apply practical strategies consistently
• Build shared understanding across teams

💡Our education modules are designed with this in mind, providing structured, clinician-led learning that supports schools to move from awareness into everyday practice.

If your setting is reviewing its approach in line with the updated framework, we have training that might be beneficial for you at https://evolveskillsacademy.com/sectors/education/neurodiversity-training-for-schools

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-inspection-framework/education-inspection-framework-for-use-from-november-2025

A lot of challenges around neurodiversity in the workplace are not about awareness, they are about what happens in practice.
When managers are unsure, conversations can be delayed, decisions can become inconsistent, and teams can feel that lack of clarity. 😟

Having structured training helps to reduce that uncertainty, it gives managers a clearer framework for handling performance conversations, understanding reasonable adjustments and communicating expectations in a way that is consistent and fair.
The outcome is not just better support for neurodivergent employees. It is more confident leadership, clearer communication and stronger team dynamics overall.

🤝Clarity reduces ambiguity, and ambiguity is often where risk sits.

For more information on our neurodiversity training for managers go to: https://evolveskillsacademy.com/sectors/businesses/for-managers