Teaching Assistant

From Feelings to Focus: Building Self‑Regulation Skills with TAs

This course teaches Teaching Assistants how to help students manage their own behaviour and focus. Instead of just reacting to disruptions, you will learn to spot when a student is overwhelmed. The content provides a roadmap to guide learners toward independence using tools like calming techniques, structured routines and visual supports. The ultimate focus is on a gradual release of responsibility, ensuring students internalise these tools for lasting independence.
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Megan Wilson,  Jess Hursit & Carly Watkins

3 hours

Online Course

By completing this course, you will:

understand self-regulation as a developmental process linked to executive function;
learn practical strategies to help children manage attention, impulses and behaviour in learning contexts;
explore how routines, structure and predictable environments support focus and independence, and develop skills in scaffolding tasks, reducing cognitive load and supporting transitions;
understand how to gradually shift from adult self-regulation to co-regulation and, finally, to learner self-regulation;
reflect on your current practice and identify opportunities to strengthen independence-building approaches.

Course Lessons

Written by: Megan Wilson 

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Megan Wilson is a Content Writer and Editor on the CPD team at Twinkl. She is an experienced former classroom teacher and subject leader. She holds a first class honours undergraduate degree in Primary Education (5-11 years) with QTS and a National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership (NPQML). During her time as a classroom teacher, Megan led the development of multiple curriculum areas, serving as subject lead for computing, online safety, maths and science. 

Presented by: Jess Hursit 

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Jess Hursit is an experienced teacher with a strong background in maths education. As a former maths lead, she worked closely with Maths Hubs and supported the development of her school’s maths curriculum. Jess has worked in a leading training school, where her teaching was regularly observed by visiting educators, and she served as a mentor to trainee teachers and early career teachers.

In collaboration with: Carly Watkins

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Carly Watkins has over twenty years of experience as a primary school teacher, including several years as an assistant headteacher, with responsibility for whole school curriculum development and overseeing pupil progress and attainment. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Education Practice and an NPQ in Leading Teacher Development.

Carly has been a mentor for both student and Early Career Teachers and currently facilitates the Early Career Framework for ECTs and their mentors, delivering training at conferences and via online seminars. At Twinkl PD, Carly heads up pedagogical professional development, a role which means she can support educators to develop their personal practice and pedagogy, something she is passionate about, on a national scale.