Building Connections: Teachers Starting the Year with Pupils with PMLD

The start of a new school year often feels like a whirlwind — timetables, planning, baseline assessments, and paperwork can take over before we’ve even had a chance to catch our breath or really get to know our children in class. When working with pupils with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), it’s worth pausing to remember what really matters, which is being present and taking the time to make connections and build trusting relationships.

Why Connection Matters

Children and young people with PMLD communicate and connect in diverse and sometimes very subtle ways. Progress isn’t linear and doesn’t always fit neatly into expected targets or levels; it emerges through trust, felt safety, and those small but deeply significant shared moments. A smile, a turn of the head, a pause before a sound, a change of body position, a hand reaching towards you or an object. When we really listen and tune in these are all forms of communication. They tell us that a child is noticing, relating, or responding. Our role is not to rush past these moments, but to meet them, dwell with them, notice them, and respond with patience and kindness.

When we slow down we can begin to build a picture of each child’s unique communication style and understand who they really are. Patterns emerge, the ways they show excitement, discomfort or curiosity. By paying close attention, we learn how a child expresses themselves and we can build on that.

This way of seeing becomes the foundation for teaching and learning. It helps us choose activities that align with a child’s interests, create environments that feel safe and responsive, and develop goals that build on their strengths rather than trying to “fix” perceived gaps. It also shapes how we pace our interactions, allowing time for silence, pauses, repetitions, and processing, rather than trying to rush forward.

In practice, this means weaving observation into everyday routines, making space for flexible responses, and valuing all forms of expression as being meaningful. Planning and assessment then becomes less about ticking boxes and more about creating opportunities for relationships, shared flow, and unique growth.

Four Anchors for Supporting Pupils with PMLD

Here are four anchors to consider and hold onto as you begin your new school year:

• Connection before paperwork
  It’s easy to feel pressured and rush to get your class set up perfectly, to complete assessments, have all your planning in place, and outcomes clearly laid out as soon as possible; but the foundation of all learning and may be especially for pupils with PMLD is a trusting safe relationship. Before anything else, take time to be with your pupils. Sit, lie or move alongside them, share in their experiences. Let them know you see them and that they matter and give time for them to rest and process, even if these means going off timetable and letting go of the planning you spent hours over!
  
• Small moments matter
  For many pupils with PMLD, communication is expressed in ways that are often overlooked. Notice how their body responds, changes of eye movements, changes in breathing, vocalisations, or body movements. Join them in their sensory interests, whether that’s watching light patterns, listening to music, or exploring certain textures. These glimmers are the starting points for interaction and the foundations for trust to develop.
  
• Parent partnerships are powerful
  Parents and carers know their children better than anyone. Listen to their insights about what brings their child comfort and joy, what motivates them, what different bodily signals and vocalisations mean and how they communicate. This knowledge helps you tune in more closely and provide a consistent, supportive environment so children feel safe and supported.
  
• Teamwork is essential
  You cannot do this work alone! Find out as much as you can from the previous class team (or the family support worker if in Early Years). Every member of your class team and other professionals that work with your pupils bring their own strengths, ideas, and creativity. Spend time getting to know your colleagues, their interests, their areas of confidence, and what brings them joy in their work. Working together not only supports pupils, it sustains you as class teacher too and will help your pupils get the best from their environment and time with you all.

Building Trust and Relationships

When we place safety, trusting relationships and connection at the heart of our practice, the rest begins to fall into place. Planning becomes more meaningful because it starts from the child, assessments become richer because they capture genuine engagement. Teaching becomes less about rushing through tasks to meet targets, and more about creating moments of belonging, growth shared joy.

Slowing Down and Valuing Small Moments

This short article has been written as a reflective piece after 20 years working with those with profound and multiple learning disablities. It is hard being a teacher, and I definitely got caught up in the whirlwind of a new year and wanting everything set up as soon as possible. However, letting go of new-term expectations doesn’t mean lowering standards. It means recognising that especially with pupils with PMLD, progress grows from connection — from being present, patient, and responsive and really being with them in meaningful ways. When we slow down at the start, the rest of the year can flow more smoothly, because the safe foundations will already be growing.

As you step into this new school year, give yourself permission to slow down and spend more time being with your pupils and getting to know who they really are.

Humanising Care

Teaching and learning is about being human together. Pupils with profound and multiple learning disabilities, like all of us, need connection, respect, and care that honours who they are and their authentic selves. Humanising care reminds us that no matter the complexity of need, every interaction is an opportunity to nurture dignity, belonging, and an opportunity to build on a person’s interests and strengths.

Trust, presence, patience, and relationship-building are not extras; they are the work we need to do to begin teaching effectively. In classrooms where connection and safety come first, everything else has the space to grow, and children will be able to thrive in their own way, in their own time.

Created in response to Joanna Grace’s call for work to support educators working with those with profound and multiple learning disablities. This forms part of Joanna Grace’s Sensory Projects Youtube series.