Helping Teachers Enhance Student Learning

We focus on using neuro-developmental insights to prepare students, unlock their potential, and increase their engagement in learning. Our program supports teachers in identifying and addressing neuromotor and sensory issues that may hinder the learning experience.

Learning difficulties challenge more than just the student; they also challenge the teachers who accommodate their learning needs. 

body to brain learning at school

A 'Body to Brain Learning' Perspective.  

Designed to help educators understand, implement, and sustain effective changes, this approach is based on inclusive education principles and delivers the Australian Curriculum. It's not an add-on! We teach, mentor, and coach educational staff to use neurodevelopmental principles that significantly impact teaching and the lives of students.

It's about knowing students and how they learn and leveraging the body to help the brain learn more effectively.

“Body to Brain Learning @ School" helps teachers know their students & how they learn. 

  • It helps educators understand & use the neuro-developmental aspects of learning  that shape & support student learning. 

  • It enhances student learning and wellbeing in school, at any year level. 

  • It's more than a programme in your school, it's a way of working and thinking.”

— Dr Christine Payard (PhD) Neurodevelopmental Educator & Founder of 'Body to Brain Learning™

6 Things 'Body to Brain Learning @ School' Delivers

1. Professional Learning that builds a community of educators who know learning is more than a brain-based activity and that learning can be different for each student. We can help teachers meet each student where they are at.

  • This approach is holistic. It recognises learning is more than a thinking activity. It helps teachers identify and meet the needs of individual students at a foundational learning level where the body helps the student learn. It helps them describe how a child learns instead of labelling them.

    We know if the body isn't developmentally ready and mature to support students in learning activities, we will often see that immaturity expressed through behavioural issues, a lack of engagement and an inability to succeed and achieve at curriculum standard. 

    A student's body language tells us there are learning challenges. 

    This course helps educators identify and address those challenges using a neurodevelopmental, neurophysiological approach.

    We help participants gather individual student-based data to support their teaching decisions, enhance learning opportunities, and help their students learn more effectively. "Body to Brain Learning @ School" helps meet the learning needs of a diverse cohort of students.

    "Body to Brain Learning @ School" supports student learning, contributes to the wellbeing of students and teachers, and it works! 

2. An Internationally recognised & evidence-based approach contextualised for the Australian school context.

  • "Body to Brain Learning @ School" is based on the INPP Schools Programme, shown internationally to improve neuromotor performance in school children. Dr Christine Payard (PhD) helps participants make connections with the Australian Curriculum, showing them that using this approach is teaching the Curriculum, not adding to it. 

    We incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles ensuring all students are included in an approach designed to support better learning, function and well being in school.

    We help teachers be more confident in meeting their reporting and administrative requirements by identifying and articulating the inclusive education approaches implicit in this approach.

    We refer to publications and a growing body of research that links neurodevelopmental movement to learning and functional success.

    We help participants gather individual student-based data to support their teaching decisions, enhance learning opportunities, and help their students learn more effectively. "Body to Brain Learning @ School" helps meet the learning needs of a diverse cohort of students.

    "Body to Brain Learning @ School" supports student learning, contributes to the wellbeing of students and teachers, and it works! 

3. Support for students with body-based learning challenges. It builds teachers' conceptual understanding and applies it in practice. It's more than strategies, quick fixes and "tricks of the trade". It's a system,  a way of working that improves student learning and contributes to student and teacher wellbeing in school. 

  • "Body to Brain Learning @ School" provides conceptual understanding and an approach that informs teachers' decision making and practice. It incorporates a neurodevelopmental and functionally based paradigm for learning and teaching that acknowledges "we use our body to learn with our brain." So it's more than saying: "Some children have learning difficulties, here's, a strategy", and "This is a discipline or 'behavioural management' issue." 

    It's more than identifying, using and applying labels to student behaviour and performance. It's helping teachers identify, assess and support how a student uses their body to learn.  

    We give you a recommended structure and approach, then work with you to help make it real in your school. We know if you understand the concepts of neuro-developmental maturity, you can problem solve and apply them in practice. 

    We teach, mentor and coach you to deliver a neuro-developmental approach to support classroom learning and wellbeing.

4. Tuition, coaching &  mentoring in group & one-to-one settings with experienced practitioners and educators

  • The three-part course includes individualised self-paced tutorials, group work and ongoing mentoring opportunities to support learning and implementation in your school environment. It includes online learning with Dr Christine Payard (PhD) and face to face workshops with INPP trained practitioners who also mentor and coach you/your team. 

5. The opportunity to learn from people who have done the complex & hard study for you.

  • "Body to Brain Learning @ School" is led and facilitated by Neurodevelopmental Educator, Consultant and Trainer Dr Christine Payard (PhD) and a network of licensed neurodevelopmentally trained practitioners.

    Dr Christine Payard (PhD) is an Australian Neurodevelopmental Therapy Trainer and Leader with extensive experience in education and allied health. She has been working and studying in this specialised field for over ten years. 

    Your regional "Body to Brain Learning @ School" mentor/coach has completed postgraduate level training and comes with rich background experience and practice working with children and adults, helping them to improve their learning and function. 

    "Body to Brain Learning @ School" instructors, mentors and coaches are INPP trained practitioners who use neurodevelopmental intervention and therapeutic processes that have been used internationally for over 40 years. They are passionate about helping children learn and function well and have committed to ongoing professional development in this field.

6. Professional Learning aligned to and addressing AITSL standards.

  • Twelve (12) hours of contact time focussing on addressing AITSL Standards: 1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.6 and others.

    A certificate of completion can be issued to those who complete the "Body to Brain Learning @ School" Professional Development opportunity.

Here are some results teachers have observed:

  • Suzanne - Prep Teacher, Bundaberg. 2020

    "It has freed our teachers to teach."

    "I didn't realise how much balance had to do with the whole cognitive and social wellbeing of students."

    "One student said: 'It helps me to be good, to make good choices.' "

  • Carleen - Primary Teacher, Tyers. 2020

    "I feel like I've got the key to Aladdin's cave. It has changed my teaching forever. It has changed my world as a teacher. I feel that I am more well balanced as a teacher."

    "It has changed our school. People are asking what we've changed. It's this."

    "We are seeing the data. It sets up students for success."

  • Kellie - Learning Support Teacher, Sydney. 2021

    On what triggered her professional learning journey:

    "I just wanted to know why the kids sitting next to me, despite the evidence-based Literacy Intervention I was doing, why some kids shifted and why some kids didn't. I knew a little bit about neuro-plasticity and I just wanted to understand the brain a bit more and understand what was really going on under the surface and that's how I got into it."

    Results:

    "Academic achievement gains, reading gains and functional gains in the use of the body at school. Some, you know, I can just sort of tell that there's something going on to do with the primitive reflexes or vestibular dysfunction. It's pretty much become my role."

  • P.H. Principal. Tyers Primary School, Victoria. 2019

    "This [approach] saves the school money and time not spent on other tasks: behaviour management, on time off-task, on the time & paperwork for exclusion -- we DON'T have them, in settling kids and getting them ready for learning.

    We're creating a supportive learning culture focused on the whole child. We are more able to meet students' learning needs and engage them for better learning."

Course Outline

"Body to Brain Learning @ School" provides 12 hours of direct CPD, and  6+ hours of mentoring and coaching in practice, in three parts.  Part 1 is online and delivered by Dr Christine Payard (PhD). Parts 2 is face to face in a workshop setting,  and Part 3 involves negotiated delivery of mentoring processes with a locally-based or regional, licensed Neuro-developmental Body to Brain Learning Facilitator. 

Module 1

  • Part 1 is delivered online through an individually accessed, private learning portal. It's six (6) hours of learning.  It's self-paced and includes Q & A support sessions with Dr Christine Payard (PhD) offered as a bonus through the course.

    Delivered by Dr Christine Payard (PhD), Part 1 presents the theory, concepts and model of neurodevelopmental learning that underpins the "Body to Brain Learning @ School" approach. 

    Topics include:

    • Neurobiology of learning

    • Neurodevelopment and the contribution of sensory systems for supporting academic learning

    • Reading the body language of learners to see how their body supports (or interferes) with their learning

    • Key primitive reflexes that should be integrated and mature for a child to reach their learning potential. Hint:  If they aren't mature, the child may have neuromotor immaturity (NMI), making learning challenging

    • Learning challenges common to NMI and other neurodiverse presentations.

    • Making connections with the Australian Curriculum (including the General Capabilities) and reporting for NCCD 

    • International research relating to this method in schools

    Q & A Sessions with Dr Christine Payard (PhD) are part of this programme. 

Module 2

  • Delivered by trained Neurodevelopmental Therapists who have completed the INPP Practitioner’s Training Programme, Part 2 is a 1-day (6 hours) face to face interactive training session for staff (teachers and teacher aides) who are implementing the approach at school.

    It can be delivered to school groups, or as workshops for individuals to attend

    Part 2 focuses on:

    (a) the assessment of students' neuro-motor readiness for learning using the INPP School Programme Assessment protocol, and, 

    (b) development and delivery of the movement activities and programme in school. (INPP School Programme)

    Part 2 is interactive, involves participants using assessment strategies, collecting data, interpreting the results and practising the movements in the Schools Programme.

    The INPP trained Neurodevelopmental Practitioner, your on-site course facilitator, is available to mentor you and your team in an ongoing process.  They facilitate the implementation of the approach and help embed it in your school setting (Part 3).

Module 3

  • We suggest a minimum of 6 hours mentoring and coaching using the “Body to Brain Learning @ School” approach and the school-based movement programme developed by INPP.  Embed this in your practice at school with the help of a skilled neurodevelopmental practitioner.

    Mentoring and coaching will:

    • facilitate the application of the screening and assessment protocols in your school with participants and  students,

    • provide ongoing support in the delivery of the movement activities throughout the academic year and troubleshoot issues for you,

    • provide follow up/support in data collection and interpretation for reporting on the success of the programme.

    Part 3 can include online meetings, school visits, telephone support, zoom conferences and other methods of coaching and mentoring.  The extent and nature of Part 3 support are negotiated with each participant or school and will vary according to the context in which the participant works.

    Base coaching and mentoring packages begin with 6 hours of coaching and mentoring support. 

    Additional hours and support can be negotiated with each mentoring practitioner.

Promoting, teaching, and supporting a neuro-developmental and functional approach to learning.