FIRST DAYS, STRONG ROOTS

Before the Learning Begins: Climate, Connection and the Rooting Path

Effie Kyrikakis | Whole-school Wellbeing Expert

Part I — The Climate Before the Curriculum

It is one of the first lessons of the year. You have planned it carefully: books ready, activity prepared, names on your list. A student walks in, chooses a seat and looks around. Before you have taught a single word, they are already learning something.

They notice your face when you greet them. They watch what happens when someone answers incorrectly. They see who gets invited into the conversation and who stays invisible. Without saying it aloud, they are beginning to ask: Am I safe here? Will I belong? Can I do this? What will happen when I get it wrong?

And while we are thinking about what we are going to teach, they are already learning what it feels like to learn with us.

“A lesson is a seed. Classroom climate is the soil.”

We can choose the best seed, plan carefully and know exactly how we want it to grow. But whether it can take root depends partly on the ground it lands in. Readiness, safety, connection and confidence prepare that ground.

Figure 1. Before the content, create the climate.

The first lessons are more than introductions; they are culture-building lessons. From the moment students enter, they are gathering information about how they are greeted, whether their name is remembered, what happens when somebody hesitates, how mistakes are treated, whether humour feels kind or exposing, who gets noticed and who can quietly disappear into the back row.

No single moment seems particularly dramatic, but together these moments begin answering deeply human questions: Is this a safe place for me? Do I matter here? Can I succeed here? What happens when learning becomes difficult? Who can I become here? By the time we begin teaching the syllabus, another curriculum

has already started. So perhaps the most useful beginning-of-year question is not only, What am I going to teach in my first lessons? It may also be, What do I want my students to learn about being a learner here?

Before the Content, Create the Climate — Students Are Reading the Room Before They Read the Book

At the IP Fall workshop, I chose not to begin with theory. We started with a tongue twister. Within a couple of minutes, the atmosphere in the room had changed. There was laughter, eye contact, energy and that wonderful permission to get something slightly wrong in front of other people. We had not opened a coursebook or “covered” any content, yet the conditions for learning had shifted.

Emotional climate is sometimes treated as the pleasant warm-up before the “real” lesson begins. Research suggests it is much more than a nice extra. A large systematic review found that a positive classroom climate is linked with students’ motivation, engagement, academic achievement and psychological wellbeing (Wang et al., 2020). A later meta-analysis found that when students experience stronger teacher support, they tend to engage more and achieve more, with emotional support playing an especially important role (Tao et al., 2022). This matters greatly in language classrooms, where speaking, making mistakes and trying again are such visible parts of learning; recent research also points to strong links between teacher emotional support, confidence and engagement in language-related subjects (Fu & Zhou, 2026). Belonging matters too: when students feel accepted, noticed and part of the group, they are more likely to stay involved, persist and learn (Korpershoek et al., 2020).

From Classroom Climate to Whole-School Wellbeing

September has its own particular kind of energy. New books, names to remember, parents to meet and plans that change three - or thirteen - times before they finally settle. In these first days, among all the running around, there is one part of the equation we do not always remember: ourselves. We enter the classroom carrying our lesson plan, our materials, our expectations and our good intentions, but we also bring our pace, our facial expression, our tiredness, our enthusiasm, the meeting we have just left, the traffic we have just survived and whatever else the day has placed in our nervous system. Our students encounter all of that before they encounter grammar.

“The nervous system of the teacher is part of the equation, too.”

Research on teacher wellbeing places the teacher firmly inside this picture. When teachers have the wellbeing, support and inner resources to stay present, connect and respond with greater choice, they are better able to create supportive conditions for their students. Reviews link teacher wellbeing with teacher– student relationships and student outcomes, while research in ESOL education highlights how emotional and professional support for teachers contributes to the flourishing of the wider educational ecosystem (Dreer, 2023; Kyrikaki, 2023). Teacher wellbeing and student wellbeing, therefore, are not separate conversations; together, they help create the conditions for whole-school wellbeing and flourishing.

Humane Intelligence is the capacity to regulate ourselves, stay connected to others and choose our response under pressure. In education, it begins with the teacher because the adult’s state, presence and way of responding help shape the emotional climate of the room. A more regulated, relational and flexible teacher is better able to create the readiness, safety, connection and confidence that support learning.

This reality is especially important for many women in education, who often carry multiple caring roles with remarkable competence and grace — in the classroom, in leadership, at home and within their communities. Yet that capacity to keep holding everything together can come at a real cost to their own wellbeing and health, especially when care for others repeatedly leaves too little space for care of self - but that’s a whole different conversation, one that we will return to in an upcoming issue.

Figure 2. Teacher wellbeing is part of the classroom and school wellbeing equation.

“The first curriculum you teach is your own neurology.”

That statement is not an invitation to place another impossible demand on teachers. It does not mean that educators must be endlessly calm, cheerful or perfectly regulated, nor does it mean that we are responsible for everybody else’s emotional state. It means something much more human: our state becomes part of the information available in the room.

None of this suggests that warmth replaces good teaching. It suggests something more useful: the relational and emotional environment influences how available students are to participate in good teaching.

“Are you OK, Miss?” Students often read us before they fully hear us. They notice our tone, rhythm, expression, posture and energy. A child may detect that something is different before we have consciously recognised it ourselves. This is why teacher wellbeing cannot be completely separated from pedagogy. The way we respond when the projector fails, when an activity falls flat, when somebody interrupts or when a student needs one more explanation becomes part of the learning environment.

Perfection is not the goal. What matters is greater awareness and the capacity to return: to notice our state, reconnect with the people in front of us and create a little more choice in how we respond. Teacher wellbeing, then, is not merely a private concern waiting for us after the school day. It enters the classroom with us.

Four Conditions That Support Learning and Wellbeing

Figure 3. The conditions beneath visible learning.

1. Readiness Comes Before Performance

Before learners can participate, remember, risk an answer or sustain attention, they first need to be sufficiently ready to engage. A child whose mind and emotions are occupied elsewhere will often struggle to learn. Readiness is not the same as motivation, and it certainly does not mean that every student must arrive calm, focused and enthusiastic. A learner may enter carrying tiredness, excitement, anxiety, an argument from the playground or simply the mental noise of a long day.

This is why the first minutes matter. A predictable opening, a familiar routine, a little movement or simply having a moment to arrive can help students shift from physically being in the room to becoming more available for learning. Readiness invites a useful question: What helps my brain and body get ready to engage? Helping learners recognise those conditions begins to build self-awareness rather than assuming that attention can simply be demanded on cue.

2. Safety Is Not the Absence of Challenge

Safety should never be confused with making learning comfortable or easy. Learning inevitably contains uncertainty. It asks us to attempt things we cannot yet do, speak before we are completely sure, expose gaps in our knowledge and risk being wrong. Safety is what makes that participation possible.

During the first lessons, learners may be silently asking, Can I hesitate here? Can I ask? Can I not know yet? Small classroom behaviours provide the answers. The use of names, predictable routines and invitations to participate without unnecessary exposure all communicate something about whether the room is safe enough for learning to become visible.

Perhaps the clearest test comes when somebody makes a mistake. Do other students laugh? Does the teacher’s face change? Does the learner suddenly become smaller? Or can the mistake become information

about what might happen next? Difficulty can reveal gaps and prepare the learner for further learning, provided that the climate allows mistakes to exist without shame.

3. Connect Before You Correct

Connection can easily be dismissed as the “soft” part of the lesson: pleasant and desirable, but secondary to serious learning. Yet for many students, connection is part of what makes serious learning possible. A name remembered, a face noticed, a partner offered or a tentative answer acknowledged before it is corrected are all small relational signals telling learners whether there is genuinely a place for them in the room.

This is also the thinking behind connect before you correct. It does not mean avoiding feedback or lowering expectations. It means thinking carefully about timing and delivery. An incomplete answer does not always need to meet correction first. Sometimes the first move is contact: a nod, a thank you, an “I can see where you’re going with that.” Then we guide. Correction lands differently when connection remains intact.

4. Confidence Is Built Through Experience

Confidence is often treated as something learners either bring into the classroom or they do not. The Greek word for self-confidence, αυτοπεποίθηση, points to something important: it contains πεποίθηση — belief or conviction. Confidence is continually shaped by the evidence learners gather through experience. The first days offer small but powerful pieces of evidence about themselves as learners: I answered and survived. I asked for help and was not judged. I made a mistake and could try again. I understood something that looked difficult at first.

These experiences matter particularly for learners who arrive carrying an established story such as “I’m not good at English.”

It develops as challenge becomes manageable, progress becomes visible and students experience themselves as capable of taking the next step. The message is not “This will always be easy.” It is something much more useful: “When this becomes difficult, I can still do something.”

From Conditions to Agency

Readiness, safety, connection and confidence describe important conditions of the learning climate. The Rooting Path takes the next step by giving students a way to recognise, influence and contribute to those conditions themselves.

Centre supports readiness by inviting learners to notice what helps their brain and body become available for learning. Connections translates safety and belonging into relational behaviour by asking students not only what helps them feel included, but how they can help classmates feel included too. Choice builds confidence through agency: rather than interpreting difficulty as proof that they cannot do something, learners identify a possible next move — ask, pause, try again, break the task down or choose another route. Grow is what those roots are for. Repeated experiences of readiness, safety, connection and meaningful choice give learners evidence about the learner, and the person, they are becoming.

This is where we move from classroom climate to shared agency.

Figure 4. Centre, Connection and Choice: three capacities that support the Rooting Path.

Part II — The Rooting Path: From Climate to Shared Agency

The Rooting Path grew from the same idea as Humane Intelligence, but turns the lens towards learners. If Humane Intelligence begins with the teacher shaping the climate, the Rooting Path helps students participate in that climate themselves. Centre, Connections and Choice translate regulation, relationship and agency into questions learners can understand and use, while Grow asks what kind of learner - and person - these repeated experiences are helping them become.

The Rooting Path is one practical response to a simple question: What helps you learn here? Many beginning-of-year activities understandably help us discover students’ interests. Favourite colour? Favourite food? Hobbies? These can be enjoyable and useful, but they tell us relatively little about how the learner experiences learning itself.

The Rooting Path opens a different conversation. It gives students a structured way to notice what helps them become ready, what helps a group feel connected, what choices remain available when learning becomes difficult and what they want to grow.

The Four Stations of the Path
Centre: Notice What Helps You Become Ready

“Centre” begins with self-awareness. The question is simple: What helps me become ready to learn? For younger or lower-level students, the answer might be very concrete: quiet, movement, time, clear instructions or knowing what comes next. Older learners may identify predictability, preparation, focus or a little time to transition from whatever came before.

The aim is not to promise that everyone will always receive their ideal conditions. It is to help learners recognise that readiness has signals and that some of those signals can be influenced. The learner begins to move from “I am either ready or I am not” towards “I can notice what helps me become more ready.”

Connections: Help Build the Class You Want to Belong To

“Connections” turns attention outward. Rather than asking only What helps me feel good here?, students begin considering another question: How can I help other people in my class feel that they belong? Listening, using someone’s name, including a classmate, giving people time, not laughing at mistakes and offering help all become part of the conversation.

This matters because classroom connection is not produced by the teacher alone. Students themselves contribute continuously to the emotional climate around them. The shift is subtle but important: from belonging received to belonging created together.

Choice: Find One More Way Forward

“Choice” becomes especially important when learning gets difficult. For younger learners, the question can remain concrete: What can I do when learning is hard for me? They may identify asking for help, trying again, taking more time, working step by step or trying another way. Older or more proficient students can go further by asking themselves what options remain before they give up, who they could ask, what they could change or what has helped them in the past.

This matters because difficulty can easily become identity. “I don’t understand this” becomes “I’m bad at English.” Choice interrupts that jump and introduces another possibility: I am stuck, and I still have a next move. These are self-leadership options that can follow learners for life.

Grow: From Strategy to Identity

“Grow” is intentionally different. It asks learners to look beyond what they want to achieve and towards who they are becoming. With younger students, the unfinished sentence can be beautifully simple: I am... kind, brave, calm, strong, curious, ready to try. Older learners may explore a broader intention: This year I would like to become a little more confident, curious, independent, connected, willing to ask, willing to try.

“I am” allows learners to picture themselves as they wish to be after the struggle, the difficulty or the failure. Visualising that future self can give them a more concrete direction to move towards. This is where the metaphor matters. Roots are not the final outcome. We build readiness, relationships and choice so that something can grow.

How to Use the Rooting Path in Class

Step 1 — Introduce it as a choice, not a test. Begin by presenting the Rooting Path as reflection rather than a test. Tell students that there are no correct answers and that they decide what they want to share. Because the activity is designed to support psychological safety, the way we facilitate it needs to model that safety from the beginning.

Step 2 — Complete and discuss each section. Give learners time to respond individually before discussing their answers. Younger students might circle words, draw, choose pictures or complete very short sentences, while older learners can write more freely. There is no need to over-explain every prompt before students begin; leaving some interpretive space makes it more likely that the responses will genuinely belong to them.

Step 3 — Invite rather than require. Sharing should be invited rather than demanded. Students might compare one answer with a partner, contribute one idea to the group or keep parts private. The purpose is not personal disclosure. The goal is learner voice.

Step 4 — Turn individual answers into classroom information. The teacher can then begin listening for patterns across the group. Perhaps several students need more time before speaking. Perhaps many value knowing what comes next. Perhaps mistakes being laughed at appear repeatedly as a barrier, or learners say that they participate more readily when they have a partner. These answers are not a list of demands. They are information about the learning environment.

Step 5 — Co-create the classroom agreement. A teacher might ask, What could we do in this class to help more people learn well? The resulting agreements should remain small enough to live by: We give

people time to answer. We help when someone is stuck. We do not laugh at mistakes. The agreement can then be displayed in the classroom. It becomes more meaningful when it grows from something students themselves have identified and is presented as a set of commitments, not rules.

Experience It Before You Facilitate It

The Rooting Path also has value for educators. Before using it with students, try answering its questions yourself. What helps you arrive ready? What helps you remain connected? What choices are available when teaching becomes difficult? What would you like to grow this year?

That short reflection returns us to where this article began. Teachers are not outside the learning environment. We are part of it.

One Path, Different Levels

The Rooting Path does not need to sound the same for every age or proficiency level. With very young learners or beginners, the A1 edition keeps language extremely simple and supports responses through a few familiar words and short prompts. The A1+/A2/B1 edition keeps the questions linguistically accessible while allowing slightly richer reflection, particularly as students begin connecting their own learning needs with responsibility towards classmates.

At B2–C2, the same framework can support deeper discussion about belonging, agency, support, classroom culture and learner identity. The framework remains recognisable while the lexical and reflective load changes. The purpose is not to simplify the meaning for younger or less proficient learners, but to make that meaning accessible.

From Ice-Breaker to Culture-Builder

The Rooting Path works naturally in the first days of class, but its real potential appears when we return to it. A few weeks later, the class can ask whether the same things still help, what has changed, whether the commitments they created are visible in everyday classroom life and what they may now need more of.

At that point, the activity is no longer an ice-breaker. It has become part of the shared language of the class. And perhaps that is the larger invitation at the beginning of a new school year. Instead of using September only to tell students what we expect from them, we can also communicate something else: you matter here, your experience of learning matters, you have choices, and we are going to build some of this together.

That is a very different way to begin.

Rooting Path Editions

The Rooting Path is available in three classroom editions so that the language changes while the underlying thinking stays the same.

Curious to explore the NeuroLearningPower® path, where neuroscience, coaching psychology and NLP come together? Join one of our upcoming EmpowerED Beginnings cohorts to begin with your own wellbeing, strengthen your Centre, Connections and Choice, and discover how these can grow into your own Rooting Path for learners. Participation is completely free, generously sponsored by MetaMathesis and Burlington Books.

A1 edition - simple language and highly accessible prompts for beginners.

A1+/A2/B1 edition - accessible reflection with greater learner voice and shared responsibility

B2/C2 edition - deeper reflection on agency, belonging, learning preferences and identity.

References

Dreer, B. (2023). On the outcomes of teacher wellbeing: A systematic review of research. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1205179. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1205179

Fu, X., & Zhou, X. (2026). The impact of perceived teacher emotional support on student learning: A meta-analysis. Behavioral Sciences, 16(8), 1322. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16081322

Korpershoek, H., Canrinus, E. T., Fokkens-Bruinsma, M., & de Boer, H. (2020). The relationships between school belonging and students’ motivational, social-emotional, behavioural, and academic outcomes in secondary education: A meta-analytic review. Research Papers in Education, 35(6), 641–680. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2019.1615116

Kyrikaki, E. (2023). Emotional and professional support measures for ESOL educator flourishing: Peer support and mentoring as factors of (women) educator well-being. In J. Miller & B. Otcu-Grillman (Eds.), Mentoring and reflective teachers in ESOL and bilingual education (pp. 215–247). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-8380-0.ch009

Tao, Y., Meng, Y., Gao, Z., & Yang, X. (2022). Perceived teacher support, student engagement, and academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology, 42(4), 401–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2022.2033168

Wang, M.-T., Degol, J. L., Amemiya, J., Parr, A., & Guo, J. (2020). Classroom climate and children’s academic and psychological wellbeing: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 57, 100912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2020.100912