Supporting the Brain, Supporting Learning

Advances in technology and neuroscience continue to bring new findings about how the brain functions and how our day-to-day habits and choices affect it. Many myths exist, and online searches often produce outdated, confusing, and conflicting information. Knowing the truth is empowering. Some of my favorite facts, taken from Kimberly Wilson’s book How to Build a Healthy Brain (2022) include:

• The brain is 2-3% of our body weight but needs 20–30% of our daily energy intake. If we don’t eat enough, we negatively affect the brain’s structure and ability to function.
• Good-quality and sufficient sleep is needed to store new learning into memory, and to rinse waste products away from the brain.
• Berries give the brain a natural boost (eat lots in exam season!). Oily fish, nuts/seeds, and leafy greens are also super-foods for the brain.
• Exercise increases oxygen-rich blood flow to the brain, improving alertness and mood. 
• Even a 2% drop in hydration levels leads to short term memory loss, fatigue, and reduced focus.
• Kindness and helping with chores release dopamine, which boosts happiness and wellbeing.
• Healthy social connections lie at the heart of positive mental health.
• Mental health and emotional health are deeply connected: when we feel good, it’s often a sign that we are making healthy choices for our brain.

As educators, what are the implications of these truths? How do school environments, curriculums, schedules, and pedagogy reflect a foundation for supporting mental health and wellbeing? Arming people with the truth around the sciences of learning and positive mental health is a proactive approach. Simply knowing can create motivation to take action, but it’s not enough to build and sustain lifelong habits (Clear, 2018). Schools need to become places where brain-friendly habits are learned about, supported, modeled, and promoted. 

How are we supporting families to build healthy habits in the home? Lifestyle choices that support positive mental health and strong cognitive functioning are the foundation. A child who comes to school tired, hungry, or upset cannot be expected to learn well. As educators, we need to partner with families to help support healthy choices. 

Beyond lifelong learning, we also want for them a long life. Science-aligned guidance on healthy habits may significantly help prevent early brain aging, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease (Wilson, 2023). Back in 1995, in considering what it means to be an educated person, Boyer wrote, “Too many young women and young men pass through our process of education without learning about their own bodies. Out of ignorance, they suffer poor nutrition, addiction, and violence” (p.16). This continues to hold true. 

Today, the world is facing a global mental health crisis (WHO, 2025). Increased social media use and passive screen time mean that we are spending more time alone on devices and less time engaging in activities that protect our wellbeing, such as being outside or spending time with friends and family. Increased processed and sugary foods, changing dynamics of family-life., and pressures of school and work are adding to the problem. As educators and parents, we urgently need to equip the youth for resilience, and a fit and healthy life. 

At the International School of Uganda, we:

• Dedicate units of study related to brain-health across the grades;
• Ensure students have regular experiences in nature, spirituality, and engage in community projects within and beyond the school walls;
• Embed digital citizenship and wellbeing into the curriculum;
• Protect free-play time before, during, and after the school day, and lots of playful learning;
• Commit lots of time for physical education and social-emotional learning;
• Open the campus for the community to utilize the green areas, pool, and gym after school and at weekends;
• Model, explicitly teach, and practice strategies to support emotional regulation, development of resilience and growth-mindset, relationships, and healthy habits, such as drinking water throughout the day;
• Equip students with science-aligned brain-health knowledge;
• Learn with families through weekly forums in topics such as mental health, neurodiversity, and social connection;
• Celebrate acts of kindness in every assembly .

There has never been a more important time to strengthen our knowledge and understanding of the brain, and our body as a whole: how it functions, and our daily choices that cause impact. Because, after all, if we’re supporting the brain, we’re supporting learning. 



References

Boyer, E. (1995). The Educated Person. ASCD Yearbook.

Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits. An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. Avery. 

Wilson, K. (2022). How to Grow a Healthy Brain: Reduce stress, anxiety and depression and future-proof your brain. Yellow Kite. 

Wilson, K. (2023). Unprocessed: How the food we eat is fuelling our mental health crisis. WH Allen.