NPQLT Adaptive Teaching

NPQLT Adaptive teaching
This self study package focuses on NPQLT: 6 - Adaptive teaching
It requires approximately three hours of study.

Research summaries and key learning from the practice pieces have been presented within this
pack and interactive video practice pieces are presented in the Expert Practice section. You may
wish to deepen your learning by watching the videos and reading the written practice pieces and
referenced research in full. This will increase your study time.
Introduction to adaptive teaching
Supporting adaptive teaching
The SEND code of practice
Ensure all pupils experience success
Adapting teaching to different pupil needs
Meeting individual needs without creating unnecessary workload
Effective grouping
Expert practice
Lesson 1 of 8
Introduction to adaptive teaching
"what happens in the classroom makes the biggest

di erence’ to pupil outcomes."
(EFF 2018)
Learning intentions for this session
You will learn that:
6.1. The SEND Code of Practice sets out four areas of need (communication and interaction; cognition and
learning; social, emotional and mental health; and physical and/or sensory needs).
6.2. Pupils are likely to learn at different rates and to require different levels and types of support from
teachers to succeed.
6.3. Seeking to understand pupils’ differences, including their different levels of prior knowledge and
potential barriers to learning, is an essential part of teaching.
6.4. Adapting teaching in a responsive way, including by providing targeted support to pupils who are
struggling, is likely to increase pupil outcomes
.6.5. Adaptive teaching is less likely to be valuable if it causes the teacher to arti cially create distinct
tasks for different groups of pupils or to set lower expectations for particular pupils
.6.6. Flexibly grouping pupils within a class to provide more tailored support can be effective, but care
should be taken to monitor its impact on engagement and motivation, particularly for low attaining pupils.
6.7. Pupils with special educational needs or disabilities are likely to require additional or adapted support;
working closely with colleagues, families and pupils to understand barriers and identify effective approaches
is essential.
You will learn how to:
Provide opportunities for all pupils to experience success by:
6.a. Ensuring interventions and support from teaching assistants and other professionals are targeted
and never used as a replacement for high-quality teaching.
6.b. Providing examples of how to adapt lessons while maintaining high expectations for all, so that all
pupils have the opportunity to experience success.
6.c. Enabling colleagues to adapt lessons, make reasonable adjustments, and implement structured
academic or behavioural interventions that are well-matched to pupils’ needs before seeking a diagnosis or
specialist support.
Support colleagues to adapt their teaching to different pupil needs by:
6.d. Sharing effective approaches for scaffolding new content and removing scaffolds over time.
6.e. Using different forms of assessment (including specialist assessments linked to each area of need),
including within lessons, to identify pupils who need further support.
6.f. Ensuring colleagues are able to draw on support when teaching children with special educational
needs and disabilities, particularly the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO).
Support colleagues to meet individual needs without creating unnecessary workload by:
6.g. Promoting the use of well-designed resources (e.g. existing high quality curricula and textbooks).
6.h. Sharing and modelling effective approaches for intervening in lessons with individuals and small
groups rather than planning different lessons for different groups of pupils or taking pupils out of classrooms
for interventions during lessons.
Ensure pupils are grouped effectively (across subjects and within individual classrooms) by:
6.i. Emphasising the need to maintain high expectations for all groups and ensuring all pupils have access
to a rich curriculum.
6.j. Ensuring that any groups based on attainment are subject speci c, avoiding the perception that these
groups are xed.
C O NT I NU E
Lesson 2 of 8
Supporting adaptive teaching
E ective teaching can transform pupils’ knowledge,

capabilities and beliefs about learning.
Study time: 15 minutes

What the evidence says about adaptive teaching
Ofsted’s (2019) research for the Education Framework notes that “pupils are likely to make progress at
different rates. As a consequence, they may require different levels and types of support from teachers to
succeed”. This understanding underpins the adaptive teaching content area. The ‘learn that’ statements
highlight the importance of teachers adapting their teaching to meet all pupils’ needs, including those with
SEND. The approach can be seen to connect with an aim to enable all young people to succeed in their
education and to close the gaps between different children’s attainment. EEF’s (2018) report shows the
scale and nature of the gap and also highlights that ‘what happens in the classroom makes the biggest
difference’ to pupil outcomes. Some of the key ndings are listed below.
The attainment gap is largest for children and young people eligible for free school meals.
The gap begins in the early years and is already evident when children begin school aged 5.
A majority of 19 year-olds who have been eligible for free school meals leave education without a
good standard of recognised quali cations in English and maths.
The attainment gap is not a problem found only in schools assessed by Ofsted as performing poorly –
the gap is as large in schools rated ‘Outstanding’ as it is in schools rated ‘Inadequate’.
There does not appear to be a direct relationship between increased school funding and increased
pupil attainment – what matters most is how schools can effectively and ef ciently use the resources
they have.
There is huge variability in outcomes for disadvantaged pupils between schools with similar levels of
disadvantage.
In 10% of primary schools and 8% of secondary schools, disadvantaged pupils are doing better than
the national average for all pupils. This shows it is possible to narrow the attainment gap.
These ndings tell us whilst there is an attainment gap there are things that can be done to close it and that
even small things can make a difference. Teacher education is one of the keys to narrowing attainment.
The EEF toolkit provides a range of well researched options to help leaders make decisions and some of
these are explored in this module.
The importance of all pupils succeeding in their education is also emphasised in law. The SEND Code of
Practice (2015) and Equality Act (2010) state that all children and young people are entitled to an
appropriate education, one that is appropriate to their needs, promotes high standards and the ful lment of
potential. The Children and Families Act 2014 secures the general presumption in law of mainstream
education in relation to decisions about where children and young people with SEND should be educated
and the Equality Act 2010 provides protection from discrimination for disabled people.
SEND statistics reveal the extent of the support needed in schools and the implications should leaders fail
to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities effectively.
Regulations and statutory guidance
Understanding of adaptive teaching can be seen to underpin many aspects of the leadership role, and to
connect with DfE regulations about SEND. The content area also connects with the Teachers’ Standards, in
particular 1.5 “teachers must adapt teaching to respond to the needs and strengths of all pupils” ( DfE,
2011). In their work leaders will be helping teachers strengthen their practice in relation to the content
areas.
Statements in the NPQ content area on adaptive teaching connect with the statements in the Early Career
Framework (2019).
In England the Education Inspection Framework requires schools to meet the needs of all learners, including
those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by:
providing an ambitious curriculum for all
having high expectations of behaviour for all
creating a positive, respectful culture where all pupils can learn
To effectively meet these requirements school leaders need to develop SEND support within their schools:
the provider has the same academic, technical or vocational ambitions for almost all learners. Where
this is not practical – for example, for some learners with high levels of SEND – its curriculum is
designed to be ambitious and to meet their needs.
leaders take on or construct a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners,
particularly the most disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities
(SEND) or high needs, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
the provider has high expectations for learners’ behaviour and conduct and applies these expectations
consistently and fairly.
relationships among learners and staff re ect a positive and respectful culture. Leaders, teachers and
learners create an environment where bullying, peer-on-peer abuse or discrimination are not
tolerated. If they do occur, staff deal with issues quickly and effectively, and do not allow them to
spread.
Education Inspection Framework, 2019
Children and Families Act 2014
DfE (2019) Early career framework
DfE (2011) Teachers' standards
DfE (2015) The SEND Code of Practice
EEF (2018) The Attainment Gap //2017
Ofsted (2019) Education Inspection Framework
Education Statistics Service (2021) Special educational needs in England (20/21)
Equality Act 2010
C O NT I NU E
Lesson 3 of 8
Accepting diversity means having the same educative

aim for every child or young person in the school: to
teach them so well that they can realise their maximum
potential; that is, to promote their quality of life by
bringing out the best in them”
Cullen et al. (2020)

Cullen et al al. (2020) note the SEND code of practice and the Equality Act (2010) are underpinned by:
an understanding that the “starting points for educating pupils with SEND are the same as for
educating any other pupil
an acceptance of diversity and of children’s rights as set out in the UN Convention on Children’s
Rights
an understanding of the importance of the environment in which and with which pupils and staff
interact in shaping their development over time
the perspective that all pupils can learn, and that good teaching enables this.”
These should be borne in mind as we explore the Code.
6.1 The SEND Code of Practice sets out four areas of need (communication and interaction; cognition and
The SEND Code of Practice sets out four areas of need (communication and interaction; cognition and
Whilst teachers are expected to understand the four areas they are also expected to consider the child’s
individual needs (which may relate to one or several of these areas) and how these relate to teaching and
learning experiences to inform targeted support to increase pupil success.
As the EEF guidance on supporting pupils with SEND in mainstream schools notes, this model of SEND
“shifts our focus from a condition or diagnosis that a pupil might have to their individual learning needs”.
Four areas of need

Children and young people
with speech, language and
communication needs
(SLCN) have di culty in
communicating with others.
This may be because they
have di culty saying what
they want to, understanding
what is being said to them or
they do not understand or
1 of 4
Children and young people

may experience a wide
range of social and
emotional di culties which
manifest themselves in many
ways. These may include
becoming withdrawn or
isolated, as well as
displaying challenging,
disruptive or disturbing
2 of 4
Some children and young

people require special
educational provision
because they have a
disability which prevents or
hinders them from making
use of the educational
facilities generally provided.
These di culties can be age
l t d d fl t t
3 of 4
Support for learning

di culties may be required
when children and young
people learn at a slower
pace than their peers, even
with appropriate
di erentiation. Learning
di culties cover a wide
range of needs, including
moderate learning
4 of 4
Cullen et al. (2020) highlight ”needs can be thought of in three ways (Lewis & Norwich, 2001):
common needs (e.g. to be loved and cared for, to receive effective teaching)
speci c needs that are shared with a similar group (e.g. pupils with hearing impairment need access to
means of audiological support, pupils with a physical disability need means for optimising their
mobility and access)
unique needs (e.g. arising from a combination of the above)”.
This approach might help teachers in adapting their teaching.

The principles of the SEND Code of Practice
The 0-25 SEND Code of Practice describes the principles that should be observed by all professionals
working with children and young people who have SEN or disabilities. These include:
taking into account the views of children, young people and their families
enabling children, young people and their parents to participate in decision-making
collaborating with partners in education, health and social care to provide support
identifying the needs of children and young people
making high quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people
focusing on inclusive practices and removing barriers to learning
helping children and young people to prepare for adulthood
Meeting the requirements

The schools' guide to the 0 to 25 SEND Code of Practice explains how school leaders can meet the
requirements of the code, including:
working together across education, health and care for joint outcomes
the Local Offer
improving outcomes – high aspirations and expectations for children with SEN Identifying SEN in
schools
SEN support in schools
preparing for adulthood from the earliest years
education, health and care needs assessments and plans (EHCP)
Children and young people in speci c circumstances
Resolving disagreements
Cullen et al. (2020) make 5 key recommendations:
Create a positive and supportive environment for all pupils, without exception.
Build ongoing, holistic understanding of your pupils and their needs.
Ensure all pupils have access to high quality teaching.
Complement high‐quality teaching with carefully selected small‐group and one‐to‐one interventions.
Work effectively with teaching assistants (TAs).
Perhaps most importantly they note that
"We know that pupils with SEND have the greatest need for high quality teaching and that what is good
for pupils with SEND is good for all. We must understand individual learning needs and include pupils,
parents, colleagues and specialist professionals in our conversations."
DfE (2015) The SEND Code of Practice
Cullen, M.A., Lindsay, G., Hastings, R., Denne, L., Stanford, C., Beqiraq, L., Elahi, F., Gemegah,
E., Hayden, N., Kander, I., Lykomitrou F., Zander, J. (2020). Special educational needs in
mainstream schools: Evidence review. London: Education Endowment Foundation.
Implications for practice

If you haven't done so already look at Cullen et al. and review the ve key recommendations for school
leaders to re ect on. Having done so, consider the following:
What is your own depth of understanding of the impact of teaching in your organisation on SEND
pupils?
Which if any of the following misconceptions remain to be tackled in your school?
SEND is the sole responsibility of the SENCo
A Teaching Assistant is responsible for a child with SEND

If a child has SEND, they automatically need an EHC plan
All children with SEND display disruptive behaviour
How will you go about tacking these misconceptions and ensure everyone understands their
responsibilities?
C O NT I NU E
Lesson 4 of 8
Ensure all pupils experience success
All children and young people should expect to receive

an education that enables them to achieve the best
possible educational and other outcomes, and become
confident, able to communicate their own views and
ready to make a successful transition into adulthood,
whether into employment, further or higher education
or training.
(SEND Code of Practice, 2015)
What the evidence says about ensuring all pupils

experience success
In this section and the next we will be looking at John Hattie's work (Professor of Education University of
Auckland ). He has analysed a large number of studies looking at a signi cant range of innovative teaching
methods. In his work he uses the term effect size. This is based on standard deviation. An effect size of 1.0
relates to an improvement rate of 50% or an advancement by one year. Alternatively this might be
considered to be a two grade leap in a GCSE. An effect size of 1.0 or one standard deviation is therefore
highly signi cant. Hattie considers an effect size of 0.4 to have real world impact and this is considered a
benchmark gure on which to judge an effect. Geoff Petty explains Hattie's effect size in the Teachers
Toolbox, although the toolbox is dated now the video explanation is excellent.
Having looked at the evidence in this section it is likely leaders will want to support staff in developing an
understanding of children’s differences including their prior knowledge and potential barriers to learning;
I ND I V I D U AL D I F F E R E NCE S P R I O R K NO WL E D G E P O TE NTI AL B AR R I E R S
6.2 Pupils are likely to learn at different rates and to require different levels and types of support from
teachers to succeed.
The research in this area clearly highlights that pupils are individuals and that in order succeed teachers need
to understand how and at what rate pupils learn and therefore the support they will need to succeed. This is
made very clear in Ofsted’s (2019) research for the Education Framework which notes “pupils are likely to
make progress at different rates. As a consequence, they may require different levels and types of support
from teachers to succeed”.
Hattie (2009) also picks up on the same theme of understanding children's differences and notes this is
valuable for all children not just those with SEND, whilst Carroll et al.’ s ( 2017) rapid review of the literature
about support for pupils with SEND noted that a “recurrent theme across the literature is that the most
effective support relies on a full and recent assessment of a child or young person’s individual strengths and
weaknesses. ”
This emphasis on assessing the individual connects with one of the key recommendations in the EEF (2020)
guidance on special educational needs in mainstream schools. This emphasises the importance of “build(ing)
an on-going, holistic understanding of your children and their needs”. The implication is clear that in order to
support pupils an up to date picture is required of their strengths and weaknesses and that teachers need to
use this information in designing lessons and individual support.
Carroll, J., Bradley, L., Crawford, H., Hannant, P., Johnson, H., & Thompson, A. (2017). SEN support: A rapid
evidence assessment
Education Endowment Foundation (2020). Special educational needs in mainstream school: Guidance report.
Hattie, J. (2009) Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London:
Routledge.
Ofsted (2019) Education inspection framework, overview of research
6.3. Seeking to understand pupils’ differences, including their different levels of prior knowledge and
In Hattie's analysis he said that prior achievement had a signi cant impact on learning and that it was one of
the highest factors affecting future learning. With an effect size of 0.67 he said it was among the highest in
his analyses.
Hattie (2009) also noted that pupils “not only bring to school their prior achievement…but also a set of
personal dispositions that can have a marked effect on the outcomes of schooling." Concentration,
persistence, engagement and motivation are all important and the analysis noted that their impact was at a
level where a real world difference can be noticed.
Understanding prior achievement and a pupils personal disposition to learning are therefore key in helping
learners progress and identifying the support they will need.
Routledge.
6.3 Seeking to understand pupils’ differences, including their different levels of prior knowledge and
Hattie’s analysis also shows in uences that can negatively impact on pupil learning and so act as barriers to
learning. For example, having a diagnosis of ADHD had an effect size of -0.9, boredom had an effect size of
-0.49 and depression -0.36.
Whilst taking into account all that the pupils bring to their learning, leaders will also want to help teachers
recognise the key role that they play in helping pupils to overcome these potential barriers to progress.
Hattie notes that “teachers are among the most powerful in uences in learning”. Speci cally, the tailored
support that teachers provide can help all their pupils succeed.
The EFF guidance highlights the value of using the Bronfenbrenner model to understand the multiple
in uences on each child’s development which will in uence the rate at which children learn and the support
that they will need. It shows how personal characteristics ( e.g gender, genetics) , time ( e.g. maturity, time-on
-a- task) and environment ( e.g school, local area) will all in uence development. The everyday actions and
interactions that they experience, including those in and out of school will drive their development leading to
differential learning outcomes. Leaders may wish to consider using this model with colleagues to help the
identi cation of strengths and possible barriers to learning.
Education Endowment Foundation (2020). Special educational needs in mainstream schools: Guidance
report.
Routledge.

Leaders will want to be aware of the strengths in the research evidence and the areas which have been less
extensively studied. Cullen et al. (2020) note that there is strong evidence about the impact of an inclusive
approach on pupils without SEND but a ”lack of systematic review evidence on the impact of any variant of
inclusion on academic outcomes for pupils with SEND.” The review also highlights that there is strong
evidence about high quality teaching for pupils with SEND but little evidence about the role of the SENCo.
THE EEF ( 2020) guidance notes that when considering targeted interventions “relatively few programmes
currently available in the U.K. have robust evidence of effectiveness“.
How effective are pupil assessments in your school at providing a full and recent picture
of individuals needs, including a review of their prior knowledge and personal disposition?
In your opinion, how effectively are assessment reports used to adapt teaching for
individuals? What evidence is there to support your opinion?
How can you motivate teachers and teaching assistants to provide an individualised
curriculum in your context that builds on a full understanding of each individuals needs?
Improving practice
The following development materials and practical guides may support leaders of teaching support
improvements in adaptive teaching.
S E ND I N M AI NS TR E AM S CH O O L S TH E G R E AT TE ACH I NG TO O L K I T
Recommendation 2 of the EEF (2020) guidance includes examples of how to get to know pupils to develop an
understanding of their individual needs.
report.
S E ND I N M AI NS TR E AM S CH O O L S TH E G R E AT TE ACH I NG TO O L K I T
Dimension 2 (Creating a supportive environment) of the toolkit makes recommendations for creating a
supportive environment. and addressing barriers to learning.
Coe, R., Rauch, C. J., Kime, S., & Singleton, D. (2019). Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review. Evidence
Based Education.
Practice piece
academic or behavioural interventions that are well-matched to pupils’ needs before seeking a diagnosis
or specialist support.
Ally Chadwick, assistant headteacher, Morgans Primary School,

Hertford
Ally, talks in this piece about how leaders of teaching can lead and support colleagues to provide
opportunities for all pupils to experience success.
Build a strong understanding of pupil prior knowledge

–
Ally feels that it's important to understand each child's starting point on their learning journey and plan
appropriately.
"In our school we have certainly stressed the importance of pre-assessment and having a really good
understanding of what the prior knowledge of all of the children in our class is, before we start to
approach teaching anything. So, I think that really prior knowledge is the key to unlocking what you are
going to have to adapt and making sure that you are teaching those children.
So, for example, before you are teaching column addition in year three, how secure are those pupils in
aggregating and augmenting numbers? Do they have all of the key maths structures taught at key stage
one, and if they do not you need to think about how you are going to adapt your approach to make sure
that you are covering those prior learning targets.
You need to know what those children are going to nd dif cult. Something in maths we really think about
is dif culty points and then you can plan for those. And I think that is about teachers being really creative.
So, we are really thinking ‘what is the prior learning?’ It is that classic ‘what is the zone of proximal
development?’ What is next for that child, and where are they likely to get stuck? What are the dif culty
points?
And I think something we are hearing a lot from the maths hubs who we are were working with closely,
and also from our SpLD services locally, is that pre-teaching is actually more valuable than intervening
after the lesson. So if, as a teacher, you can make any time for either you or your teaching assistant to look
at those prior dif culties, you have done your pre-assessing, you know what those children might be
nding dif cult before you are teaching that subject that is coming up next, can you take that small group
of children who maybe have a misconception out before you teach the content to the rest of the class?
And actually, that is seen and shown to be more impactful than them going into a lesson maybe less armed
with resources that can help build their con dence and then not succeeding in that lesson.
I think if you can take those children who you can predict are going to nd the lesson dif cult because you
have pre-assessed in a really insightful way you could make sure that they can go into that lesson
equipped with perhaps the tense frame that they need or the word map that they need and make sure
that they come out of that lesson having achieved the objective you set for them, because you have given
them additional input before the session began and that is really important. That is something we are
really trying to do in school. "
Demonstrate adaption techniques

–
"At our school we try and approach developing teachers to be able to adapt learning in two key ways. First
of all, we ask our more experienced teachers to model lessons for our newly quali ed early career
teachers. Where possible we will invite lots of members of staff come and watch those really
experienced teachers. Then in a lesson study approach we can sit down with those early career teachers
and say to them ‘I have got these children, this is my group of children, this is what they look like. I have
done this pre-assessment, I know what these children are going to nd dif cult going into the lesson. And
perhaps I have done a little bit of pre-teaching with these children here, and you can really sort of model
and talk through your approach as an experienced teacher with those early career practitioners. Really
show them ‘this is what I have done and why’. I have taken this small group out for some pre-teaching,
because I could see from the pre-assessment what they were really struggling with.
Secondly, we use our observation cycle, they are a really n important part of school leaders talking to
practitioners about ‘what happened for that child today?’ When I go into a classroom, I always pick out a
few children across the attainment range. I really take a look at those vulnerable groups, perhaps those
SEND pupils. I will always go in thinking with that lens of that child. I will be thinking, ‘what is happening
for that child today, is the learning suf ciently adapted for them, have they been successful today?’ I think
that is a really good way to talk to teachers after the lesson when you are asking them to re ect, and say,
‘you know I spent a lot of time sitting with this child today and I was really looking at what I can see about
them from prior assessment data and information that I have, can you tell me what you plan for them
today? Why did you plan that for them? How successful do you feel they were today? Is there anything
else that could have made them more successful in achieving the learning objective that you have chosen
for them today? ,I think those conversations with teachers is how observation should work. I believe that
leaders should be really asking teachers to think about the lesson through the lens of particular children,
to really make them scrutinise their approach, and check that what are they doing and why, asking has it
worked?
Equip teachers with the tools they need to make adaptations
–
We have a system, where we use the Assess-Plan-Do-Review Framework which all teachers should be using.
Teachers will be therefore required to assess pupils’ needs, and plan for them and review that regularly. If
teachers they feel that they are planning for children's needs, but the children are still struggling to make
those gains at that point, they should talk to the SENCO, who will then talk to our local SpLD service. Our
SpLD service in Hertford is fantastic, if you go on their website, they have lots of resources that can support
teachers in the rst instance to plan their approaches in their APDRs.
When teachers are preparing to meet with parents and young pupils and prepare a plan for them, it might be
that that child has dif culties with handwriting or dif culties with speech and language. There are lots of
different places on the SpLD service website where teachers can nd support and nd plans to put in place.
So, the expertise and the guidance are really clear for teachers, and the process in school is really clear and
that is where we start.
As soon as a child has an APDR, that Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle is initiated, our SENCO will know about
them, and they will be talking to practitioners. So, as part of the assessment cycle, we review how children
are progressing really regularly so that we can see whether things are working. We do this in a pupil
progress meeting held every term. Senior leaders, and the SENCO will talk about the provision for pupils
with SEND, whether they have behavioural or academic needs, and what teachers have put in place for them
and what is planned for next. With that cycle every term, if something has not changed or if, perhaps, the
situation is maybe becoming more needy, we need to step up our approach, at that point we can refer the
child to specialist teachers or maybe start instigating the process of diagnosis. But that is very much after a
process of planning carefully in school, using the guidance and the resources that the SpLD service provide,
and us monitoring that situation in a very routine and cyclical way so children cannot get missed.
There is a lot of provision that we like to put in place as a school for all children. We use a nurturing
approach led by nurturing schools, which is a great service. We use the Boxall Pro le as a really key tool to
nd out which children are perhaps showing signs that they are feeling less settled in school, perhaps more
anxious, and nding things more dif cult. The Boxall tool also allows us to plan for those children. in the rst
instance, the teachers have this really great model, this Boxall pro le, which helps them to plan for children's
needs, and plan the nurturing approaches that an individual child might need if they are showing signs at that
moment school is a dif cult place for them.

In the practice piece Ally stressed the importance of pre-assessment and using that to build a picture
of each child's prior knowledge and learning needs. What assessment process is used in your school
and how effective do you nd it in helping you understand the needs of each pupil?
How are experienced teachers used in your school to model adaption processes?
What tools are available to you and your colleagues to support the adaption of teaching for those that
need it?
C O NT I NU E
Lesson 5 of 8
Adapting teaching to di erent pupil needs
Adapting teaching in a responsive way is likely to

increase pupil outcomes

What the evidence says about adapting teaching to
di erent pupil needs
Leaders will want to support teachers in using their knowledge of individuals to adapt their teaching in a
responsive way;
TAR G E TE D S U P P O R T AD D I TI O NAL S U P P O R T
6.4 Adapting teaching in a responsive way, including by providing targeted support to pupils who are
struggling, is likely to increase pupil outcomes.
In helping teachers adapt their work Hattie's work provides some guidance for leaders, he argues that
“teachers need to be aware of which of their teaching strategies are working or not and that helping
teachers understand and adapt to the learner(s) is essential." Finding a developmental approach to support
teachers is a leadership responsibility and there is growing evidence that collaborative practice based on
trust and peer support can be highly effective, but leaders will want to decide how best to support teachers
in their own context.
Returning to Hattie's work he also highlights the value of adapting teaching to target support for those who
are struggling. He examined the effect sizes of what he termed ‘second/ third chance’ programmes in
reading. These targeted pupils who were struggling and focused on directly helping them develop the
necessary skills. The programmes had a signi cant impact with some interventions showing long term
bene ts that led to participating pupils performing at higher levels than other pupils who had not been
targeted for the intervention. So focused interventions are a useful tool, but identifying those it will help is
also essential.
Hattie also identi ed the value of setting helpful expectations for pupils. He mentions the work of Fuchs,
Fuchs, Mathes, Lipsey, and Roberts (2002) who found that poor readers labelled as having learning
dif culties underperformed when compared to a similar ability group of readers without a label. As such
leaders will want to consider how they help teachers set targeted support and ensure this is not associated
with lower expectations.
Routledge.
TAR G E TE D S U P P O R T AD D I TI O NAL S U P P O R T
6.7 Pupils with special educational needs or disabilities are likely to require additional or adapted
support; working closely with colleagues, families and pupils to understand barriers and identify
effective approaches is essential.
Leaders will want to consider how they help teachers make decisions about adapting their teaching to target
support for those who are struggling including those with special educational needs.
The EEF (2020) guidance on special educational needs in mainstream schools notes that schools should
follow a graduated approach. This will help colleagues adapt their teaching in a responsive way. The guide
includes some useful examples; pre teaching vocabulary for those with speech and language disorders, and
implementing individualised strategies such as taking part in reading interventions using strategies such as
question, clarify, summarise and predict. If supporting teachers to provide additional support for those with
special educational needs or disabilities is new to you the guide provides an excellent overview providing 5
key recommendations:
1. Create a positive and supportive environment for all pupils, without exception
2. Build an ongoing, holistic understanding of your pupils and their needs
3. Ensure all pupils have access to high quality teaching
4. Complement high quality teaching with carefully selected small-group and one-to-one interventions
5. Work effectively with teaching assistants
These were touched on in our opening sections. Recommendation three sets out some excellent teaching
strategies that are useful for all teachers who want to adapt their teaching. These include:
exible grouping. Grouping similar ability pupils together can be detrimental, exible groups are based
on the concept of grouping pupils by needs for a speci c tasks then disbanding that group and forming a
new group for the next need.
cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Cognitive strategies focus on skills like memorising techniques
for example using a method to solve a maths problem. Metacognition refers to the methods of
monitoring and directing thinking and learning. Teachers should for example model their own thinking,
teach pupils how to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning and set an appropriate level of
challenge. They should also use tools like graphic organisers to help pupils adopt and use these
strategies.
explicit instruction. This refers to using teacher led approaches, for example using a demonstration,
followed by guided practice and then independent practice . Rosenshine’s ‘Principles of Instruction’ are
a well recognised and popular explicit approach. Common approaches include:
teaching skills and concepts in small steps
using examples and non-examples (wrong examples)
anticipating and planning for common misconceptions
highlighting essential content and removing distracting information.
using technology. Use a range of applications that support an individuals needs, whether these be
applications that provide instruction or enable a skills to be practiced safely, provide learning aids such
as note taking devices or augment the learning process solving a speci c problem in the way that
speech generating applications do.
scaffolding. Provide temporary support that is removed once an approach or concept has been
understood, Scaffolding tools are normally used to help pupils achieve a task that they wouldn't
otherwise be able to do for example using a writing frame.
If these strategies are not already part of a teachers repertoire leaders will want to think about how to build
them into a professional development programme.
SEND pupils may also need additional support with both academic and social behaviours to improve their self
worth. Cullen et al. highlight a systematic review by Nowicki (2003), which “compared the social
competence outcomes of three groups: pupils with ‘learning disabilities’, those with low achievement, and
those with average to high achievement." Nowicki found that “teachers perceived pupils with learning
disabilities to be lacking in social skills compared to peers who were attaining at least an average level of
academic achievement”. The meta-analysis also found that, “children much preferred classmates without
learning disabilities" and that: “an appreciable proportion of students with learning disabilities seem to be
rather oblivious of their poor social acceptance by their classmates. Yet, the majority of these students
appeared to be well aware of their poor scholastic abilities, and tended to have low self-evaluations of their
global self-worth.” In terms of recommendations for practice, Nowicki (2003) used the results of her meta-
analysis to suggest that: “Educators need to be aware that children who are struggling academically may also
be experiencing social dif culties with their classmates, and may have lower self-esteem with regard to
academic tasks." Thus, children with learning dif culties may require social support as much as they require
academic remediation to thrive. Leaders are therefore likely to want to encourage teachers to take into
account the whole child's needs when targeting support.
Building an understanding of the whole child can be complex and is likely to involve families and external
professionals. There is some research evidence to support the value of this.
Cullen et al. , 2020 point to there being “some evidence of the effectiveness of collaborative and team-
working approaches in supporting pupils’ [with SEND] …; and of the bene ts of ensuring work with
external professionals was coordinated ef ciently”
Caroll et al. (2017) found families had an important role, providing useful background on their child and
noted that when it came to depressive symptoms “parents noticed symptoms that pupils weren’t aware
of ".
The Lamb (2009) report suggests that families were sometimes excluded or marginalised in decisions
about their child although they are partners in their child's education
McLeskey et al. ( 2017) in their research-based ‘high-leverage practices’ for those working with pupils
with SEND, emphasised the importance of gaining views from a range of stakeholders. They also found
teachers had a key role to play interpreting assessment information for stakeholders and in, involving
"them in the assessment, goal development, and goal implementation process.”
Bringing all a child's supportive stakeholders together might not be easy to achieve but all parties want what
is best for the child and schools may nd they need to take the lead. School leaders need to support teachers
engaging with families and professionals and give them the skills and time to do so.
Cullen, M.A.., Lindsay, G., Hastings, R., Denne, L., Stanford, C., Beqiraq, L., Elahi, F., Gemegah, E., Hayden, N.,
Kander, I., Lykomitrou F., Zander, J. (2020). Special educational needs in mainstream schools: Evidence
review. London: Education Endowment Foundation.
Carroll, J., Bradley, L., Crawford, H., Hannant, P., Johnson, H., & Thompson, A. (2017). SEN support: A rapid
evidence assessment: DfE
Lamb,B. (2009) Lamb Inquiry Special educational needs and parental con dence; DfE
McLeskey, J., Barringer, M-D., Billingsley, B., Brownell, M., Jackson, D., Kennedy, M., Lewis, T., Maheady, L.,
Rodriguez, J., Scheeler, M. C., Win, J., & Ziegler, D. (2017). High-leverage practices in special education.
Arlington, VA: Council for Exceptional Children and CEEDER Center.
To deepen your understanding of this research and its application in practice undertake the essential
reading in each section.
To what extent do systems and processes within the subject, year group, key stage or phase
that you lead or aspire to lead, support teachers in effectively adapting teaching?
How can you best support the teachers you lead to understand and engage in practices that
support the adaptation of teaching in a way which best bene ts the learning of all pupils,
especially those experiencing signi cant barriers to progress?
Thinking of a pupil that you teach/ have taught, how did you collaborate with others to
understand their barriers and identify effective approaches?
How could you further strengthen this process?
How can you support teachers in collaborating with others to gain an understanding of the
barriers to learning that pupils experience and how these can best be overcome?
Improving practice
When we show up to the present moment with all of our senses, we invite the world to ll us with joy. The
pains of the past are behind us. The future has yet to unfold. But the now is full of beauty simply waiting for
our attention.
E D U CATI O N E ND O WM E NT TH E G R E AT TE ACH I NG
S TATU TO R Y G U I D ANCE
F O U ND ATI O N TO O L K I T
Recommendation 1 of the EEF's guidance Create a positive and supportive environment for all pupils
without exception includes examples of how teaching can be adapted to ensure all pupils are able to
progress,
Their guide to working with teaching assistants includes recommendations for using teaching assistants to
support adaptation.
EEF (2017) Special educational needs in mainstream schools
EEF (2021) Making best use of teaching assistants

Section 4 of Dimension 2 (Creating a supportive environment) of the toolkit makes recommendations for
creating a climate of high expectations, with high challenge for all.
Coe, R., Rauch, C. J., Kime, S., & Singleton, D. (2019). Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review. Evidence
Based Education.
The guide explains the duties and responsibilities of schools supporting children and young people with
special educational needs and disability (SEND) and their families. Pages 15 to 20 provides guidance on
supporting SEN in schools with details of the graduated approach, education and health care plans (EHCPs)
and reasonable adjustments for an inclusive environment.
DfE (2014) SEND: guide for schools and alternative provision settings
Practice piece
6.d. Sharing effective approaches for scaffolding new content and removing scaffolds over time.
Lucy Lee, headteacher, Dorin Park School

Having spent her entire career working in special schools, Lucy Lee is well-placed to support her colleagues
to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of different pupils. With a degree in conductive education,
specialising in working with children with physical disabilities, Lucy joined Dorin Park School as headteacher
in January 2021. In this practice piece she shares her experience.
Make CPD a whole school thing

–
“In special schools, as you might imagine, there are very wide ranging pupil needs,” begins Lucy. “And teachers
have to adapt to the different subjects they're teaching and the different needs of the children as they may
be taught in very different ways.”
These different needs mean that Lucy needs to consider a huge range of professional development
opportunities for staff, who are expected to take on a huge amount of information and to develop their own
specialisms.
“It has to be a whole-school thing,” explains Lucy. “You can’t just support teachers. We have lots of teaching
assistants, and they all need to know, rst and foremost, why they need to adapt their teaching.”
Ensure sta know what's important about an adaption

–
Sometimes, an adaptation in teaching will follow advice or policy directives from Ofsted or the Department
for Education, but often it will be driven by the changing needs of the children in the school.
“They might recently haven been given an autism diagnosis or might have deteriorating vision and become
visually impaired, or they might go into a wheelchair when they've always been ambulant because of
deteriorating health,” explains Lucy.
“Teachers and support staff really need to know what's important about an adaptation and what it's going to
do to support that child,” says Lucy. “But they also need to know how it’s going to support other children in
the class or even in the whole school.”
Focus on the positive impacts of change
–
As a leader Lucy helps to identify the wider context. But what happens when you meet resistance, when a
teacher is reluctant or unsure about altering their teaching approach?
Lucy focuses on the potential positive impacts of change, using appropriate reassurance and support. She
also focuses on the positive bene ts for the teacher as well. Perhaps the change will result in a reduction of
the number of challenging behaviour incidents?
“Generally, the biggest barrier I have found is fear of change and what it means for that person, what impact
it's going to have on them,” shares Lucy. “The most resistant people tend to be the people who lack
con dence in their own abilities. But when they are convinced that they have something to offer, that they
absolutely can do it, and that you have faith in them, then that helps along the way.”
Provide adequate time to make adaptions

–
Different teachers and teaching assistants will need varying amounts of support. So, you need to ensure that
you provide adequate time and scaffolded support to make any adaptations, as well as time to re ect and
learn from them.
Lucy shares an example of how she supported colleagues to adapt their teaching methods in a school
specialised in autism. “Many years ago, research suggested that children with autism were ‘visual learners’
and couldn’t learn through systematic phonics,” she begins. “We had to nd different ways of teaching it, for
example, whole-word teaching. Which left schools without a really structured approach to teaching reading.”
Lucy had found research that contradicted the belief and that, actually, systematic phonics was a very good
way of teaching children with autism. “There was a need to change how we taught reading in the school,” she
says. “And to do that, the rst thing the staff needed was to really understand what the research said, and
why we were changing, that it wasn't just because of Ofsted, but because we really believed that this was
going to work.”
To do this, Lucy needed buy-in from the teacher who would lead that change. She needed them to be
passionate about it because it would be a signi cant change for the whole school. The next stage was to nd
a way to support the rest of the staff and to overcome a pervading culture of being reluctant to change too
much, particularly among the support staff.
“Most of the teachers were very con dent with phonics as a system, and they would happily train themselves
up and go away and watch videos. But the teaching assistants were absolutely terri ed of getting it wrong,”
remembers Lucy. “They needed lots of coaching to start with and once their con dence grew we were able
to reduce and then eventually stop the coaching programme.”
Pilot changes and create champions of change

–
Lucy and her staff team had looked at a number of commercial phonics schemes but chose Letters and
Sounds because it was easier to adapt to their needs. “I started with a pilot project and worked with a couple
of teachers who were keen,” she continues. “We tried out resources and looked at how different things might
work. Crucially, we made sure that the small group of teaching assistants in those classes were on board
because we wanted them to feel con dent enough to be the ones who showed the teaching change to
everybody else.”
These teachers and support staff essentially became champions of the change. “When we had whole staff
meetings, led by the English lead, those teachers would be saying, ‘in my class, we did it like this. And it
worked. And we did this and this worked’. So we had cheerleaders in the room.”
Once the pilot project was running and everyone involved was happy that the changes were good for the
children in their class, Lucy knew that the pilot could be expanded across the school. She identi ed where
support was needed the most and offered either whole-group training or external training where
appropriate.
Be open to change and model this behaviour

–
Being open to change, to the prospect of adapting teaching to improve outcomes for children is crucial. As a
leader you can model this behaviour by keeping up to date with the latest research, being active on social
media, connecting with colleagues in different schools, and by reading around your subject area. “I found two
books particularly helpful,” Lucy says. “The Kindness Principle by David Whitaker, and When the Adults
Change, Everything Changes by Paul Dix. They are not necessarily about leadership but have helped me to
lead change in schools.”
Take a bespoke approach to assessment

–
When assessing pupil needs in a special school you can never adopt a one-size- ts-all approach. No matter
how similar one school might appear to another, its pupils will have different needs across each intake. Most
schools take a bespoke approach led by the needs present in their pupils.
“We use Evidence for Learning, in a way that is bespoke. We add our assessment frameworks and the
outcomes that children are working towards as part of their Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP),” says
Lucy. “Our assessment system is driven by EHCPs, because they are adapted to children's individual needs.
We collect observations, videos, photos, to check whether children are making progress.”
Lucy and her staff also use a wide range of assessments, frameworks and systems, including phonics checks,
reading assessments, and SATS, with all evidence moderated on a termly basis.
Call on a range of professionals

–
The school builds close relationships between staff members and the children and their families, and
everyone else that inputs into their care and education, such as physios and speech and language therapists.
They will have their own expectations of the child. “When a child is not progressing as you would like, there
are a range of people you would call on to discuss that with, including your curriculum lead, your SENCO,
senior leaders, specialists. We have annual reviews that look in very great detail about the progress of each
child.”
These assessments, reviews and discussions all help to highlight whether a child’s needs have changed and
whether your method of teaching needs adapting. Lucy offers a behaviour assessment as an example: “We
use a Functional Behaviour Analysis of the child, and a discussion with the team around that child about what
is happening? Why is it happening? What are we going to do about it? What are the strategies?”
This works well when you need to take a step back and look at that child and what barriers they might have in
their learning. You can then pick up those things using a team approach, looking at each child and saying, ‘you
know, this is what we think we need to try next’.”

Lucy tries to make sure staff know what's important about an adaption both for a pupil with a speci c
need and other pupils in the same class. To what extent do you or could you go about ensuring the
need for a speci c adaption is made clear to teaching and support staff?
Positive impacts are used by Lucy as part of her strategy to bring those resistant to change on board.
She also offered those with a fear of change scaffolded support through a coaching model. What
strategies have you adopted to bring reluctant or fearful adopters with you on a change journey and
how might you apply them in an environment where it's necessary to adapt teaching strategies?
Lucy made effective use of change champions. If you were to adopt this model, who would your
change champions be and why?
How do you model your openness to change to your colleagues?
Dorin Park School uses a bespoke approach to assessment. What is bespoke about your schools
assessment methodology for those with an EHCP?
C O NT I NU E
Lesson 6 of 8
Meeting individual needs without creating

unnecessary workload
Support colleagues to meet individual needs without

creating unnecessary workload

What the evidence says about meeting individual needs
without creating unnecessary workload
The focus here is on much the same research as we have already covered with key points being effective
and ineffective approaches.
E F F E CTI V E AP P R O ACH E S I NE F F E CTI V E AP P R O ACH E S
6.5 Adaptive teaching is less likely to be valuable if it causes the teacher to arti cially create distinct
tasks for different groups of pupils or to set lower expectations for particular pupils.
Behind this learn that statement is a focus on both workload and setting high or helpful expectations for all
students. In adapting teaching to different pupil needs we previously explored Hattie's work and the concept
that those given a label often underperformed when compare to similar ability learners without a label. As
such, we can conclude that all pupils need to work in an environment of high expectations. Arti cially created
tasks can single out speci c pupils or groups of learns unnecessarily and can signal a lowering of
expectations.
In terms of workload the focus is on ensuring "all pupils have access to high quality teaching" and that “to a
great extent, good teaching for pupils with SEND is good teaching for all.”(EEF 2020) and should not
necessarily result in additional work. In the EEF(2020) guidance we have already explored some key teaching
strategies that are useful for all teachers in adapting their teaching and the EEF toolkit (2021) adds to these
strands on behaviour interventions, one to one tuition, small group tuition, social and emotional learning and
using teaching assistants effectively. Alongside these teaching methods or strategies, teachers will use a
range of existing formative assessment approaches to ensure they have a good understanding of a pupils
prior learning, how they are applying and using new knowledge and skills and where there are any gaps or
misconceptions that need to be addressed. Armed with assessment information teachers can adapt their
practice. Harry Madgwick in his EEF blog (July 2021) picks up on this theme. He points out that "this does
not mean that teachers should design separate tasks or teach alternative content to pupils of different
attainment levels, but rather use diagnostic information to make small regular changes to practice, addressing
errors and targeting the areas for improvement through appropriate levels of scaffolding, support, and
challenge ."
Cullen et al.‘ s (2020) review of evidence for the EEF also emphasises the importance of using general
classroom strategies to support pupils with SEND ( 2020). The authors note that “Compared to teaching
other pupils of a similar age, effective teaching for pupils with SEND requires a climate of positive
interactions between teachers and pupils and among peers; additional teaching (e.g. teaching more
structured steps towards a learning goal); and/or the use of different strategies (e.g. the use of graphic
organisers, of mnemonics, of learning scaffolds) or of different interventions (e.g. to support uency in
reading). That is, it requires nothing that is outside of a trained teacher’s competence.” Leaders will want to
consider how they help colleagues best use these strategies to support the needs of their pupils.
Cullen, M.A.., Lindsay, G., Hastings, R., Denne, L., Stanford, C., Beqiraq, L., Elahi, F., Gemegah, E., Hayden, N.,
Kander, I., Lykomitrou F., Zander, J. (2020). Special educational needs in mainstream schools: Evidence
review. London: Education Endowment Foundation.
Education Endowment Foundation (2021) Special educational needs & disabilities, Supporting pupils with a
learning dif culty or disability which requires special educational provision. Toolkit strands
report.
Madgwick, H. (09/07/2021) EEF Blog: ECF – Exploring the Evidence: ‘Adaptive Teaching’ and Effective
Diagnostic Assessment
E F F E CTI V E AP P R O ACH E S I NE F F E CTI V E AP P R O ACH E S
6.5 Adaptive teaching is less likely to be valuable if it causes the teacher to arti cially create distinct
tasks for different groups of pupils or to set lower expectations for particular pupils.
It is worth noting that identifying pupils’ learning styles and using this information to adapt teaching is not
supported by the wider evidence. “There is very limited evidence for any consistent set of learning ‘styles’
that can be used reliably to identify genuine differences in the learning needs of young people, and evidence
suggests that it is unhelpful to assign learners to groups or categories on the basis of a supposed learning
style.” (EEF, 2021)
Education Endowment Foundation (2021). Toolkit: Learning styles.

How have or will teachers be supported to adopt the recommended teaching strategies discussed in
the text?
How con dent are you that teachers are using both assessment and diagnostics to adapt their
teaching practice?
How are you supporting teachers to avoid the pitfall of creating distinct tasks for different groups of
pupils that may lead to setting low expectations?
Practice piece
groups rather than planning different lessons for different groups of pupils or taking pupils out of
classrooms for interventions during lessons.
Jane Bradley, senior lecturer, University of Chester and Lucy Lee,

headteacher, Durham Park School
Jane has worked in secondary education, pupil referral units and SENCO roles before moving into higher
education to lead MA and undergraduate programmes in Special Needs Education. Lucy has always
worked in special schools and is a specialist in teaching children with Cerebral Palsy. In this practice piece
they explore how to support colleagues without creating unnecessary workload.
Ensure pupils are emotionally and sensorily ready to learn
–
Lucy ensures pupils are ready to learn, focusing on meeting their sensory needs and ensuring their
emotional needs are being managed. She recommends the use of "zones of regulation" an intervention
strategy that provides both a curriculum and a toolkit that helps pupils build awareness of their feelings and
then utilise tools and strategies for regulation. This often includes mindfulness, sensory integration,
movement, thinking strategies, wellness and healthy connections with others. Lucy believes the strength of
the approach is in helping pupils recognise when their emotions are stopping them from being ready to learn.
Provide access to excellent resources

–
Jane believes it's important to provide access to well designed resources that help teachers, particularly
where they relate to speci c interventions. Jane contributes to the Index of Online Harms, which provides
both advice and resources such as the digital resilience toolkit that can help teachers deliver the curriculum.
Similarly Lucy recommends the tools on the Autism Education Trust website. Some of these require a
subscription but they are not very expensive. There are also lots of online resources for the zones of
regulation intervention strategy.
Assess the needs of each pupil

–
It's important to really understand the needs of each pupil. She recommends using the Boxall Pro le a tool
that helps identify a pupils social, emotional and behavioural development. The tool offers early identi cation
and assessment of needs, target setting and intervention and progress tracking. It is designed to be used
across a whole setting and is available at nursery/primary and secondary levels.
Lucy also recommends drawing on the team of specialists working with a pupil to build a solid understanding
of their needs.
Embed interventions into the school day

–
In working with her specialists Lucy looks at ways of embedding interventions into the school day. Working
with the school speech and language therapist she has recently been looking at keyword instructions. A bank
of instruction words has been complied and shared with teachers so that they are integrated into the day.
This process has helped make this element of development an "all the time kind of thing" rather than a 20
minute focused event.
Network, Network, Network

–
Staying up-to-date and sharing effective approaches is essential, both Lucy and Jane draw on their physical
and virtual networks to help them. Jane makes good use of social media using it to keep in touch with the
latest research and also works with the Western Chester SENCO network that provides " a fantastic forum
to share practice and expertise" She also works collaboratively with multiagency groups that both support
SENCO's and provides opportunity to share good practice which has included modelling effective approaches
and intervention strategies at the individual and small group level. Jane's advice on staying up to date is to
"network, network, network."
Lucy also draws on networks and has found working in clusters with both mainstream and specialist schools
helpful. She nds mainstream schools have a much tighter focus on the academic curriculum and as a result
of one sharing opportunity she introduced the White Rose maths curriculum to her school. "Apart from the
fact that it was free, which was fabulous, it has cross aged, or mixed aged, planning which really supported
my teachers" "it's also much easier to adapt existing resources to the different needs of the class than it
might be otherwise."
Build the confidence of the team around the child

–
Supporting colleagues "comes down to building their knowledge and understanding , so the more that we can
build that and develop their sense of security and con dence the better they can support the needs of those
individual learners with dif culties." At Lucy's school there are over 50 teaching assistants, and she nds
they need more support than the teachers in adopting new approaches. "When looking for instance at
phonics or math mastery, the teaching assistances tend to be the more cautious as a group because they
were not taught those methods in their own schooling and need to relearn before they can support the
children." In adopting new strategies Lucy has adopted a champions model, training enthusiasts in small
groups and then work in small groups with their peers.
Parents can unwittingly act as a barrier to the adoption of new interventions and Jane has found that helping
parents understand the reasoning and the approach is essential. Parents want what is best for their child,
having shared school/home goals can help avoid con ict and make parents part of the education team. Lucy
points to training parents in manging anxiety in their children about school as a success story, one that's
helped ensure their children are ready for school.
Jane also believes training across the whole school is important, In her recent work on understanding
attachment trauma she involved ever member of the school team including caretakers and dinner ladies so
that everyone developed a common understanding of the issue, could use a shared language and could
report and discuss issues.
Lucy also encourages her team to read, focusing on the latest research and recommended books with
allocated time for reading. She has found this encourages enthusiasts to share their knowledge and build the
con dence and understanding of their colleagues
Involve pupils and listen to them so that they don't feel "done to"
–
Both Jane and Lucy believe strongly that communicating with pupils and listening to their thoughts is
important in helping them develop. Jane says, "You come across potential challenges when pupils feel like
something is being done to them, so it's really important to involve them in all provision."
Lucy nds she has "some really interesting conversations with children" when she focuses "on how to
support their behaviour needs, particularly, about what they think might help them to cope better in class or
come into school more calmly". She nds "they have some really, really interesting insights into what might
be supportive and what it is that upsets them." This input can help identify interventions and she nds pupils
more open to new ideas if they are part of the solution.
How do you go about identifying and introducing well designed quality resources that help
teachers with meeting the needs of individual pupils while minimising the workload?
What are you doing to keep your own knowledge and understanding up to date? What else
might you do?
How are you ensuring the team around the child is both contributing to making interventions
part of the day, and that they are all trained and part of using successful interventions?
Lesson 7 of 8
E ective grouping
E ective groupings

What the evidence says about e ective grouping
6.6 Flexibly grouping pupils within a class to provide more tailored support can be effective, but care
should be taken to monitor its impact on engagement and motivation, particularly for low attaining
pupils.
The research evidence about grouping pupils is very mixed in accessing its impact on learning. The EFF
(2018) point out that whilst there is 50 years worth of evidence the analysis is basic, and doesn't explore
the different types of study or the grouping interventions suf ciently. Other research indicates that
grouping can offer effective interventions in the right circumstances. It is therefore essential to monitor the
impact of grouping pupils and ensure the approach is leading to the desired impact on pupil learning. Below
we explore the different types of grouping covered in the literature.
S M AL L - G R O U P AND O NE TO
ATTAI NM E NT G R O U P I NG F L E X I B L E G R O U P I NG
O NE I N...
The EEF (2020) guidance on special educational needs in mainstream schools explored in the last section
made 5 recommendations, recommendation 4 focuses on small groups and one to one interventions. The
guide recommends this approach as it provides opportunity to apply effective strategies with a "more
intense focus". It does however recommend that small groups should not replace efforts to improve the
overall the quality of teaching in general, but that they are used where pupils require support beyond what
can be offered in a whole class environment. Additionally small groups can lead to removal from the
classroom, so the intervention in this case must add value and compensate for the time spent away from
pupils peers.
The effectiveness of small group interventions, away from the main class increase if three questions are
considered in making sure they provide a good t in a given context:
"Is this the right intervention for the pupil?
Can we provide the support required for our staff to deliver the intervention well?
Are we able to dedicate the time and resources required to implement the intervention well?" EEF
(2020)
Making decisions based on the answers to these questions can lead to effective interventions and can avoid
setting off on interventions that cannot be properly supported and which are therefore likely to lead to less
effective teaching practice.
report.
O NE I N...
The EEF (2018) recognise attainment groups as the grouping of pupils around their attainment level. Groups
are taught together in the same class, following the same curriculum. The aim of the grouping is to support
pupils based on their current capability. The research evidence shows this approach brings bene t to all
learners of on average two months additional progress. However, "there appears to be less bene t for lower
attaining pupils than others." These nding are echoed by Deunk et al (2018) who found that ability
groupings had a small negative effect on low ability pupils.
Conversely to these nding Tereshchenko et al.’ s (2018) analysis of pupil voice found that there was a
“strong preference for mixed attainment grouping among those at lower prior attainment.” This aligns with
other research where some pupils felt stigmatised by being in the ‘bottom sets’” ( Webster et al, 2017).
Motivation can be a strong contributing factor to a pupils attitude to learning and therefore the impact of
attainment group on motivation should be considered.
Deunk, M. I., Smale-Jacobse, A. E., de Boer, H., Doolaard, S., & Bosker, R. J. (2018). Effective differentiation
practices: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on the cognitive effects of differentiation
practices in primary education. Educational Research Review, 24(February), 31–54
Education Endowment Foundation (2018). Toolkit: Within-class attainment grouping.
Tereshchenko, A., Francis, B., Archer, L., Hodgen, J., Mazenod, A., Taylor, B., Travers, M. C. (2018). Learners’
attitudes to mixed-attainment grouping: examining the views of students of high, middle and low attainment.
Webster, R. and Blatchford, P. (2017) The special educational needs in secondary education (SENSE)
O NE I N...
McLeaskey et al. (2017) in High Leverage Practices in Special Education, draw together a range of effective
practices for supporting pupils with SEND. They recognise exible grouping in which pupils are grouped
with regards to a speci c learning goal. Groups change often and involve pupils of similar (homogeneous) and
different (heterogenous) abilities, small groups, pairs and on some occasions whole class groups. In other
words the groups are exible and change to accommodate learning difference and encourage collaboration.
Teachers need to know how to use the groups to best advantage.
Homogeneous groups are used to provide "focused, intensive instruction for students with common
instructional strengths and needs and are con gured to meet short-term goals and objectives." Smaller
groups or pairs are used to further intensify instruction,
"Heterogeneous groups include students of varied knowledge and skill levels and can serve multiple
instructional purposes." They are often used "to engage all students in conversations, facilitate student
thinking and communication skills, and improve interpersonal relationships among students with and without
disabilities" (Hattie, 2008; Kagan & Kagan, 2009 from McLeskey et al. 2017)
McLeskey et al. (2017) like the Education Endowment Foundation, point out that the research base makes it
dif cult to assess the effectiveness of the approach and that more focused research is required.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London:
Routledge.
McLeskey, J., Barringer, M-D., Billingsley, B., Brownell, M., Jackson, D., Kennedy, M., Lewis, T., Maheady, L.,
Rodriguez, J., Scheeler, M. C., Win, J., & Ziegler, D. (2017). High-leverage practices in special education.
Arlington, VA: Council for Exceptional Children and CEEDER Center.
Overall group arrangements when well designed and implemented can be effective, but for this to be the
case group work needs to be "highly structured, goal or task orientated.., include clear directions... and
recommend explicit strategies." McLeskey et al. (2017). Teachers may therefore need support in designing
excellent group activity.

How exible are the grouping arrangements in your school?
How will you ensure that all pupils receive high-quality teaching when different groups are doing
different tasks or require different teaching strategies?
How do you currently use pupil voice and other evidence to monitor the wider impact of any groupings
that you use on the engagement and motivation of pupils?
Improving practice
Leaders may nd the following practical guidance useful for supporting teachers' use of groups.
ATTAI NM E NT G R O U P I NG S E ND I N M AI NS TR E AM S CH O O L S
The EEF (2018) guidance includes examples of effective groupings and how to implement within-class
attainment grouping in your own school.
Education Endowment Foundation (2018). Toolkit: Within-class attainment grouping.
ATTAI NM E NT G R O U P I NG S E ND I N M AI NS TR E AM S CH O O L S
Recommendation 4 of the EEF (2020) guidance, Complement high quality teaching with carefully selected
small-group and one-to-one interventions explains how to use groups effectively to support progress for
children with SEN.
report.
Practice piece
6.i. Emphasising the need to maintain high expectations for all groups and ensuring all pupils have access
to a rich curriculum.
6.j. Ensuring that any groups based on attainment are subject speci c, avoiding the perception that these
groups are xed.
Audrey Douglas, senior assistant headteacher, The Green School for

Girls
Audrey works in a small academy trust with two schools. Her school is a faith school that draws pupils from
very diverse backgrounds, over 50 languages are spoken by the pupils. Audrey is responsible for teaching
and learning, and for training and staff continuous professional learning. In this piece she shares her
experience about grouping pupils.
Start with high expectations of all

–
Audrey explains that the school sets high expectations for all pupils from the start and that teachers deliver
lessons that are scaffolded, so all students can access the learning, and we place an emphasis on challenge
and stretch, so there are tasks and activities that really develop learners and motivate them to stretch their
learning further.
Plan grouping as you would a teaching plan

–
"It is also really important to look at students’ learning needs, the prior attainment data and the groups that
will support students in the context of what they are learning. Just as you would do when you are creating a
teaching plan, you need to think of the same thing when you are grouping the students. For instance, where
you are going to place an EAL student, so that is students with an additional language, students with SEND
and disadvantaged students. How do you want to place these students in your classroom, because they
should really be at the centre and the heart of the learning to maximise opportunities for those students to
succeed. You also want to think about the class culture that you are creating in your groups so that you are
making it accessible for all learners to learn, and creating that environment for all learners to participate, feel
con dent answering questions and asking questions, and collaborating with one another."
"You also want to consider the new groupings, the context, and the level of knowledge that some students
will have and to think whether you want to have groups where you are going to have students with a variety
of prior knowledge that they can share an exchange with one another. When creating these types of groups,
you always have to be very speci c about the roles that you want students to play in those groups, because
you want all learners to be active participants and not passive. So, you want to make sure of the roles that
you give to the students, and that you monitor that when you are overseeing those groups, that the students
are actively engaging and supporting one another, and they are all learning."
"For the past two years, students have had to work remotely and independently. It is really important, now
students have returned to school, that students have the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas and
discuss. Because students have been working in a very individual way. I think it is important that what you
create in your classrooms is a culture, where it is collaborative and students can work together, have that
opportunity to share and exchange ideas. Because, we all know as teachers, when we are planning, we
collaborate and often we get better ideas and more interesting outcomes for the lessons, and students work
exactly like that too. So, you need to make sure that you are planning for that type of collaboration."
"Right now, it is a really important thing to develop students as learners and for their lifelong learning as well
to be collaborators. And nally, a really interesting book to read on this topic is Graham Nuthall ‘s book ‘The
Hidden Lives of Learners’. As he rmly believes, a lot of what students remember from their learning is what
they are getting from their peers, and so setting up situations where they can collaborate and they can learn
from their peers is really important in the classroom as well. "
Students need to understand the level they are working at

–
"I think it is really important for students to understand the level they are working at in their subjects so,
they can interpret assessment criteria and understand why they are at that level and what they had to do to
improve. I think that is an important aspect of grouping, but also that students can then make sense of why
they may be grouped differently across different subjects and not always be expected to be at the same level
within every subject, because we may achieve more highly in some subjects than others and we may need
more support in some subjects than others . Likewise, I think feedback as an incredibly powerful motivational
tool to use with students, feed forward really provides that information for a student to look at the learning,
work out what they have done well, what they can improve on, what they feel proud of, what they can do next
and take the next steps in their learning. and I think when students understand that, when they understand
what their learning is about, then they understand more about the group setting situation."
O er opportunity to move groups
–
"In maths particularly groups are set, in maths and we are talking about whole class groups at this point,
there are points each half term when students can move within the groups and the subject."
Don't set all subjects

–
"Not all subjects are set at the school, so not all students will be grouped. Some schools use a mastery
method where all learners will be grouped not according to their attainment in the subject, but, according to
their ability in the subject, and they will be grouped like that, so you will not have a top set and lower set.
Everybody will be supported and scaffolded to access the learning through a mastery approach, and some
schools prefer that method."
Make groups flexible to improve collaboration

–
"I think it is really important that when you are creating groups that you have opportunities for students to
learn from different students, that you are not setting those groups. And it goes back to your seating plan as
well, that you need to revise that regularly, you need to look at the attainment data for students and compare
their progress. You need to look carefully at the needs of the students, SEND, EAL, disadvantaged students,
your high attainers and pupil premium students. You need to carefully think about all of that grouping all the
time, because it should be in ux, it should be exible, it should not be permanent, because we all change and
evolve through relearning, and you need to make sure that you recognise that in students, and you recognise
their achievements, or you see that someone needs more support, and you have to carefully think about
changing those groupings according to that."

Audrey referred to setting high expectations for all students from the start, how and when are high
expectations set in your school?
How are teachers in your school encouraged to think about and plan groups?
What is done in your school to help pupils understand the level they are working at, and what they
need to improve?
C O NT I NU E
Lesson 8 of 8
Expert practice
Interactive video case studies
Ally Chadwick, assistant headteacher, Morgans Primary School,

Hertford
This practice piece addresses the following framework statements:
academic or behavioural interventions that are well-matched to pupils’ needs before seeking a diagnosis
or specialist support.
20 minutes
NPQLT Adaptive Teaching Ally Chadwick.pdf
195.5 KB
Jane Bradley, senior lecturer, University of Chester and Lucy Lee,

headteacher, Durham Park School
groups rather than planning different lessons for different groups of pupils or taking pupils out of
classrooms for interventions during lessons.
25 minutes
NPQLT Adaptive Teaching Jane Bradley and Lucy Lee.pdf
195.4 KB
Audrey Douglas, senior assistant headteacher, The Green School for

Girls
6.i. Emphasising the need to maintain high expectations for all groups and ensuring all pupils have
access to a rich curriculum.
6.j. Ensuring that any groups based on attainment are subject speci c, avoiding the perception that
these groups are xed.
10 minutes
NPQLT Adaptive Teaching Audrey Douglas.pdf
161.2 KB
Written case studies
Lucy Lee, headteacher, Dorin Park School

20 minute read
NPQLT Adaptive Teaching Lucy Lee.pdf

181.7 KB

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NPQLT Adaptive teaching

This self study package focuses on NPQLT: 6 - Adaptive teaching

It requires approximately three hours of study.

Introduction to adaptive teaching

Supporting adaptive teaching

The SEND code of practice

Ensure all pupils experience success

Adapting teaching to different pupil needs

Meeting individual needs without creating unnecessary workload

Introduction to adaptive teaching

"what happens in the classroom makes the biggest

Learning intentions for this session

You will learn that:

You will learn how to:

Provide opportunities for all pupils to experience success by:

Support colleagues to adapt their teaching to different pupil needs by:

Supporting adaptive teaching

E ective teaching can transform pupils’ knowledge,

Study time: 15 minutes

providing an ambitious curriculum for all

having high expectations of behaviour for all

creating a positive, respectful culture where all pupils can learn

Children and Families Act 2014

DfE (2019) Early career framework

DfE (2011) Teachers' standards

DfE (2015) The SEND Code of Practice

EEF (2018) The Attainment Gap //2017

Ofsted (2019) Education Inspection Framework

Education Statistics Service (2021) Special educational needs in England (20/21)

Equality Act 2010

The SEND code of practice

Accepting diversity means having the same educative

Study time: 15 minutes

These should be borne in mind as we explore the Code.

Four areas of need

Children and young people

Some children and young

Support for learning

unique needs (e.g. arising from a combination of the above)”.

This approach might help teachers in adapting their teaching.

enabling children, young people and their parents to participate in decision-making

identifying the needs of children and young people

focusing on inclusive practices and removing barriers to learning

helping children and young people to prepare for adulthood

Meeting the requirements

the Local Offer

SEN support in schools

preparing for adulthood from the earliest years

education, health and care needs assessments and plans (EHCP)

Children and young people in speci c circumstances

Build ongoing, holistic understanding of your pupils and their needs.

Ensure all pupils have access to high quality teaching.

Work effectively with teaching assistants (TAs).

Perhaps most importantly they note that

DfE (2015) The SEND Code of Practice

Implications for practice

Which if any of the following misconceptions remain to be tackled in your school?

SEND is the sole responsibility of the SENCo