Teaching & Learning Framework
APPENDICES
Continuum & Pedagogical Approaches
ONE:
Developmental Continuum
How the continuum works:
We do it well
Developmental Stages
There are 4 stages.
Each practice within a standard is described across developmental levels (e.g., establishing → developing → embedded → lead).
We design purposeful learning and teach with clarity. Evidence of learning informs our pedagogical decisions, shapes responsive instruction, and supports the ongoing monitoring and improvement of student progress.
This is not a rating; it is a roadmap for growth with clear next steps.
Standard 7: Plan for progression
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
7.1 Set high expectations Communicates clear learning intentions and maintains consistent expectations for participation, effort, and completion of learning.
Creates a positive climate where effort is recognised and students are encouraged to complete and improve their learning
Frames learning as challenging and achievable for all, using structured support to ensure all student engage with ambitious learning
Promotes persistence and resilience, using feedback and routines to support students in improving their learning.
Sustains high challenge, adapting teaching responsively to remove barriers and ensure all students access and succeed in challenging, ambitious learning.
Builds a strong learning culture where effort, reflection, and refining learning are expected and valued, and students take increasing ownership of their progress.
Developmental Descriptors
For each practice, the continuum specifies what you will see teachers do at the different developmental stages (see 4b for more info)
Champions a culture of high expectations across teams, modelling how to maintain challenge while ensuring equity of access and success for every learner.
For each standard, the continuum specifies what students will be doing when practice is secure and consistently embedded. 6
Student Learning Indicators
Shapes and sustains a culture of excellence beyond the classroom, enabling colleagues to embed shared norms of highquality learning, reflection, and pride
Included to illustrate the impact of embedded practice.
Students: – attempt challenging tasks and engage with learning that stretches their thinking. – sustain effort, persist when learning is difficult, and continue working towards success. – take pride in improving their learning, using feedback to refine and develop their learning over time.
We love learning
We develop deep professional knowledge about our students, our disciplines, and how learning develops over time. We remain curious and design learning that responds to students’ thinking, readiness, interests and learning profiles, supporting learners to build understanding, meaning and purpose.
Standard 1: Engage in professional learning
1.1
Identify and plan professional learning goals
Identifies broad areas for development based on feedback, appraisal or school priorities.
Uses a range of evidence (e.g. student outcomes, feedback, observation) to identify specific areas for development.
Uses multiple sources of evidence to identify precise and focused priorities for improving teaching practice.
Models rigorous use of evidence to diagnose development priorities and supports others to do the same.
Not applicable
1.2
Participate in a continuous cycle of professional learning
Sets general professional learning goals, though links to student learning may be implicit.
Sets clear and specific goals linked to teaching practice and emerging student needs.
Sets precise, purposeful goals explicitly linked to student outcomes and learning priorities.
Models and supports others to set ambitious, evidence-informed goals linked to measurable student impact.
Participates in professional learning when directed and attempts to apply new ideas in practice.
Engages proactively in professional learning and applies new strategies with increasing consistency.
Selects and applies professional learning purposefully, adapting approaches to improve teaching.
Models sustained engagement in professional learning and supports others to apply learning effectively in practice.
Not applicable
Reflects on professional learning.
Reflects on the impact of new approaches and begins to identify what is working and why.
Evaluates the impact of practice using evidence and refines approaches over time to improve outcomes.
Leads reflective practice, using evidence to support ongoing improvement across individuals and teams.
2.1
Understand how students learn
Standard 2: Understand the student and how they learn
Establishing
Recognises attention and memory affect learning.
Recognises motivation affects engagement and learning.
Explains key features of memory systems, including the role of working memory and long-term memory, and explains how encoding, retrieval, and prior knowledge influence students’ understanding of new learning.
Understands the relationship between attention, working memory, long-term memory, and schema to support comprehension, meaning-making, and the potential for transfer across contexts.
Leads colleagues to develop and sustain a shared understanding of how attention, memory, cognitive load, and schema shape learning, using this understanding to guide collective instructional decision-making and improve transfer across contexts.
Notices when students struggle to learn or make limited progress.
Explains how emotion and self-efficacy influence students’ motivation and engagement in learning.
Analyses how motivation, emotion, and cognition interact to influence learning and performance.
Leads teams to implement shared, evidence-informed approaches that enhance student motivation, engagement, and learning.
Students: – can focus their attention and remember key ideas when learning new content. – remember what they have learned and use it again in new situations. – recognise when they don’t understand something and try different ways to improve their understanding. – use practice and feedback to improve what they know and correct their mistakes – stay engaged in learning and keep trying even when it feels challenging.
Explains basic cognitive explanations for struggle in learning (memory, attention, overload, prior knowledge, motivation)
Interprets patterns of misunderstanding to understand where and why breakdowns in learning occur.
Builds team capacity to identify and remove barriers to student learning.
2.2
Understand the diverse needs of students
Standard 2: Understand the student and how they learn
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Recognises typical physical, cognitive, social, and emotional developmental stages of students.
Explains how executive function, self-regulation, and prior experiences influence learning behaviours and outcomes
Recognises that students experience diverse needs, strengths, and challenges
2.3
Understand culturally responsive teaching (languages, cultures and identities)
Recognises that students bring diverse languages, cultures, and identities into the classroom.
Recognises that participation and communication may differ due to cultural and linguistic norms.
Explains the impact of neurodiversity, language proficiency, and additional learning needs on engagement and outcomes
Anticipates how developmental and experiential factors shape students’ engagement and understanding across a range of tasks in both virtual and physical learning contexts.
Describes student variability as dynamic and context dependent, shaped by task design and learning environments.
Builds shared understanding of developmental and contextual influences to support inclusive thinking across teams.
Supports teams to identify student needs and strengths and leverage digital tools to remove barriers for individuals and groups.
Students: – choose tasks, support, or ways of showing their learning that align with their strengths, needs, and ways of learning.
– adjust how they work when the task, environment, or group changes, knowing that what helps them learn can differ across both digital and physical situations. – plan, monitor, and adjust their learning strategies independently when a task becomes easier, harder, or different.
Avoids deficit-based assumptions and maintains high expectations for all learners.
Explains how cultural knowledge, home languages, and lived experiences can support engagement and understanding.
Explains how expectations, interactions, digital access, and task design can create advantage and disadvantage for students from different backgrounds
Explains how identity threats, bias, or exclusion can impact confidence, engagement, and achievement.
Identifies learning experiences that intentionally draw on students’ linguistic and cultural strengths to support access, challenge, and achievement.
Designs tasks, groupings, and communication structures that support equitable participation across languages and cultures.
Identifies cultural, linguistic, and systemic barriers that may limit equitable access to learning .
Leads practices that affirm identity and embed culturally sustaining approaches across curriculum design and classroom routines.
Leads teams to examine and redesign virtual and physical learning environments to better support culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
Leads professional reflection to remove structural (virtual, physical, and systemic) barriers and strengthen culturally responsive and equitable practice.
Students: – see their language, culture, and identity reflected in learning – collaborate with others in ways that respect how they communicate, collaborate, and learn. – participate confidently in learning because barriers linked to culture, language, or identity are recognised and addressed.
3.1
Understand the content, key concepts, patterns and relationships within and across subjects
Standard 3: Know the content and how to teach it
Establishing Developing Embedded
Uses accurate subject terminology and notation and defines key terms correctly, in student-friendly language.
Identifies the core concepts and big ideas in a topic.
Explains key terms with conceptual precision (what they mean and what they do not mean) and clarifies common misconceptions in language.
Explains the key concepts, relationships, patterns and connections that structure the topic and gives content meaning.
Uses consistent, accurate disciplinary language to strengthen meaning across related topics and explains why language choice matters for understanding.
Articulates the conceptual architecture across topics so understanding is coherent rather than fragmented.
Leading Student Learning Indicators
Builds shared disciplinary language, notation and conventions across a team to improve clarity and consistency.
3.2
Structure the content with logical sequence and coherence
Notices when student responses suggest recall or guessing rather than conceptual understanding and can state what “understanding” would look like beyond correct answers.
Identifies the required background knowledge and skills required for a topic, and the typical order in which ideas are introduced.
Interprets student work and talk to identify whether understanding is conceptual, partial or superficial, and names the likely misconceptions or barriers to learning.
Uses multiple forms of evidence (explanations, representations, reasoning, examples/nonexamples) to evaluate whether understanding is coherent and likely to transfer; justifies statements with examples of student work.
Explains dependencies (what must be secure first) and anticipates likely misconceptions if background knowledge is insecure.
Describes how key ideas connect and notices when learning becomes fragmented. Explains connections using accurate language and representations so students can see how ideas build over time.
Evaluates sequencing choices across a unit by mapping how conceptual and procedural complexity increases, and where consolidation is needed.
Articulates a coherent learning narrative across lessons so understanding develops as a whole rather than isolated parts.
Co-develops shared concept maps and progression narratives with colleagues to strengthen coherence within and, where relevant, across subjects.
Leads collaborative analysis/ moderation of student work to calibrate what counts as conceptual understanding (and transfer, where relevant), strengthening consistency across classes and themes.
Co-develops shared background knowledge maps and checkpoints with colleagues to strengthen progression across classes and, where relevant, across subjects.
Builds shared progression narratives that support coherence and consistency across teams.
Students: – use disciplinary language, notation, and representations to explain and justify thinking – make accurate connections across ideas and apply core concepts in unfamiliar contexts (showing conceptual transfer rather than rote recall).
– identify and correct misconceptions using evidence.
Students: – identify connections between ideas and articulate the bigger picture – connect prior learning to new learning to construct coherent lines of reasoning – sustain logical reasoning, avoiding fragmented steps or reliance on rote procedures without understanding.
3.3
Understand evidenceinformed teaching strategies
Standard 3: Know the content and how to teach it
Establishing Developing Embedded
Describes a core repertoire of evidenceinformed strategies and the learning they typically support. (e.g. inductive teaching, worked examples, guided practice, retrieval, examples/nonexamples)
Recognises different types of knowledge (e.g. factual, conceptual, procedural, or metacognitive) and how they contribute to conceptual understanding and transfer.
Explains why particular strategies work and when they are likely to be most effective (e.g. to reduce overload, strengthen memory, support a phase of learning)
Uses learning principles to evaluate tasks, scaffolds, resources, and technologies for strategy fit and cognitive demand, justifying decisions.
Builds shared understanding of how and why strategies work, developing common language and expertise across teams.
Student Learning Indicators
Students: – experience approaches that align with the learning goal – show increasing clarity and accuracy in explanations and performance. – demonstrate more secure understanding and fluency and can apply learning in new contexts.
3.4 Understand literacy and numeracy as foundational learning
Identifies key vocabulary, notations and symbols, and basic reading and writing demands, as well as where numeracy (units, scales, graphs, measures) matters.
Selects strategies that align to the knowledge type and student readiness, recognising when approaches may not support understanding.
Evaluates and combines strategies across a sequence, aligning knowledge type, cognitive demand, and phases of learning to support understanding and fluency.
Supports colleagues to make precise, evidence-informed decisions about strategy selection, co-developing shared guidance and exemplars that align strategies to knowledge types across subjects and phases.
Explains how language, text structures, representation and numeracy carry meaning in the discipline and anticipates common misunderstandings they can create.
Evaluates which literacy and numeracy demands are most essential in a unit and prioritises them for accuracy and clarity, distinguishing misunderstandings caused by language/ numeracy from conceptual misunderstanding.
Notices when misconceptions may be driven by language, or numeracy barriers rather than conceptual misunderstanding.
Uses student dialogue and writing to interpret whether the barriers to learning are generated by literacy and numeracy gaps.
Analyses patterns across learners to identify recurring literacy and numeracy barriers and refines support accordingly.
Co-develops shared disciplinary literacy and numeracy expectations and exemplars to improve coherence across classes and subjects.
Students: – interpret texts and data accurately. – use academic language, notation and quantitative representations to communicate understanding – reason clearly within and across subjects.
Supports colleagues to diagnose barriers consistently and to strengthen disciplinary literacy and numeracy across their team.
We lead with heart
We cultivate safe, caring and inclusive learning environments where every student feels seen, valued and supported. We prioritise wellbeing, respond with compassion, and build trusting relationships that enable students to flourish both personally and academically.
Standard 4: Create supportive and safe learning environment
4.1
Build positive, and respectful relationships
Uses polite, respectful language and appropriate tone with students.
Shows some awareness of students’ needs, interests or backgrounds.
Responds to students in a fair and consistent way.
Demonstrates warmth and consistency in interactions, building rapport with most students.
Uses knowledge of students to shape interactions and support engagement.
Maintains consistent expectations and responses, contributing to a sense of fairness.
Builds strong, respectful relationships with students, characterised by trust and consistency.
Demonstrates deep understanding of students and uses this to inform teaching and relationships.
Builds trust through consistent, fair and predictable interactions, including repairing relationships when needed.
Models highquality relational practice and supports others to strengthen relationships with students.
Supports others to develop meaningful understanding of students and apply this to practice.
Contributes to a culture of trust and respect across the classroom, team or school.
Students: – feel respected, valued and known as individuals – build trusting relationships with their teacher and peers – show confidence to participate and engage in learning
4.2
Develop social and emotional competence
Recognises when students may be experiencing difficulty managing emotions.
Reinforces basic expectations for behaviour and interaction.
Encourages students to persist when learning is challenging.
Responds to students’ emotional needs with appropriate support and guidance.
Encourages respectful behaviour and supports students to interact positively.
Supports students to develop strategies to manage challenge and setbacks.
Proactively supports students to manage emotions and remain ready to learn.
Develops a classroom culture where positive behaviour and interactions are embedded.
Explicitly teaches and reinforces strategies for resilience and self-regulation.
Models and supports approaches that develop emotional regulation across the classroom or team.
Supports others to establish consistent approaches to behaviour and interaction.
Leads or contributes to approaches that strengthen resilience and self-regulation across the school.
Students: – manage emotions and behaviour to support learning – interact positively and respectfully with others – persist with challenge and respond constructively to difficulty
4.3
Establish routines that maximise engagement
Standard 4: Create supportive and safe learning environment
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Establishes basic routines and communicates expectations for behaviour and learning.
4.4
Promote risk-taking through psychological safety
Manages transitions with some structure, though consistency may vary.
Responds to offtask behaviour as it arises.
Uses consistent routines and expectations across virtual and physical contexts to support organisation, transitions, and sustained engagement.
Uses routines to manage transitions more smoothly and reduce lost learning time.
Anticipates and reduces disruption through clear expectations and routines in virtual and physical environments.
Responds to student contributions, including errors, without judgement.
Uses language and responses that normalise mistakes as part of learning.
Embeds clear and efficient routines that maximise learning time, ensure smooth transitions, and sustain high levels of engagement.
Ensures transitions are efficient and purposeful, maintaining momentum in learning.
Creates a calm, focused and purposeful learning environment where engagement is sustained.
Builds a classroom climate where students feel safe to share ideas, ask questions and make mistakes.
Supports others to establish and refine routines that maximise engagement.
Provides opportunities for students to attempt unfamiliar or challenging tasks.
4.5 Ensure equitable engagement where all voices are valued Provides opportunities for different students to contribute.
Responds respectfully to student contributions.
Notices when some students participate more than others.
Encourages students to try different approaches and explain their thinking.
Uses strategies to increase participation from a wider range of students.
Builds on student responses to extend thinking.
Begins to address imbalances in participation.
Designs learning that requires sustained thinking, exploration and justification.
Models and supports effective management of classroom flow across teams.
Contributes to consistent approaches that support engagement across the school.
Models and supports approaches that build and sustain psychological safety across classrooms, virtual spaces, and teams.
Leads or supports approaches that embed intellectual risk-taking within learning design.
Students: – understand and follow routines that support learning – remain focused and engaged for sustained periods – transition smoothly between tasks with minimal disruption
Students: – feel safe to share ideas, ask questions and make mistakes – demonstrate intellectual confidence by taking risks with their contributions and sharing their views in relation to evidence – demonstrate the ability to be agile, abandoning ideas and adopting new ones
Structures participation so all students are expected and supported to contribute.
Ensures contributions are valued and used to deepen learning across the class.
Actively monitors and adjusts practice to ensure equitable participation.
Supports others to develop inclusive participation strategies.
Promotes a culture where all contributions are recognised and built upon.
Uses evidence to support equitable participation across teams or settings.
Students: – have regular opportunities to think, contribute and be heard – feel their ideas are valued and built upon – participate in increasingly balanced and inclusive ways
5.1
Champion the fundamental right of every student to be known, valued and treated with dignity and inherent worth.
Standard 5: Act with unconditional positive regard
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Acknowledges students positively
5.2
Cultivate a sustained sense of belonging through consistent, safe and respectful relationships.
Uses respectful language, tone, and non-verbal communication with all students.
Uses interactions that combine care with high expectations.
Responds to student contributions in ways that affirm effort and thinking.
Builds trust through consistent, fair interactions that establish a predictable and respectful classroom climate.
Uses knowledge of students (interests, needs, backgrounds) to shape interactions and engagement.
Supports colleagues to develop consistent, respectful, high-expectation interactions.
Models relational practice through coaching or demonstration.
Students: – interact respectfully with the teacher and peers, using appropriate language and behaviour.
– contribute willingly during learning, showing trust in the classroom environment.
– demonstrate a sense of belonging by engaging positively and responding constructively to feedback.
Checks for understanding and basic wellbeing during learning.
Anticipates points of challenge and provides scaffolds (cognitive and emotional).
5.3
Embed a strengthsbased approach that elevates student voice, agency and growth.
Provides reassurance or clarification when students demonstrate frustration or disengagement.
Encourages students to contribute and recognises effort and participation.
Uses language that normalises effort, challenge, and struggle.
Calibrates challenges and support to maintain engagement and confidence.
Supports colleagues to balance high challenge with appropriate support.
Uses routines and prompts that support focus, regulation, and perseverance.
Shares strategies with colleagues that maintain both wellbeing and cognitive demand.
Students: – remain engaged and persist when learning becomes challenging.
– seek support appropriately and use feedback to improve their work. – demonstrate emotional regulation, maintaining focus and readiness to learn.
Uses strategies to promote student voice and builds on student ideas during learning.
Creates opportunities for students to take ownership of learning, make choices and reflect on progress.
Models and promotes emotionally intelligent practice across teams. Supports colleagues to maintain calm, consistent responses that enable wellbeing and high performance.
Students: – follow classroom routines independently and consistently. – transition efficiently between tasks with minimal disruption. – maintain focus and contribute to a calm, purposeful learning environment.
5.4
Model a calm, responsive presence that fosters student wellbeing and relational trust
Standard 5: Act with unconditional positive regard
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Maintains a calm tone and controlled body language during interactions, responding to low-level disruption without escalation.
Responds to student emotions and behaviour in ways that reduce anxiety and maintain dignity, using language that supports regulation and encourages reengagement.
Sustains a calm, responsive presence during uncertainty, challenge, or escalation, rebuilding trust and supporting students to recover, reengage, and persist with learning.
Models and promotes emotionally intelligent practice across teams.
Students: – remain calm and regulated, even when tasks are challenging or situations escalate.
– re-engage with learning quickly following correction, feedback, or disruption.
– seek support and respond positively to adult guidance, showing trust in the classroom environment.
6.1
Standard 6: Uphold professional ethics and conduct
Establishing Developing Embedded
Demonstrate professional integrity and ethical judgment Understands and follows professional codes of conduct, school policies, and legal requirements.
Recognises situations that require ethical consideration or discretion.
Explains ethical responsibilities related to confidentiality, respectful relationships, and professional boundaries. Consistently applies ethical judgment in decision-making, particularly in complex or sensitive situations.
Explains how professional judgment is informed by ethical principles, policy expectations, and the best interests of students.
Maintains appropriate professional boundaries with students, colleagues, and families.
6.2
Maintain professional boundaries across all learning environments
Maintains clear and appropriate professional boundaries in physical, emotional, and digital interactions with students.
Explains how trust is built and sustained through honesty, consistency, and ethical interactions.
Balances competing demands by making transparent, reasoned decisions grounded in professional values and student wellbeing.
Demonstrates professional discretion and integrity when communicating, documenting, and responding to concerns.
Explains how professional boundaries support student safety, trust, and respectful learning relationships. Exercises professional judgment to manage boundaries in complex, emotionally demanding, or ambiguous situations across virtual and physical learning environments.
Models professional integrity and supports others to interpret and apply ethical standards in their practice.
Leads ethical decision-making by mentoring others and fostering shared accountability for professional standards.
Leads a culture of trust by promoting ethical relationships, respectful communication, and accountability across the school community.
Strengthens shared understanding of professional boundaries by supporting others to reflect on practice and prevent boundary erosion.
Student Learning Indicators
Students: – ask questions, share concerns, and seek help from adults.
– participate confidently and take risks in learning.
– experience fair and consistent treatment from adults.
– access learning and support without barriers to participation.
– feel safe and protected through clear boundaries and safeguarding practices.
Uses professional language, tone, and conduct across all communication and learning environments, including digital platforms.
Explains how informal, digital, or extended interactions can blur boundaries and create ethical risks. Applies discernment to maintain appropriate boundaries across varied communication modes, platforms, and learning contexts.
Guides others to maintain clear, consistent, and professional communication practices across evolving learning environments.
Students: – feel safe and respected because adults maintain clear, appropriate, and professional boundaries at all times.
– feel safe at school because adults notice risks, respond to concerns, and act to protect their wellbeing across all learning environments.
6.3
Standard 6: Uphold professional ethics and conduct
Establishing Developing Embedded
Promote equity, diversity, and social justice Provides equitable access by maintaining high expectations for all students and using approved adjustments and supports to ensure fair participation and learning opportunities.
Explains and applies equity principles, recognising that students experience different barriers and may require varied supports to participate and succeed.
Analyses patterns of access, engagement, and outcomes, intentionally designing learning and assessment to remove barriers and improve equity for individuals and groups
Leads equitable practice by supporting colleagues to identify systemic barriers, use evidence to address inequity, and strengthen equitable access and success across the school.
Students: – have fair access to learning, support, and success because barriers to participation and achievement are recognised and addressed. – feel respected and valued and are supported to engage with diverse perspectives and experiences.
Demonstrates respect for diversity by using inclusive language, avoiding deficit-based assumptions, and responding appropriately to discriminatory behaviour.
Explains how bias and exclusion affect students, addressing stereotypes, assumptions, or unfair treatment when they arise.
Intentionally integrates diverse perspectives into curriculum and classroom dialogue, supporting students to engage respectfully and critically with difference.
Leads inclusive practice by guiding colleagues to reflect on bias, challenge exclusionary practices, and embed diversity and inclusion across curriculum and culture.
6.4 Meet professional statutory and regulatory responsibilities Meets mandatory child safety, duty of care, and reporting requirements in line with law, policy, and role expectations.
Demonstrates clear understanding of statutory and regulatory responsibilities and applies required procedures, documentation, and reporting processes accurately and consistently.
Acts proactively to identify concerns, record actions, and follow safeguarding, reporting, and regulatory processes within required timeframes, managing ongoing compliance confidently.
Leads compliant practice by strengthening systems, supporting colleagues, and promoting shared accountability for statutory, regulatory, and child safety obligations across the organisation.
Students: – feel protected because adults consistently follow laws and procedures that are designed to keep them safe.
We do it well
We design purposeful learning and teach with clarity. Evidence of learning informs our pedagogical decisions, shapes responsive instruction, and supports the ongoing monitoring and improvement of student progress.
Standard 7: Plan for progression
7.1
Set high expectations
Communicates clear learning intentions and maintains consistent expectations for participation, effort, and completion of learning.
Creates a positive climate where effort is recognised and students are encouraged to complete and improve their learning
Frames learning as challenging and achievable for all, using structured support to ensure all student engage with ambitious learning
Sustains high challenge, adapting teaching responsively to remove barriers and ensure all students access and succeed in challenging, ambitious learning.
Promotes persistence and resilience, using feedback and routines to support students in improving their learning.
7.2
Plan with intent (knowledge, skills, dispositions)
Identifies the intended knowledge and skills for learning and references relevant dispositions where appropriate.
Chooses learning tasks that broadly relate to the intended learning.
Specifies learning intentions across knowledge, skills and dispositions and makes the purpose of learning explicit.
Builds a strong learning culture where effort, reflection, and refining learning are expected and valued, and students take increasing ownership of their progress.
Articulates the essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions that underpin learning, ensuring clarity and shared understanding.
Champions a culture of high expectations across teams, modelling how to maintain challenge while ensuring equity of access and success for every learner.
Shapes and sustains a culture of excellence beyond the classroom, enabling colleagues to embed shared norms of highquality learning, reflection, and pride
Co-develops shared language and exemplars for learning intent (knowledge, skills, dispositions) across teams and phases.
Students: – attempt challenging tasks and engage with learning that stretches their thinking. – sustain effort, persist when learning is difficult, and continue working towards success.
– take pride in improving their learning, using feedback to refine and develop their learning over time.
Aligns tasks and checks for understanding to the intent and identifies what evidence will show progress.
Designs coherent sequences of tasks and assessment that are tightly aligned to learning intent, generating valid evidence of explanation, reasoning, and application.
Supports colleagues to strengthen alignment through shared planning, moderation, and review of evidence.
Students: – articulate what they are learning (knowledge and skills), why it matters, and what quality looks like.
– demonstrate growing capability and positive learning dispositions aligned to the intent.
7.3
Ensure new learning connects to prior knowledge
Standard 7: Plan for progression
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Identifies likely background knowledge and plans simple ways to activate it.
Uses diagnostics to check prior learning and adjusts the starting point when background knowledge is insecure.
Anticipates common misconceptions and uses prompts to reveal them.
Encourages students to make links to what they already know.
Plans explicit bridges from prior knowledge to new learning using representations, examples/nonexamples, and comparison, identifying where misconceptions may arise.
Uses evidence of prior knowledge to precisely determine starting points, ensuring learning builds from secure foundations and addresses gaps.
Designs sequences that diagnose and address misconceptions, using representations, comparison, and consolidation to refine understanding and strengthen accurate connections over time.
Maps key knowledge across the curriculum with colleagues, strengthening coherence and shared understanding across classes and teams.
Co-develops shared misconception banks and bridging strategies, ensuring consistent approaches to diagnosing and addressing misconceptions across the team.
Plans tasks that require students to connect prior and new learning in explanations and reasoning.
7.4
Design learning that develops increasingly complex thinking through progression from surface to deep and transfer.
Plans essential knowledge and procedures, enabling students to identify, recall, and describe key information.
Designs learning that supports students to explain ideas and begin to give reasons for their thinking.
Uses modelling and guided practice to enable students to recall, use, and demonstrate knowledge accurately.
Designs tasks that enable students to explain, connect, and organise ideas and begin to justify their thinking.
Designs prior knowledge tasks that reveal students’ accuracy, understanding, and flexibility, enabling precise connections to new learning.
Designs sequences that enable students to retrieve, apply, and use knowledge fluently to support thinking.
Designs sequences that enable students to analyse, compare, and justify ideas using clear and coherent reasoning.
Plans opportunities for students to apply knowledge and methods in familiar contexts.
Designs learning that enables students to apply and adapt knowledge in varied contexts with support. Designs learning that enables students to apply, select, and use knowledge independently in unfamiliar contexts.
Supports crossunit and, where relevant, crosssubject coherence, so students develop connected knowledge across contexts.
Supports colleagues to design learning that enables all students to retrieve and use knowledge fluently and flexibly across contexts.
Supports colleagues to design learning that enables students to evaluate, justify, and refine their thinking across subjects and contexts.
Supports colleagues to design learning that enables students to solve problems, create ideas, and make informed decisions across subjects and contexts.
Students: – routinely connects new learning to relevant prior knowledge.
– recognise and correct misconceptions. – use prior learning to access new ideas with increasing independence. – actively seek connections beyond the subject being studied.
Students: – retrieve and use knowledge fluently to support thinking (Surface) – explain, justify, and evaluate their thinking (Deep) – apply and adapt knowledge in unfamiliar contexts (Transfer) – solve problems and make decisions using reasoning and creativity (Transfer)
7.5
Secure learning through spaced retrieval and practice.
Standard 7: Plan for progression
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Includes review of previously taught learning.
Plans opportunities for students to revisit previously learned knowledge.
Plans spaced review and retrieval opportunities so learning begins to be retained over time.
Designs sequences that incorporate spaced and interleaved retrieval and application to secure durable learning and enable transfer.
Plans opportunities for students to recall and use knowledge over time to strengthen retention.
Designs learning that ensures knowledge is retained, fluently recalled, and applied flexibly over time.
Develops shared routines and curriculum-wide approaches for retrieval and application, using evidence to ensure learning is retained and transferable over time.
Supports colleagues to design curriculum and routines that ensure knowledge is durable, fluent, and transferable across subjects and phases.
Students: – remember and retrieve previously learned knowledge with increasing accuracy and fluency over time – apply knowledge and skills confidently across different contexts, subjects and phases of learning – demonstrate durable understanding by connecting prior learning to new learning and using it independently in unfamiliar situations
8.1
Develop learning intentions and success criteria
Standard 8: Implement high impact strategies for cognitive engagement
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Develops clear learning intentions that identify what students are expected to learn, aligned to curriculum outcomes.
Develops success criteria that describes what successful learning looks like in relation to the learning intention.
Explains learning intentions so students understand the purpose and focus of learning, not just the task.
8.2
Use structured and inclusive questioning strategies
Asks questions aligned to the learning intention that focus on key ideas or knowledge.
Deconstructs success criteria into student-accessible language and uses it to support understanding and assessment.
Designs clear learning intentions that define what learners will learn, align with the curriculum, are not task-specific, and are made explicit with students.
Communicates and, where appropriate, co-constructs success criteria, supported by worked examples, to guide teaching decisions, feedback, and student self-monitoring.
Uses a range of question types to prompt recall, explanation or reasoning, depending on the learning purpose.
Leads shared understanding of effective learning intentions by supporting others to align curriculum intent, pedagogy, and assessment.
Leads purposeful and consistent use of success criteria to strengthen assessment, feedback practices, and student ownership of learning.
Students: – understand what they are learning and why it matters – explain their learning using appropriate language, examples, or connections – know what successful learning looks like – use success criteria to guide, check, and refine their work – identify and act on next steps to improve their learning using success criteria and feedback
Plans and sequences questions that progressively deepen thinking and make connections to the learning intention.
8.3
Apply metacognitive strategies
Uses simple structures such as think time or wait time to support student readiness to respond.
Models thinking through simple think-alouds and supports students to begin to plan and check their thinking during tasks.
Introduces simple strategies and models how to use them to approach tasks.
Applies structured routines (e.g. think–pair–share) to increase participation.
Selects and adapts structures to ensure all students think, respond, and contribute.
Leads shared practice in designing high-quality questions that surface student thinking, reveal misconceptions, and deepen learning across contexts.
Builds consistent inclusive questioning practices that maximise participation across contexts.
Uses scaffolds and questioning to support students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking, identifying simple improvements.
Explicitly teaches strategies, including when and why to use them, supporting students to select and use strategies with guidance.
Designs learning that requires students to monitor, evaluate, and adapt their thinking independently using evidence.
Designs learning that requires students to select, justify, and adapt strategies in relation to the task.
Leads consistent approaches that develop selfregulated learners who plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking across contexts.
Leads shared practice in developing strategic learners who select, use, and refine strategies effectively across subjects.
Students: – respond to questions by explaining and justifying their thinking – build on, challenge, or respond to the ideas of others during discussion – use thinking time to prepare clear and considered responses – contribute consistently within structured questioning and discussion routines
Students: – plan their approach by selecting strategies appropriate to the task – monitor and adjust strategies during learning – justify their strategy choices in relation to the task – evaluate and adapt their approach to improve outcomes
8.4
Adapt teaching responsively to provide support and stretch, ensuring challenge for all
Standard 8: Implement high impact strategies for cognitive engagement
Establishing Developing Embedded Leading Student Learning Indicators
Notices how students are responding to learning, including difficulty, secure understanding, and readiness for challenge.
Adapts support in response to how students are engaging with learning.
Uses questioning and observation to identify when students need additional support or increased challenge.
8.5
Promote productive struggle and perseverance in challenging work
Provides opportunities for students to attempt solutions independently, using prompts to support thinking.
Normalises struggle and positions effort as part of learning.
Adjusts teaching to provide timely support and appropriate challenge
Recognises variability in readiness and adapts teaching to ensure all students can access and engage with the same ambitious learning.
Designs and adapts teaching through variation in explanation, questioning, scaffolds, pacing, and use of tools to maintain access and challenge.
Designs tasks that require sustained thinking, ensuring all students engage with challenge.
Designs and sequences learning that embeds productive struggle, enabling sustained thinking and successful outcomes.
Uses consistent language, routines, and expectations that promote persistence.
8.6
Facilitate purposeful collaboration and peer learning
Provides opportunities for students to work collaboratively.
Structures collaboration through defined roles, tasks, or prompts to support participation and discussion.
Intentionally plans for productive struggle, using questioning, routines, and feedback to develop independence and sustained effort.
Designs collaborative tasks where students work interdependently to explain, justify, and refine ideas, using interaction to deepen thinking.
Supports colleagues to use evidence to make precise decisions about challenge, support, and strategy, ensuring all learners work towards common ambitious goals.
Supports colleagues to design and adapt teaching across sequences, ensuring consistent challenge, support, and access for all students
Supports colleagues to design and sequence learning that consistently embeds productive struggle and sustained cognitive challenge.
Supports colleagues to embed shared expectations around perseverance, challenge, and effort across contexts.
Supports colleagues to design and implement collaborative learning that consistently develops shared reasoning, problem solving, and coconstruction of understanding.
Students: – engage with the same ambitious learning through appropriate support and challenge – use scaffolds, models, and resources to access learning when needed – adjust their approach in response to support and challenge – work with increasing independence as support is reduced
Students: – persevere when work is challenging and do not give up quickly. – try alternative approaches when initial attempts are unsuccessful. – demonstrate resilience by sustaining effort and improving outcomes over time.
Sets clear expectations for behaviour and participation during group work.
Uses structured questioning and prompts to support students to explain ideas and respond to others.
Designs and directs purposeful dialogue where students build on, challenge, and refine ideas through reasoning.
Develops shared approaches to high-quality dialogue, enabling consistent use of talk to develop thinking across contexts.
Students: – articulate the benefits of collaborating and involving others when working. – explain their thinking and respond constructively to the ideas of others. – build on, challenge, and refine ideas through discussion.
9.1
Design and implement assessments aligned to learning intentions and success criteria
Standard 9: Use assessment to gather evidence, provide feedback, and adapt teaching
Designs assessment tasks that align with the learning intention.
Selects or adapts assessment tasks that require students to demonstrate the intended learning rather than task completion alone. Designs assessment tasks that make learning visible to students and support them to understand what quality learning looks like.
Uses success criteria to review student work in relation to the learning intention.
Uses success criteria to highlight strengths and areas for improvement in student work.
9.2
Orchestrate effective discussions, questions and tasks that elicit evidence
Uses tasks, questions, or discussion to check students’ understanding.
Plans tasks, questions, and discussion that prompt students to explain ideas, show working, or give reasons.
Uses success criteria to help students recognise quality in their own and others’ work and reflect on their learning.
Designs tasks, questions, and structured discussion that consistently reveal student thinking, reasoning, and misconceptions.
Leads assessment design practices that strengthen alignment between learning intentions, success criteria, and opportunities for students to demonstrate and reflect on their learning.
Leads shared assessment practices that enable students to use success criteria independently to evaluate and improve their learning over time.
Leads shared practice in designing and using tasks, questions, and discussion that reliably elicit evidence of learning and inform teaching across contexts.
Students: – demonstrate what they have learned in relation to the learning intention – explain how their work meets the success criteria – identify strengths and areas for improvement using success criteria – use success criteria to improve the quality of their work
9.3
Measure progress and adapt teaching in response to evidence
Uses questioning and simple checks to gauge understanding.
Uses a range of evidence (e.g. questioning, work, discussion) to identify gaps and misconceptions in learning.
Interprets patterns in evidence across the class to diagnose understanding and inform precise adjustments to teaching.
Supports colleagues to interpret assessment evidence accurately and use it to inform responsive teaching across contexts.
Students: – make their thinking visible through tasks, questions, and discussion. – demonstrate what they understand and where they need further support. – explain, compare, and refine their thinking in response to questioning and discussion.
Students: – demonstrate improved understanding following reteaching or adjusted instruction – produce more accurate or complete responses over time – apply learning securely following targeted support or challenge – show increased independence as misconceptions are addressed
Standard 9: Use assessment to gather evidence, provide feedback, and adapt teaching
9.4
Provide feedback that moves learning forward Provides feedback that identifies successes and misconceptions.
9.5
Mark and moderate student work to ensure accurate assessments
9.6
Support students to self-assess and monitor their learning
Marks work in line with agreed criteria or guidance.
Provides clear, specific feedback that prompts students to think and respond.
Asks students to review their work against simple criteria.
Applies assessment criteria consistently to judge the quality of student work.
Uses feedback precisely to extend learning and thinking, ensuring students act on feedback to refine, improve, and deepen their work.
Provides prompts to help students identify strengths and areas for improvement.
Teaches students how to assess their work using success criteria or models.
Applies assessment criteria consistently and uses moderation to check, refine, and calibrate judgements across classes or groups.
Supports colleagues to design and deliver high-impact feedback that ensures students consistently act on feedback to improve learning.
Students: – act on feedback to improve the quality of their work.
– explain how feedback has informed changes to their work or thinking.
– refine and develop their work and thinking over time in response to feedback.
Leads moderation processes and develops shared exemplars and standards to ensure consistent and accurate assessment across teams.
Not applicable
Prompts students to reflect on their learning and identify next steps.
Embeds routines where students regularly monitor and evaluate their learning.
Supports colleagues to develop student selfregulation and metacognition.
Students: – identify strengths and areas for improvement in their work.
– set goals and take steps to improve their learning.
– monitor their progress and adjust strategies independently.
Supports students to set goals and adapt strategies based on reflection.
Develops shared approaches to self-assessment across subjects or teams.
We are a team
We work collaboratively to strengthen learning across our classrooms, schools and communities. We communicate openly, share responsibility for student success, and contribute to a culture of trust, reflection and continuous improvement. Through strong partnerships with colleagues, families and the wider community, we support the wellbeing, growth and achievement of every student.
Standard 10: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers, and the community Establishing
10.1
Communicate effectively
Shares required information using basic professional communication, with variable clarity or audience awareness.
Communicates clearly in familiar contexts, adapting language and format in line with school protocols.
10.2
Engage with the parents/ carers
Responds to communication inconsistently and may require prompting to follow up.
Engages with parents/carers when directed or in response to specific situations.
Responds within expected timeframes and follows up when prompted.
Communicates clearly, respectfully, and purposefully, adapting communication to audience, context, and intent.
Models and promotes effective communication practices, supporting colleagues to refine clarity, tone, and impact.
Not applicable
Shares information about student learning and/or wellbeing when required.
Maintains respectful relationships through regular, appropriate communication.
Responds promptly, follows through reliably, and anticipates communication needs.
Actively builds and sustains constructive partnerships to support student learning and wellbeing
Establishes and supports consistent communication practices that enhance team reliability and responsiveness.
Communicates about progress and responds appropriately to parent/carer concerns.
Collaborates proactively with parents/carers to support student learning and wellbeing.
Models and supports effective parent/carer engagement practices across the school.
Builds collective capability by sharing strategies that strengthen parent/carer partnerships and improve outcomes.
Not applicable
10.3
Actively contribute to the wider educational setting
Standard
10:
Engage
professionally with colleagues, parents/carers, and the community
Participates in required school activities and meetings.
Contributes ideas and supports agreed team or school initiatives.
Contributes professional expertise to improve team and school practices.
Influences professional practice by sharing expertise within and beyond the school.
Not applicable
Demonstrates awareness of the broader school context.
10.4
Collaborate with colleagues to strengthen teaching and learning Works cooperatively with colleagues when directed.
Participates in wider school activities when invited.
Collaborates willingly, sharing ideas, resources, and approaches.
Contributes meaningfully to cross-team and whole-school initiatives.
Actively seeks and uses feedback and evidence to improve practice collaboratively.
Actively fosters and sustains collegial engagement across the school community.
Models and enables effective collaborative practices that improve collective outcomes with colleagues and across their professional learning network.
Not applicable
APPENDIX TWO:
Core pedagogical approaches
This section sets out evidence-informed approaches that underpin the standards outlined in section 2 and 3 and which are linked to teaching across developmental phases, subjects and contexts. The core pedagogical approaches describe how teachers achieve the standards through evidence- informed methods, strategies and instructional routines. This section bridges theory and practice: it connects the definition of high-impact teaching and learning in Section 2 with the developmental standards and the continuum in Section 3.
Links to the Standards
Over the following pages, we describe the ten approaches that this framework sets, together with the links to the standards and continuum in Sections 2 & 3.
Teacher Reflective Questions
Each approach description is accompanied by teacher reflective questions, aligned with practices.
Literature anchors
Each of the pedagogical approaches is supported by two pieces of literature– one that outlines the WHY of the approach and a second one more practical, underlining HOW teachers can master the approach.
Description
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 1:
adults learn continuously to improve student learning
High-impact teaching improves through sustained professional learning: goal setting anchored in student-learning, disciplined cycles of trying and refining practice, and collaboration that builds shared expertise. Professional learning is not an event but an ongoing habit of inquiry – using evidence, feedback and reflection to strengthen practice over time.
Literature Anchors
Literature
Hattie, John. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Routledge, 2012
Teacher Reflective Questions Engage in professional learning
Which aspect of student learning most needs to improve, and what evidence makes this is right priority of my professional learning goal?
What will I try next, what evidence will I gather, and when will I review impact and refine?
Who will I learn with, and how will we use shared evidence to improve consistency?
How literature links to the approach
This text underpins the principle that professional learning should be driven by its impact on student learning. Hattie emphasises the importance of teachers evaluating the effectiveness of their practice through evidence, feedback and reflection, supporting the framework’s focus on continuous improvement. Wiliam, Dylan. Embedded Formative Assessment. Solution Tree, 2018.
This provides practical approaches for improving teaching through small changes embedded within everyday classroom practice. The text supports the framework’s emphasis on improvement, responsive teaching, and the use of evidence to refine practice over time.
Description
Learning accelerates when we understand how students learn
Learning is shaped by prior understanding and misconceptions, attention and memory, motivation and emotion, and patterns in student variability. Teachers’ understanding becomes visible through accurate interpretation of evidence of students’ thinking, distinguishing misunderstanding from missing background knowledge, overload, or disengagement, so support is equitable and responsive across cultures, identities and contexts. Over time students build and strengthen the mental models and underlying neural connections that make new thinking possible.
Literature Anchors
Literature
Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why don’t students like school? A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom. Jossey Bass.
Agarwal, P. K. (n.d.). Retrieval practice: Unleash the science of learning. RetrievalPractice.org. https://www.retrievalpractice.org
Understand the student and how they learn
Teacher Reflective Questions
What does the evidence suggest is the main barrier to learning right now, and what makes you state that?
What patterns of need are emerging across groups of students (language, confidence, SEND, prior gaps), and what would equitable access look like?
Whose identities, languages and perspectives are visible and valued in my class, and who might be marginalised by materials norms or task demands?
How literature links to the approach
Drawing on cognitive psychology, Daniel Willingham explains that learning is shaped by the interaction of attention, working memory, long-term memory, and prior knowledge. He highlights that students learn most effectively when teaching is designed to support successful thinking, as “memory is the residue of thought,” and that secure knowledge enables deeper understanding and problem-solving
RetrievalPractice.org provides practical, evidencebased strategies that translate cognitive science into classroom routines, enabling teachers to design learning that strengthens memory, builds prior knowledge, and makes student thinking visible.
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 3:
Learning becomes transferrable when expertise guides teaching
Description
Disciplinary expertise supports both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency: teachers know the key ideas, patterns and relationships that give content meaning, and the foundations that enable accurate, confident application of learning. This expertise becomes visible when teachers articulate the conceptual spine of a topic and how ideas connect and build over time, judge what counts as secure understanding and transfer, and interpret student explanations, representations and performance with precision. This includes knowing which evidence-informed approaches best fit different knowledge goals, and recognising the literacy and numeracy demands through which disciplinary meaning is expressed.
Literature Anchors
Literature
Coe, Robert, Cesare Aloisi, Steve Higgins, and Lee Elliot Major. What Makes Great Teaching?
Review of the Underpinning Research. Sutton Trust, 2014.
Erickson, H. Lynn, Lois A. Lanning, and Rachel French. Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom. 2nd ed., Corwin, 2017.
Teacher Reflective Questions Know the content & how to teach it
What is the surface – deep – transfer learning spine of this unit and what would secure understanding and fluency look like?
What prerequisites and dependencies matter most for coherence, and where do students typically struggle conceptually and procedurally?
Which evidence-informed pedagogical approach best fits the knowledge goal (factual/conceptual/ procedural/metacognitive)?
What literacy and numeracy demands are essential for meaning and accuracy, and what evidence would show students can communicate understanding?
How literature links to the approach
Highlights pedagogical content knowledge and teacher quality as key contributors to student learning, supporting the need for deep disciplinary expertise, careful interpretation of student thinking, and strategic instructional choices.
Shows how disciplinary expertise is made transferable: teachers identify the conceptual spine (key concepts, patterns, relationships), build coherent understanding, and look for evidence of transfer: students explaining, justifying and applying ideas beyond recall.
Description
Students thrive when they feel safe, seen, and heard
Students think, participate, and persevere when classrooms are safe, caring, and predictable. Relationships, routines and psychological safety support intellectual risk-taking, while equitable engagement ensures every voice matters. These conditions are not “nice to have”, they are necessary for the learning to happen. 4
Create supportive & safe learning environments
Teacher Reflective Questions
How am I intentionally building trust and respect with students who might feel least connected?
What socio-emotional skills are needed for learning for this group of students and how am I developing them intentionally?
What routines would maximise learning time and cognitive engagement in my classroom?
What will make intellectual risk-taking safe and how do I respond to mistakes?
Whose voice is heard most and whose least, and what structure would make participation equitable?
Literature Anchors
Literature
Siegel, Daniel J. The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are. Guilford Press, 2020.
Dix, Paul. When the Adults Change, Everything Changes. Penguin, 2017.
How literature links to the approach
This explains how relationships and interpersonal experiences shape attention, regulation and the ability to learn. The text provides a neurobiological foundation for psychological safety, belonging, and supportive learning environments as essential conditions for cognitive engagement and learning.
This text translates psychologically safe practice into everyday classroom routines and behaviours. The text focuses on consistent adult behaviour, predictable routines, calm responses, relational trust, and classroom cultures where students feel safe to participate, take risks, and learn from mistakes.
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 5:
unwavering belief in the student unlocks agency and growth
Description
Students flourish when they experience unconditional positive regard: being known, valued and treated with dignity and inherent worth. This is made visible through consistent, respectful relationships that cultivate belonging; a strengths-based approach that builds voice, agency and growth; a calm, responsive adult presence that supports wellbeing and trust, especially under stress, uncertainty and challenge. Unconditional positive regard creates relational safety that enables students to engage, recover from setbacks and grow.
Literature Anchors
Literature
Paul Dix. When the Adults Change, Everything Changes.
Eyre, Deborah. High Performance Learning: How to Become a World-Class School. Routledge, 2016.
Teacher Reflective Questions Act with unconditional positive regard
How does my practice uphold each student’s dignity and fundamental rights in my learning space and all interactions?
What signals of belonging and relational safety do I see, and which students need more consistent reassurance and connection?
How am I naming and building on strengths to amplify agency and growth, especially for students who doubt themselves?
How will I stay steady and responsive when emotions and behaviour escalate, to rebuild trust and readiness to learn?
How literature links to the approach
Highlights the importance of teachers giving the first attention to those students demonstrating best conduct. This promotes a culture where other students aim to follow.
Anchors the “high expectations for many more students” goal and gives a model associated with stretch, ambition and learned success behaviours.
Description
integrity and ethical practice sustain trust
Professional integrity, appropriate boundaries, equity, and statutory responsibilities protect students and sustain trust in school communities. Ethical judgement is exercised in daily decisions – especially when dilemmas arise – ensuring learning environments are safe, respectful, and aligned with professional and legal expectations.
Uphold professional ethics & conduct
Teacher Reflective Questions
What ethical dilemmas might arise, and how would I justify my decisions in students’ best interests?
Where are boundaries most at risk and what does professional practice look like in that area?
Where might bias or inequity appear in materials, interactions and outcomes, and what will I do to counter it?
What statutory responsibilities apply, and what is a correct process if a concern arises?
Literature Anchors
Literature
How literature links to the approach Department for Education. (2025). Keeping children safe in education: Statutory guidance for schools and colleges. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ keeping-children-safe-in-education--2
“Welcome | Safeguarding in Schools | Safeguarding Training and Consultancy.” https://www.safeguardinginschools.co.uk
This research, as outlined in Department for Education (2025) Keeping Children Safe in Education, underpins the approach by establishing clear expectations for safeguarding practice, which are enacted through systems such as CPOMS and TES training to ensure consistent reporting, informed professional judgement, and timely action to protect students.
A recommendation to sign up to the weekly bulletin - a practical safeguarding resource for school leaders and DSLs. Andrew Hall draws on real cases and current safeguarding developments, translating statutory expectations and DfE recommendations into clear implications for school systems, culture and everyday practice.
Description
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 7:
purposeful planning builds progression, depth and transfer
Effective planning turns curriculum intent into coherent learning journeys. Teachers plan with clear intent, connect new knowledge to prior learning, and design tasks that demand depth and transfer while keeping expectations high, and plan practice and retrieval so learning becomes secure over time. Planning is purposeful when it makes it clear what evidence will show progress.
for progression
Teacher
Reflective Questions
What do high expectations look like for this group, and how will I communicate them without limiting beliefs?
What knowledge, skills and dispositions are intended, and how do they connect to future learning?
What prior learning must be activated and what misconceptions surfaced to bridge confidently to new learning?
How will the planned learning require deep thinking and transfer, not just completion and coverage?
How will I build spaced retrieval and purposeful practice so learning becomes secure over time and how will I vary practice so students can apply it beyond the initial, familiar context?
Literature Anchors
Literature
Sweller John, Paul Ayres, Slava Kalyuga. Cognitive Load Theory. Springer, 2011.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. The National Academies Press, 2018.
How literature links to the approach
Gives a strong evidence base for why sequencing, coherence and managing complexity matter for learning, with a focus on the need to structure learning so students can build schemas over time.
Synthesises the science of learning and shows why effective planning must account for complexity (prior knowledge, sense-making, motivation, culture, and self-regulation), so learning builds coherently and can transfer beyond the taught context.
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 8:
Cognitive engagement is activated through intentional design
Description
Students learn through purposeful cognitive work: clear goals and models, metacognitive routines, productive struggle, and structured collaboration. High-impact teaching blends strategies deliberately, so all learners are challenged and supported, and students increasingly take ownership of how they learn.
Literature Anchors
Literature
Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know. American Educator, 36(1), 12–19. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/ Rosenshine.pdf
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero. (n.d.). Thinking routines toolbox. https://pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines
Implement High Impact Strategies for Cognitive Engagement
Teacher Reflective Questions
How will students know what success look like, and how will they check their work against it during learning?
What routines will help students plan, monitor and evaluate their learning?
Where will I add or fade scaffolds, so challenge remains high and access is wide?
What productive struggle do I want and how will I prevent it becoming frustration or giving up?
How will collaboration be structured so it improves positive interdependence, equal participation, individual accountability and simultaneous interaction?
How literature links to the approach
Rosenshine (2012) provides a synthesis of cognitive science, classroom research, and instructional practice, demonstrating that effective teaching is intentionally structured through modelling, guided practice, frequent checking for understanding, and the gradual release of responsibility.
This resource connects directly to high-impact teaching by providing practical routines that make cognitive processes explicit and structured within lessons. It supports intentional design by embedding metacognitive prompts, guiding student reflection, and structuring collaboration so that all learners actively participate and take ownership of their thinking. This ensures that strategies such as modelling, scaffolding, and collaboration lead to sustained cognitive engagement rather than surface-level activity.
Description
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 9:
Evidence and feedback move learning forward
Assessment is most powerful when it improves learning: makes learning visible, shapes responsive teaching and builds student self-regulation. Assessment includes diagnostic, formative and summative evidence; even when an assessment is summative by design, we use its evidence formatively, to diagnose strengths and gaps, guide next steps and help students understand what quality looks like and how to improve. Feedback is effective when it is specific, timely, actionable and respectful, and when progress is monitored over time and communicated clearly to students and families.
Literature Anchors
Literature
Sortwell, A., Trimble, K., Ferraz, R., Geelan, D. R., Hine, G., Ramirez-Campillo, R., CarterThuiller, B., & Gkintoni, E. (2024). A systematic review of meta-analyses on the impact of formative assessment on K–12 students’ learning. Sustainability, 16(17). https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177826
Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Teacher feedback to improve pupil learning. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org. uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/ feedback
Use assessment to gather evidence, provide feedback, and adapt teaching
Teacher Reflective Questions
What evidence will best reveal understanding right now (and not just performance), and how will I capture it efficiently?
What evidence suggests that it is needed for learning, and what is my next best move? (e.g. re-model, re-teach, change representation, strengthen pre-requisites, adjust task)
What feedback will students act on, and when will they have time to respond and improve?
How will students monitor their own progress, choose strategies and decide their next steps?
After a summative or formative check point, what will it change (in my teaching, in students’ practice, or in the next sequence of learning) because of what we know now?
How literature links to the approach
International evidence shows that formative assessment has a significant impact on student learning and selfregulation, particularly when evidence is used to adapt teaching and provide actionable feedback (Sortwell et al., 2024).
Assessment improves learning when evidence is used to shape teaching and guide next steps. The Education Endowment Foundation highlights the importance of diagnostic, formative and summative assessment, alongside timely, actionable feedback that helps students improve (Education Endowment Foundation, 2021).
Description
partnerships amplify learning, wellbeing and future success
Students benefit when adults work in partnership within and beyond the classroom: clear communication, shared expectations and coordinated support across school and home. Coordinated adult practice ensures consistency for students, engages parents as partners and builds community connections that widen opportunities and strengthen wellbeing.
Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers, and the community
Teacher Reflective Questions
What message needs to be communicated, to whom, and what tone and channel build trust and clarity?
How can I partner with parents so support is aligned, realistic and focused on learning and wellbeing?
How will I contribute within and beyond my classroom to strengthen community, enrichment and professional learning?
Literature Anchors
Literature
How literature links to the approach Hattie, John. Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge, 2009.
In this analysis, Hattie highlights the significant influence of collective teacher ability, strong teacherstudent relationships, and home-school partnerships on student achievement and wellbeing. The text highlights that learning is strengthened when adults communicate, collaborate, and work in partnership around the student.
Henderson, Anne T., et al. Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family–School Partnerships. The New Press, 2007.
This text gives practical approaches for developing partnerships between schools, families, and communities. It emphasises respectful communication and collaborative problem-solving that strengthens student learning, wellbeing, and belonging.