Adaptive Teaching

Adaptive teaching in our school means responding to pupils' needs in real time while keeping high expectations for everyone.  It is not about creating entirely separate lessons for every child; it is about making thoughtful adjustments so all pupils can access the same ambitious learning.

In practise, adaptive teaching in our school looks like:

• Clear learning goals so pupils know what they are working towards.
• Ongoing assessment during the lesson, such as questioning, mini-whiteboards, observation, or quick checks, to see who understands and who needs support.
• Flexible support, for example giving extra modelling, sentence stems, vocabulary banks, manipulatives, worked examples or guided practice.
• Responsive grouping, where pupils may work independently, with a partner, in a teacher-led group, or with additional adult support depending on the task.
• Adjusting the level of scaffolding, so some pupils receive more structure at first, while others are challenged to apply, explain, justify, or extend their thinking.
• Breaking learning into smaller steps for pupils who need it, without reducing the ambition of the curriculum.
• Using multiple representations, such as images, concrete resources, diagrams, oral rehearsal, drama, or practical activity.
• Checking misconceptions quickly and reteaching or rephrasing.
• Providing challenge for confident learners, not simply "more work', but deeper tasks such as reasoning, problem-solving, explaining patterns, or applying knowledge in a new context.
• Supporting pupils with SEND or EAL through planned adjustments, accessible language, visuals, repetition and opportunities to practise key vocabulary.

In short, adaptive teaching is deliberate, inclusive, responsive teaching: noticing what pupils need, adjusting support and helping every child make progress without lowering expectations.