Education is a profession full of terminology and you may not have encountered the term
‘Quality First Teaching’ (QFT) before.
REFLECTION
How familiar are you with this particular term?
 Very
familiar?
 Somewhat
 Not
familiar?
familiar?
Quality First Teaching is a term that is often used within education. It originated back in a 2008
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) policy document called ‘Personalised
Learning – A Practical Guide’.
QFT emphasises the importance of relationships between the classroom teacher and pupils, and
encourages higher expectations through higher levels of support for all pupils.
In the document, the DCSF asserted that QFT:
'… demands 100% participation from the pupils, and sets high and realistic challenges. It does
not "spoon feed", it is challenging and demanding; it expects pupils to be able to articulate their
ideas, understanding and thinking by actively promoting pupil talk.'
‘Personalised Learning – A Practical Guide’ (2008), p.10
ACTIVITY
Highlight the words within the descriptor that seem the most important to you. Think about why.
Next, consider whether there is anything in here that surprises you or that you disagree with.
One of the biggest changes in education in the last 15 years has been the shift towards research
and evidence-informed practice.
This means that we now know more than ever before about what is proven to make a difference
to pupils’ learning.
ACTIVITY
Try to match the names below with their influential work, each of which has advanced our
understanding of what works best in education.
1. John Hattie
A. Author of more than 47 books and global director of New Pedagogies for Deep Learning. Has
worked closely with Microsoft to evaluate what we can learn from the Covid-19 pandemic
about how education can be reimagined to support learning in the future.
2. Education
Endowment Fund
(EEF)
B. Co-author of Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment and
considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on formative assessment (AfL).
3. Michael Fullan
C. Renowned for a meta-study, ‘Visible Learning’, which has been described as the ‘holy
grail of teaching’. It is thought to be the largest evidence-based study into the factors that
improve pupil learning, involving more than 80 million pupils from around the world and
bringing together 50,000 smaller studies. Concluded that ‘positive teacher-student interaction
is the most important factor in effective teaching’.
4. Dylan Wiliam
D. Produced the Teaching and Learning Toolkit, an accessible summary of the international
evidence on teaching 5–16-year-olds
(Answers: 1 = C; 2 = D; 3 = A; 4 = B)
It is important to note that one of the common findings across all the global research is that:
Great teaching is the most important lever schools have to improve outcomes for their pupils.
(The EEF Guide to Supporting School Planning: A Tiered Approach to 2021)
While this is true for all pupils, it is especially important for learners who may have additional
needs.
High-quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to pupils
who have or may have SEN. Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack
of good quality teaching.
(p.99, Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 Years, Department for
Education, January 2015)
You may sometimes hear QFT teaching referred to as a Wave 1 intervention (see diagram
below).
ACTIVITY
Look carefully at the three-wave diagram above.
Now think about which of the descriptors below you might associate with each wave. There are
two descriptors for each wave.
A. Designed for pupils who are close to their age-related
expectation
B. Best place to focus most of
our energy
C. Often delivered in small groups
D. Highly individualised
E. Planned to so that all pupils can participate and access the
learning at their own level
F. Last chance for pupils to
catch up
(Answers: D and F = Wave 3; C and A = Wave 2; B and E = Wave 1)
In summary, as teachers we need to ensure that our initial teaching is as effective as possible
because it is always hard for pupils to catch up once they have fallen behind.
REFLECTION
Read the extract below by Dylan Wiliam, who argues that teachers need a career-long
commitment to the continuous improvement practice, and an agreement to develop their practice
in ways that are likely to improve outcomes for their students.
How many questions can you generate in response? Aim for at least three.
We will be exploring possible answers as the course unfolds.
Take a group of 50 teachers.
 Students
taught by the most effective teacher in that group of 50 teachers
learn in six months what those taught by the average teacher learn in a year.
 Students
taught by the least effective teacher in that group of 50 teachers will
take two years to achieve the same learning.
And furthermore:
 In
the classrooms of the most effective teachers, students from disadvantaged
backgrounds learn at the same rate as those from advantaged backgrounds.
(Hamre and Pianta, 2005 / (‘Teacher quality: why it matters, and how to get more of
it’, presentation by Dylan Wiliam, Institute of Education, University of London)
At the heart of QFT is the idea of inclusive teaching.
REFLECTION
What does the term ‘inclusive teaching’ mean for you? Make a note of your ideas.
ACTIVITY
Look at the suggested components of QFT listed below. Seven of them are correct but two are
‘red herrings’ (not true). Can you spot them?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Highly focused lesson design with sharp learning objectives.
High demands of pupil involvement and engagement with their learning.
Silent working conditions.
High levels of interaction for all pupils.
Appropriate use of questioning, modelling and explaining by the teacher.
An emphasis on learning through dialogue, with regular opportunities for pupils to talk
both individually and in groups.
7. Use of IT equipment.
8. An expectation that pupils will accept responsibility for their own learning and work
independently.
9. Regular use of encouragement and authentic praise to engage and motivate pupils.
Adapted from page 10, Personalised Learning – A Practical Guide (2008)
(Answers: 3 and 7)
So far, we have considered QFT in its historical context and identified its component parts.
Now we will begin to consider possible implications for your practice.
ACTIVITY
Take a moment to reflect on the previous steps of this unit.
1. Next, using your memory rather than your notes, write the words or phrases that you now
associate with QFT in the MAKE A NOTE function.
2. Then from this list, highlight the three words or phrases that you feel reflect what is
already happening in your teaching.
REFLECTION
According to Professor Todd Whitaker, every teacher can improve the quality of their practice
by asking themselves this question:
What else do I have available to me that I have not yet tried but which might improve my
pupils’ learning?
With this question in mind, review the components below and identify one or two that might
benefit from further development in your own practice.
Element
1. Highly focused lesson design
with sharp learning objectives
2. High demands of pupil
involvement and engagement
with their learning
Securely
developed in
my practice
Somewhat evident
but would benefit
from further
development
Not yet
evident in
my
practice
3. High levels of interaction for
all pupils
4. Appropriate use of
questioning, modelling and
explaining on the part of the
teacher
5. An emphasis on learning
through dialogue, with regular
opportunities for pupils to talk
both individually and in groups
6. An expectation that pupils
will accept responsibility for
their own learning and work
independently
7. Regular use of
encouragement and authentic
praise to engage and motivate
pupils
Getting the basics right
Before we delve into the specific pedagogies that have the most efficacy, let us begin by
considering the classroom climate that is likely to support all learners in making progress.
One of the key questions recommended by John Hattie in the light of the Covid 19 pandemic is
for teachers to ask:
Is my classroom environment inviting enough?
(Osiris Education World Education Summit 2021)
The word ‘inviting’ is obviously open to personal interpretation, but here we will concern
ourselves with the three key elements shown in the grid below.
ACTIVITY
Strategy
A sense of
welcome
and
belonging
Example 1
Routinely warmly greeting the
pupils at the door of the classroom
Example 2
Ensuring that you randomly generate the names of pupils
chosen to answer questions so that all pupils feel involved
Adapt an existing display to
stimulate interest, support
memory and prompt discussion
A physical
environment
that invites
an active
response
Ex
M
w
th
e
In
w
Challenge pupils to contribute to vocabulary displays
with evidence of how they can use the words
Display ‘Big Questions’ so that
pupils have ample time to digest
them. Invite pupils to take the
lead in annotating
‘Awe and
wonder’
Consider the use of concealed objects to promote
engagement at the start of a topic
‘S
of
Select your preferred strategy from each of the rows below, ideally something new that you are
not currently using.
(Images taken from my book Dynamically Different Classrooms, where you can find 150 ideas
for using our physical environment actively within the lesson.)
Back in 2010, Ofsted’s key report on the teaching of pupils with SEN, subtitled ‘A Statement Is
Not Enough’, noted that the key priority for all children must be ‘good teaching and learning’ but
their survey found that some of the most vulnerable pupils in our schools were not getting the
highest quality teaching and learning and this was resulting in underachievement.
ACTIVITY
Complete the following sentence.
Planning for the needs of the most vulnerable pupils in my class will also benefit all learners
because...
EEF’s recent review of the evidence in its report Special Educational Needs in Mainstream
Schools found strong evidence that the key components of high-quality teaching and learning for
all pupils include the strategies described in the grid below.
ACTIVITY
The following words are missing from the definitions. As you read, complete the definitions with
one of the words.
 explicit
 temporary
 misconceptions
 currently
 thinking
 assessment
 small
 memorisation
STRATEGY
DEFINITION
 Teaching skills and concepts in s……. steps
Explicit instruction
 Using examples and non-examples
 Using clear and unambiguous language
 Anticipating and planning for common m…………………….
 Highlighting essential content and removing distracting information
 T……………. support that is removed when it is no longer required
 Initially, a teacher would provide enough support so that pupils can
Scaffolding
successfully complete tasks that they could not do independently
 This requires effective a……………… to gain a precise understanding of
the pupil’s current capabilities
 Support could be visual, verbal or written
 Allocate pupils to groups flexibly, based on individual needs that
they c……………… share with other pupils
 Such groups can be formed for an explicit purpose and disbanded when
Flexible grouping
that purpose is met
 A small group of pupils may share the need for
more e…………… instruction to independently carry out a skill,
remember a fact or understand a concept
 Cognitive strategies are skills like m……………….. techniques or
subject-specific strategies like methods to solve problems in maths
 Metacognition refers to the ways in which pupils monitor and
Cognitive and
metacognitive
strategies
purposefully direct their t…………….. and learning
 Metacognition has one of the largest proven effects on pupils’ learning
 We use metacognitive strategies to monitor or control our own
cognition, such as checking whether our approach to solving a
mathematical problem has worked or considering which cognitive
strategy is the best fit for a task
Source: EEF report: Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools
(Answers: small, misconceptions, temporary, assessment, currently, explicit, memorisation,
thinking)
REFLECTION
Now that you have had chance to consider the definitions, rank your current confidence level
with each strategy.
Ranking
(1 = most confident / 4 = least confident)
Strategy
Explicit instruction
Scaffolding
Flexible grouping
Cognitive and metacognitive strategies
Take a moment to familiarise yourself with the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit summary,
which has an overview of the research showing what has most impact in education.
REFLECTION
Try to:
 locate
the two most effective strategies that score above six months of additional
learning
 find
a strategy that is commonly used in schools, but which scores poorly
ALL THE PS
Plurals are shown to bring progress.
Challenge pupils to suggest more than
one word/ idea. Three is ideal e.g. three
different types of flower/ three reasons
why Macbeth killed the King
Prior learning – Graham
Nuthall’s research (described
in The Hidden Lives of Learners)
suggests that pupils need to
regularly interact with prior
learning
Practice – Nuthall also suggests
that pupils need to encounter key
information three times for long
term retention
Pauses – the average wait time following
teachers’ questions is thought to be less
than three seconds. By extending this
time before expecting an answer, we
create the opportunity for more thinking
and participation by more pupils
 identify anything that
Pre-empt the biggest
problem, which is pupils’ lack
of appropriate vocabulary.
Make your classrooms as
‘word rich’ as possible
Predictions – Stop pupils from
becoming passive in their
learning by regularly challenging
them to predict what might be on
the next slide/page of the book
etc.
you may find surprising or controversial.
The full EEF Toolkit is a very rich resource to explore when you have more time and it is worth
bookmarking the hyperlink now for future exploration.
Alongside the EEF Toolkit, the box below offers several strategies proven to boost the progress
of all pupils, handily all beginning with a P for progress!
ACTIVITY
Choose your favourite two strategies to add to your pedagogical toolkit.
Research from The Teacher Development Trust indicates that teachers are most likely to
improve when they get opportunities to:
 discuss
 test
with each other both the theory and practice of new ideas
practices and ideas out in classrooms
 see practices
expertly modelled and to receive expert feedback on their own efforts.
Take a minute to remind yourself of the specific pedagogies and approaches introduced so far in
this unit.
ACTIVITY
As recommended by the TDA, choose your three preferred strategies from this unit and identify:
1. Who you might discuss them with.
2. When and where you might trial them in your own teaching.
STRATEGY
1.
I INTEND TO TRY THIS BY/WITH... (INSERT CLASS OR
TOPIC)
2.
3.
Assessment for learning, also known as formative assessment, is defined as:
Part of everyday practice by students, teachers and peers that seeks, reflects upon and responds
to information from dialogue, demonstration and observation in ways that enhance ongoing
learning.
(Position paper on assessment for learning from the Third International Conference on
Assessment for Learning, 2009)
REFLECTION
Consider the three verbs that lie at the heart of this definition:
 Seek
 Reflect
 Respond
Do each of these activities receive equal time, and command the same attention, in your practice
/ school?
Which do you consider to be the most challenging if the three activities for busy teachers?
As any teacher will recognise, there is a huge difference between curriculum coverage and longterm learning: unfortunately, just because we have taught it, it does not mean that all pupils have
learned it.
Returning to the definition of AfL, it is clear that we need to rely on more than just pupils’
written work if we wish to gain a full and accurate picture of their understanding.
REFLECTION
A great deal of excellent formative assessment practice occurs in the EYFS (Early Years
Foundation Stage) before pupils are typically writing. Here, teachers make much use of dialogue,
(pupils’) demonstration and observation in order to assess pupil progress.
Select one of these elements which you would like to develop further in your own practice
ACTIVITY
Watch the short video of Professor Robert Bjork talking about the difference between learning
and performance. Make notes of any ideas you find particularly relevant to your own teaching.
Seeking the gaps
As we have just seen in the video of Robert Bjork, we need to concern ourselves with what has
been learned – and remembered.
One very effective strategy is the KWL (know, want to know, learned) grid.
KNOW
WANT (NEED) TO KNOW
LEARNED
This technique has been widely used for many years; however, pupils have often struggled with
the middle column – after all, how do any of us we know what we don’t know?
The following methods and adaptations really help to make this assessment activity more
effective:
 Providing pupils
 Adding new
with words, pictures or questions to place in the grid, as shown below.
learning to the Learned column in a different colour to further strengthen
memory and retention as shown below.
 Challenging pupils’
long- term retention by returning to the grid at a later point in the
sequence and challenging pupils to see if they can spot the ‘red herring’ (deliberate
mistake) that you have now included in the grid.
Dylan Wiliam identifies the requirement to ‘activate pupils as owners of their own learning’ as
one of the five main elements of AfL.
This sense of ownership, or pupils’ ‘agency’ as it is described in many schools, is hugely
motivational and contributes to the inclusive classroom ethos that is central to QFT.
REFLECTION
Formative assessment involves learning in partnership with the pupils and engaging them as key
agents within the assessment process. This is assessment done with rather than to the learner.
Select the statement which best reflects your current reality:
1. Most of my pupils are fully activated as owners of their own learning. Most are
motivated to be involved in the assessment process and I consciously try to develop this
skill set.
2. Some of my pupils are activated as owners of their own learning. Some are motivated to
be involved in the assessment process and I pay some attention to developing this skill
set.
3. Few of my pupils are activated as owners of their own learning. Few are motivated to be
involved in the assessment process and, so far, I have not focused on developing this skill
set.
Both the EEF Toolkit (see Unit 1) and John Hattie’s meta study Visible Learning, attest to the
proven impact of feedback to accelerate pupil progress.
When we get feedback right, it has an effect size of 0.7, roughly equivalent to eight additional
months of learning.
One of John Hattie’s key findings in his book Visible Learning was that the most important
feedback of all is the feedback which pupils give to their teacher rather than the other way
around.
This has profound implications for our practice.
ACTIVITY
Rank the following mechanisms for pupil feedback based on how well developed they currently
are in your teaching. (1 = most developed and 3 = least developed)
Select one mechanism to develop further in your practice.

ACTIVITY
Identify a topic that you have either taught or are planning to teach and which would benefit
from using the KWL grid described above. Make a note of:
 whether
you intend to provide learners with words, pictures, questions or a mixture of
all three
 what
 the
the ‘red herring’ adaptation might be
intended, desired impact upon pupils’ learning.
Formative assessment helps teachers to accurately identify where – and why – pupils may be
struggling.
Experts like Dylan Wiliam have suggested that the term ‘responsive teaching’ is preferable to
AfL.
REFLECTION
Why do you think ‘responsive teaching’ might be considered a better term than AfL?
At the heart of the phrase ‘responsive teaching’ is a reminder that, as teachers, we need to be
flexible. Indeed, we have a responsibility to stand back, to reflect and then to respond by
deploying the strategies that are proven to impact positively on pupils’ learning.
As explored in the previous step, effective feedback is one of the most powerful tools teachers
can use to help pupils make progress and to close specific learning gaps. However, it is also true
that marking and feedback can be hugely time consuming and burdensome.
In addition, teachers often express the following concerns about feedback:
REFLECTION
Do any of these concerns resonate with you? If so, which is the most relevant to your
experience?
To optimise the impact of feedback:
1. Move away from lengthy written comment and instead use codes or highlighters
wherever possible.
2. Co-construct success criteria with the pupils, centralising up to six of these in a numbered
grid that can be used to provide meaningful feedback.
3. Elevate the status of feedback by doing more of it live in the lesson and providing pupils
with ample time to respond and edit their own work. This is often called DIRT (dedicated
improvement and reflection time).
REFLECTION
Select one of these three elements which would benefit from development in your own practice.
ACTIVITY
Now let us consider one feedback approach, called live marking, in more detail. Begin by
familiarising yourself with the suggested sequence below:
1. Stage 1: Collect in pupil work and read through it. You may choose to read all the work
but, alternatively, you may wish to focus on a sample representing the range of pupils in
your class.
2. Stage 2: Make notes of common errors and targets for improvement. Ensure that these
relate directly to the success criteria previously agreed and explored with pupils.
3. Stage 3: Do not write or annotate in individual books. Instead, concentrate your energy
on thinking how you might share these feedback messages with your class in the next
lesson in a way that will activate them as owners of their own learning.
4. Stage 4: During the next lesson, demonstrate marking a piece of work to the class,
explaining exactly where the work addresses the specific, numbered success criteria
shown in the image below.
5. Despite our best efforts to deliver QFT, there will inevitably be pupils who still struggle
to make their expected levels of progress and may require additional support.
6. ACTIVITY
7. Take moment to think of a pupil that you teach who falls into this category. Focus on that
pupil and ask yourself:
8. What have I not yet tried at classroom level?
9. Take a look at page 2 of the QFT checklist and select one or two strategies that may
benefit this pupil.
10.
11.
12.
13. (Source: Targeted Education Support Service, Wigan Council)
REFLECTION
Consider how you might encourage your class to actively respond to and edit their own work as
you guide them from the front.
Which of the following strategies would be most effective for your learners?
 ‘My
turn, your turn’ – you pause after each mark you award on the board and
challenge them to do the same thing immediately.
 Inviting
pupils to watch your demonstration and then to work in pairs to provide
peer feedback to each other in the same way.
 'Time trial’ –
set a short period of time on the clock and challenge pupils to make a
certain number of corrections/ edits in their work before the time runs out. This kind
of approach tends to be particularly effective for boys.
 Something
else that would suit your particular pupils.
For pupils who are still not making desired levels of progress, it is worth considering whether
they are suffering because of either reading or oracy issues.
Lack of reading and oracy skills are flagged in research as major causes of academic
underachievement and any effort that you invest in developing these skills will pay dividends for
all pupils, including the most vulnerable.
READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES
On average, reading comprehension approaches deliver an additional six months of progress,
according to the EEF Toolkit. wave
ACTIVITY
The EEF Toolkit suggests that all teachers consider the following four questions. Take time to
read through them and jot down your answers.
1. A key issue for teachers is identifying the level of difficulty for comprehension activities
that is required to extend pupils’ reading capabilities. How will you ensure the texts used
provide an effective challenge?
2. Effective diagnosis of reading difficulties is important in identifying possible solutions,
particularly for older struggling readers. Pupils can struggle with decoding the words,
understanding the structure of the language used or understanding particular vocabulary,
which may be subject specific. What techniques will you use to identify particular pupils’
needs?
3. A wide range of strategies and approaches can be successful, but they need to be taught
explicitly and consistently. How are you going to identify the strategies that will meet the
needs of your pupils and how will these be reinforced?
4. How can you focus learners’ attention on developing comprehension strategies that they
can apply more widely?
ORACY
Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through
spoken language.
Oracy is considered by many to be a moral imperative because of its strong correlation to pupils’
life chances.
You are the only second chance for some children to have a rich language experience. If these
children are not getting it at school, they are not getting it.
(Neil Mercer, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and Director of
Oracy Cambridge)
REFLECTION
How does Mercer’s quote make you feel?
Why might some children be missing out on ‘a rich language experience’?
According to the executive summary from the final report and recommendations from the Oracy
All-Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry, published in April 2021, developing oracy skills benefits
all pupils but particularly children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and
children and young people experiencing disadvantage and poverty.
Research consistently finds that children from low-income homes start school with lower
language levels than their more advantaged peers, and these gaps grow as children move through
school. Of the children who persistently experienced poverty, 75% arrive at school below
average in language development. Around 50% of children in some areas of deprivation begin
school with delayed language.
The pandemic has also widened the language gap. Research shows a greater focus on oracy can
enable disadvantaged students to fulfil their potential and narrow the attainment gap between
them and more advantaged peers.
(Executive summary, Oracy APPG final report)
ACTIVITY
Remember that oracy interventions can deliver an additional five months of learning
(source: EEF Toolkit).
Watch this excellent short video from School 21 showing strategies for effective talk.
Try to pick out at least three strategies or resources that would benefit your pupils.
ACTIVITY
You may also wish to download this useful poster from Voice 21, which summarises their oracy
benchmarks and key recommendations for teachers.
Even after the adjustments to teaching suggested in steps 1 and 2, there may be pupils who still
need additional support.
Wave 2 refers to the teaching that is designed to meet the specific needs of pupils who may be
just falling behind in their learning, and it is often conducted in small groups.
The idea is that these pupils benefit from a tightly structured programme of support that can be
delivered either in the lesson or outside, and which aims to quickly put them back on track to
meet age-related expectations.
Note that such interventions should be delivered as well as Wave 1 QFT, not instead of it.
It is important to regularly evaluate the impact of such interventions and to adapt them as
necessary.
REFLECTION
Within my classroom teaching, I might try the following Wave 2 interventions:
read
The final wave, Wave 3, refers to an increasingly personalised programme intended to really
help those learners who are struggling to keep up and to narrow the attainment gap.
Again, this approach does not require the removal of children from Wave 1 QFT, but rather
acknowledges that some pupils require even more support than Wave 2 offers.
Wave 3 differs from Wave 2 by its emphasis on the need to maximise and accelerate progress.
Often, this is through the use of specialist teachers or highly trained teacher assistants / support
staff to achieve very specific targets.
It is important that schools invest valuable time and resources into Wave 3 interventions with
proven levels of effectiveness. You can find the latest research on ‘Promising Projects’ section of
the EEF website.
ACTIVITY
Take a look at the Promising Projects page and select potential interventions that you might
recommend for:
 Mika,
a Year 5 pupil with reading difficulties
 Ryan,
a Year 2 pupil struggling in maths.
Thinking back over the whole course, take a few minutes now to complete the statements below:
 Something
 I would
A
I did not know before that has interested me ….
now define QFT as …
strategy I am going to use is ….
 To
make my teaching more inclusive, I could ….
 An
idea that challenged me was ….
 I could
tweak my practice by …
A
key word or idea that will stay with me from this course is ……
 If
I had to sum up my learning from this course in one sentence, it would say ….
A
question I would like to ask is ……….
(Do feel free to ask me at info@clairegadsby.com)