School planning support 2022-23: EEF's guidance

Owned by Lesley Goddard
Last updated: Jun 19, 2022
6 min read

School planning support 2022-23 | EEF

Moving forwards, making a difference - A planning guide for schools 2022–23

The tiered model for school planning

Meaningful school planning is not quick. It is a complex process that takes time, thought, and sustained effort. Narrowing down on key priorities is the first essential step in this process. The tiered model for school planning is designed as a starting point to enable busy school leaders to consider where best to invest time, energy, and resources for the benefit of their particular pupils.

1. High quality teaching

The evidence tells us that high quality teaching is the most important factor when it comes to improving attainment outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Schools should focus on developing teaching practice over a sustained period to drive meaningful change in their setting. School plans to maximise teaching quality may include:

• high quality daily teaching: the ‘five-a-day’ approach;

Teaching is complex but there are certain key elements that can be integrated into daily practice to enhance its quality. The ‘five-a-day’ approach identifies these evidence-based ‘best bets’, which research evidence suggests can have a positive impact across phases and for all pupil groups, including those with SEND. The five elements of the approach are summarised below.

1. Explicit instruction: Teacher-led approaches with a focus on clear explanations, modelling, and frequent checks for understanding. This is then followed by guided practice, before independent practice.

2. Cognitive and metacognitive strategies: Managing cognitive load is crucial if new content is to be transferred into pupils’ long-term memory. Provide opportunities for pupils to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning.

3. Scaffolding: When pupils are working on a written task, provide a supportive tool or resource such as a writing frame or a partially completed example. Aim to provide less support of this nature throughout the course of the lesson, week, or term.

4. Flexible grouping: Allocate groups temporarily, based on current level of attainment. This could, for example, be a group that comes together to get some additional spelling instruction based on current need before re-joining the main class.

5. Using Technology: Technology can be used by a teacher to model worked examples; it can be used by a pupil to help them to learn, to practice, and to record their learning. For instance, you might use a class visualiser to share pupils’ work or to jointly rework an incorrect model.

• improving literacy and mathematics outcomes;

See our take on Improving Mathematics in KS 2 and KS3: EEF's guidance where we show that timely practice is a good fit to help schools follow guidance on whole school planning and day to day lesson planning.

• securing effective professional development;

At timely practice, we have created a suite of training using timely practice - which we hope to launch to bring to whole school INSET training in timely practice - its designed so that teachers can experience the power of the timely practice way. See our Explaining and Training course within this customer knowledge base for videos on embedding learning and finer detail training.

• using diagnostic assessment to address learning gaps.

Diagnostic assessment in mathematics needs to be at a fine granular level, it can be difficult to obtain and for teachers to refer to when planning each lesson. However this is timely practice’s role and it helps the teacher/school to do the following:

We encourage a more tightly spiralled scheme of learning which makes it easy to

  • reteach specific concepts or topics,

  • adjust curriculum content in the medium or long term;

In a mixed ability class, or higher sets in classes set by attainment, quality first teaching may be allocated as suggested in the EEF report

  • provide pupils with feedback through which they can address their own areas for improvement and

  • decide which pupils may need additional, targeted academic support.

Learners who are to given targeted academic support get personalised timely practice retrieval practice assignments and those that are doing well enough are given “whole class, retrieval practice” assignments.

In KS3 and KS4 classes are often set by attainment, so entire classes can use timely practice and therefore

  • get personalised retrieval practice and feedback through timely practice assignments,

  • and every lesson, flexible groupings can be made to teach each topic on each learners' firm learning foundations.

Although the diagnostic assessment suggested in the EEF guidelines (page 11) are good, they do not compare in depth, accuracy or effectiveness to using timely practice.

Diagnostic assessments provide opportunities to reflect on pupils’ thinking, strengths, and weaknesses. They can give useful insights into learning, adding to the richness of the information teachers hold about their pupils.

When used effectively, diagnostic assessments can indicate areas for development with individual pupils or across classes and year groups. Some methods can also help teachers isolate the specific misconceptions pupils might hold.

Regardless of what form they take, it is important that teachers know why they are conducting assessments prior to using them. It should be clear what information the assessment is being designed to produce and how this information will inform subsequent decision making.

With the information diagnostic assessments provide, teachers may:

  • decide to adjust the level of challenge of activities;

  • reteach specific concepts or topics;

  • adjust curriculum content in the medium or long term;

  • provide pupils with feedback through which they can address their own areas for improvement; or

  • decide which pupils may need additional, targeted academic support.

2. Targeted academic support

For pupils in need of additional support, research suggests that providing targeted academic support finely tuned to the needs of individual pupils offers potential benefits. School planning should therefore be open to the idea of planning interventions to complement high quality classroom teaching.

Most pupils will benefit solely from a focus on high quality, whole-class teaching. However, some children may require extra, targeted support that is tailored to their specific needs to get their learning back on track.

Additional interventions could involve revisiting foundational knowledge, practicing basic skills, or pre-learning upcoming content. Key to success will be making sure that interventions complement and strongly link to the curriculum being covered in-class, with the content being set by teachers where possible.

The TARGET model, drawn from insights from a range of EEF interventions and programmes, offers a helpful summary of typical active ingredients of successful targeted academic support.

T - Timing Resourcing Give it time Expert delivery Teacher links Intervention sessions are often brief (e.g. 15–60 mins) and regular (e.g. 2–5 per week).

A - Assessment Assessments are used to identify pupils, guide areas of focus, and to track pupil progress.

R - Resourcing The intervention has structured supporting resources and lesson plans, with clear objectives and possibly a delivery script.

G - Give it time Careful timetabling is in place to enable consistent delivery. Sessions are typically maintained over a sustained period (e.g. 8–20 weeks).

E - Expert delivery Interventions are delivered by a qualified teacher or, if they are unavailable, a trained teaching assistant. The intervention programme is followed precisely and suggested delivery protocols are followed.

T - Teacher Links If not delivered by the classroom teacher, the intervention deliverer and the teacher/s communicate regularly and make appropriate connections between out-of-class learning and classroom teaching

With timely practice, the preferred model is the teacher gives the intervention within the classroom, with the support of learning assistants. Of course the school can provide a tutor with the assessment for learning data, which could be gathered in the maths classroom. Gathering assessment for learning data from the whole class has the additional benefit of embedding every learners existing learning more deeply - as well as enabling the school to plan

  • which learners should take part and

  • what teaching the intervention should target.

Our progress data, because it is only small scale, is not reliable but we show impressive progress.

3. Wider strategies

Wider strategies address non-academic barriers to success at school that have a significant influence on attainment. Approaches to wider strategies that are likely to support learning include:

• improving attendance;

In our limited trials shows at KS4 the timely practice class reported some learners (brazenly) reported to their teacher that they had “only come into school today” because they had “maths today”.

• improving behaviour and re-establishing routines and relationships.

Of course motivation and successful learning go hand in hand. Good behaviour is always easier to achieve with classes of motivated learners than classes of disaffected learners, so using timely practice - especially as a familiar and calming start to each lesson - seems to promote motivation, although we have not had a chance to measure this yet.