Effective Differentiation – Pathway

Three worksheets for three ability groups take a long time to make, and they put a ceiling on how far some pupils can go. This pathway makes the case for teaching to the top instead: set work that stretches your highest performers, then give everyone else what they need to get there.

That only works if pupils will take on hard work, so you'll build a classroom where getting something wrong isn't humiliating. Exit tickets and hinge questions show you where each pupil's struggle zone is, so the work is hard but within reach. For pupils who need more, the three waves of support help you decide what happens in class, what happens outside it, and how teaching assistants can help without doing the thinking for them.

It's led by a former headteacher and head of English, and it works well as the basis for department training.