Adaptive Teaching in Primary Schools

Lynn How is an educational consultant supporting all things SEND (but especially SENCos) with over 20 years of primary teaching and SLT experience. She has been an Assistant Head, Lead Mentor for ITT and SENCo. She loves to write and has published a number of books, including Starting Out as a Primary SENCo: Finding Your First Post, the First Year and Beyond (Bloomsbury).Her particular areas of interest are wellbeing (staff and pupil), SEND, SLCN, children’s mental health, leadership, mentoring and coaching. Recently she started an educational consultancy business for SEND and teacher Wellbeing.

• 1.Introduction – Why Adaptive Teaching Matters in Primary Education• Define adaptive teaching within the National Curriculum and inclusive practice and importance of whole school approach. • Clarify the difference between differentiation and adaptation and why adaptive teaching is more effective and sustainable.• Explain how adaptive teaching supports progress for all learners, not only those with SEND.• Highlight its role in responsive teaching, workload reduction and teacher confidence. • Reflection prompts – whole school inclusion audit 2.Understanding Learner Variability• Outline common differences in cognition, communication, literacy development, concentration, sensory needs and emotional regulation across the primary years.• Introduce neurodiverse profiles such as ASD, ADHD, dyslexia, DLD and SEMH and how they present in the classroom.• Explain how developmental stage, experience and wellbeing influence readiness to learn.• Identify early indicators of emerging needs and the importance of proactive adaptations.• Reflection prompt: Which pupils in my class currently struggle most to access learning, and why?3.Foundations of Adaptive Practice• Describe the core principles of effective adaptive teaching: clarity of instruction, high-quality modelling, structured scaffolding and responsive feedback.• Explain how formative assessment supports real-time teaching decisions.• Provide examples of adaptive questioning, worked examples, guided practice and gradual release.• Include “try this tomorrow” ideas such as visual cue cards, task menus and paired reasoning.4.Planning and Environment• Show how to design lessons all pupils can access without creating multiple versions of tasks.• Explain how to manage cognitive load through sequencing, chunking and pacing.• Describe the use of flexible grouping, manipulatives and visual scaffolds.• Outline how environment design (seating, displays, lighting, sensory supports) contributes to independence and focus.• Reflection prompt: How well does my classroom environment enable independence and focus?5.Working with Support Staff and Families• Clarify how teachers and LSAs can collaborate effectively during lessons.• Emphasise modelling, coaching and consistent language between adults.• Explore how to balance support with fostering independence.• Explain how to share adaptive strategies with families in accessible, non-jargon language.• Include an example where coordinated support improved a pupil’s engagement.6.When Adaptive Isn’t Enough• Explain how to recognise when adaptive teaching needs to be supplemented with targeted or specialist support (tier 1,2,3 of ordinarily available).• Describe how to use the Graduated Approach within a mainstream class, including what evidence to gather.• Identify when to involve the SENCO or external specialists.• Explore how to balance inclusion with appropriate, timely intervention.• Include a short case study showing how targeted support complements classroom practice.7.Reflection and Action Planning• Summarise the key ideas from the guide.• Provide reflection questions such as: Which adaptive strategies work best in my class? Where do I rely too heavily on differentiation? How can I share effective practice with colleagues?• Offer a simple action-planning framework encouraging teachers to identify three changes to implement this term.• Reference a downloadable action plan template to support follow-through.8.Key Takeaways• Provide 6–8 concise bullet points summarising the most important, actionable strategies from the guide.