How school leaders can support adaptive teaching in the classroom

In previous blogs, we’ve explored how teachers check for understanding and adapt their teaching in response. But whether this happens consistently is not just a classroom issue.

In busy classrooms, with curriculum pressures and limited time, it’s not always easy to pause and fix, adapt support or extend learning.

Making it happen needs support from leaders: to build understanding, develop shared approaches and use feedback to refine practice. And, crucially, to protect the time needed for changes to take root.

The problem

Checking only improves learning when it leads to action. But in practice, acting on what pupils show is not always straightforward. It requires protected time, flexibility, and careful decisions, both in planning and in the moment.

Making this happen across a school depends on effective implementation and, crucially, on what leaders choose to protect.

Climate, not compliance

It’s not about asking teachers to do more, it’s about making it easier to do what matters most.

In many schools, the difference is not what’s introduced, but what’s protected.

Creating this climate means making it safe for teachers to:

• try something new
• refine what they already do
• make mistakes and revisit practice over time
  

Without this, approaches risk becoming something to ​‘do,’ rather than a way to improve learning.

What leaders can do

Effective implementation is shaped by leadership behaviours: engaging people so they understand the purpose, uniting them around shared approaches, and reflecting to improve practice over time.

These behaviours matter most when they are used to protect the conditions that allow practice to improve.

1. Engage: build understanding and commitment

   Ensure staff understand why checking and adapting matters for inclusive teaching. 
   
   When teachers are confident to respond to what pupils show, more pupils can move forward in the lesson. This can be particularly important for learners who may need more support to secure their understanding. 

2. Unite: develop shared approaches

   Use Check. Adapt to support professional discussion, not replace it. It is not a checklist or lesson plan, but a way to think through options together. 

   • explore scenarios together
   • ask ​“what would you do next?”
   • develop a shared language for responding to what pupils show

   This helps build a shared understanding and consistency across classrooms. 

3. Reflect: use feedback to refine practice

   Create regular opportunities for teachers to reflect on how their decisions are working in practice. 

   Effective Professional Development (2021) emphasises: 

   • explore scenarios together
   • ask ​“what would you do next?”
   • develop a shared language for responding to what pupils show

Protecting time for changes to take root

These behaviours only take hold when the conditions they need are protected.

A common barrier is the pressure to prioritise coverage over understanding. When the focus is on ​‘getting through’ the curriculum, it becomes harder for teachers to take the time to check and adapt.

This can be addressed by ensuring curriculum plans allow space for teachers to respond to what pupils show.

For change to take root, leaders need to:

• protect staff time for discussion, reflection, and refining practice
• maintain coherence by prioritising one teaching and learning change at a time
• manage competing demands by focusing on what makes the biggest difference, not the next new thing
• seek out and remove barriers to implementation

What leaders prioritise and protect shapes what improves.

Check. Adapt. is not something to get ​‘done’. It is a way of working, and whether it takes hold depends on what leaders choose to protect.