Five high-impact themes, all evidence-informed.

Five important themes with a big impact on education, each one something you can work on to make teaching and learning better. Tailor to the school.

01 / FORMATIVE ACTION & CURRICULUM DESIGN

From assessment to action, designed into the curriculum.

Formative action is a pedagogical process, not a test or an instrument: you gather information about where students stand, interpret it, and use it to make a better-informed decision about the next learning step. That works when you collect small, readable pieces of evidence rather than a whole practice exam, and when you genuinely change something on the basis of what you see and then check whether that step helped. Students carry part of that work themselves, and the whole thing is anchored in the curriculum through backward design and constructive alignment.

Constructive alignmentResponsive LoopsDeveloping a sense of qualityTransformative feedbackGrowing independenceNo marking

Core ideas

  • Constructive alignmentGoals, learning activities and assessment form one coherent whole. The alignment between the three is what gives formative action its power.
  • Responsive Loops Formative ActionA structured way for teachers to gain a picture of understanding during the lesson and base their pedagogical decisions on it. Short-cycle, in the lesson, without administration.
  • Developing a sense of qualityHelping students recognise what good work looks like, so they can compare their own work against it, a precondition for independent learning.
  • Transformative feedbackFeedback that doesn't just correct, but shifts the student's thinking.
  • Growing independenceThe aim is students who need us less. As they move further through the learning process, the formative activity shifts from teacher-led to student-led, so they take over more of the work themselves.
  • No markingFormative action improves pedagogical decisions in the lesson itself; it isn't about piles of marking, filling in forms or collecting evidence.
02 / INSTRUCTIONAL COACHING

Short coaching cycles that change mental models.

Lasting change happens teacher by teacher, and study days rarely deliver it. We work in high-frequency, short cycles: a classroom visit of five to ten minutes that gathers objective information about the lesson, followed by a conversation of no more than thirty minutes in which we question the mental models underneath the practice and rehearse the new habit on the spot. Individual development stays tied to where the school as a whole wants to go. This can run entirely online too, with video recordings of the lesson and online coaching conversations.

Short coaching cyclesHabits & mental modelsClassroom visitsDeliberate practiceEveryone a coachTied to the school vision

Core ideas

  • Habits and mental models togetherWe work on what teachers do in the moment and on the thinking underneath it. Change one without the other and it doesn't hold.
  • High-frequency, short cyclesSmall, regular cycles beat occasional big interventions, because habits change through repetition.
  • Grounded in what actually happenedA short classroom visit gathers objective information about the lesson, so the conversation is about practice rather than impressions.
  • Practised in the session itselfThe new habit is rehearsed there and then, in a conversation of no more than thirty minutes, instead of left to chance afterwards.
  • Leaders create a coaching cultureLeaders build a safe learning environment where observing and coaching on classroom practice is normal, so teaching keeps improving together.
  • Tied to the school's visionIndividual development connects to where the school as a whole wants to go, so coaching is never a private project.
03 / DURABLE IMPLEMENTATION

Implementation that makes change stick.

We don't deliver a one-off training day; we build the capacity inside your school to carry the change yourselves. Grounded in implementation science and the four phases of explore, prepare, deliver and sustain, we work with you on a durable plan and approach, so the innovation ends up in policy, culture and daily routines. An interactive website keeps the work alive between sessions and makes progress visible.

Implementation scienceInternal capacityCo-creationExplore, prepare, deliver, sustainInteractive website

Core ideas

  • Grounded in implementation scienceBuilt on the EEF's guidance and proven change methodology (Kotter, Heath & Heath), not on wishful thinking.
  • Four phases: explore, prepare, deliver, sustainA clear, staged process, so change is designed step by step and nothing is left to chance.
  • A plan that holdsFrom explore to sustain, so embedding is designed in from the start, not hoped for at the end.
  • Internal capacity, not dependencyWe develop champions and co-create tools inside the school, so the change stays when we leave.
  • Learning communities & phased scalingTeachers learn together and spread what works one careful step at a time, and we help you stop what doesn't (de-implementation).
  • An interactive websiteKeeps the work alive between sessions and makes progress visible to everyone involved.
04 / AI IN EDUCATION, CURRICULUM & TEACHERS

AI in line with your goals, by design.

AI is not good or bad in itself; what matters is whether it serves your learning goals. Learning means a lasting change in long-term memory, and that takes cognitive effort, so the real question is which knowledge and skills students have to build independently and where AI genuinely adds something. We work backwards from the goals, using constructive alignment, so using AI becomes a deliberate design choice rather than an afterthought.

Constructive alignmentBackward designLearning goals firstCurriculum & lesson designTeacher support

Core ideas

  • Goals decide, not the toolAI is only useful when it fits what students are meant to learn. The learning goals lead, the technology follows.
  • Learning is a change in long-term memoryAnd that takes cognitive effort. Where AI does the thinking for students, real learning stalls.
  • Backward designWe start from the end goal and reason back to what students must be able to do on their own.
  • Constructive alignmentGoals, activities and assessment are aligned, so using AI becomes a deliberate design choice, not an afterthought.
  • Two considered routesEither students master the core first and AI deepens it, or using AI well is itself a learning goal.
  • A clear line on assessmentWe decide together where students work independently and where AI genuinely adds something.
05 / SELF-REGULATION

Self-regulation, deliberately built.

Self-regulation doesn't appear on its own; it is taught and carefully built. This isn't about handing students more freedom or more ownership, it's about them learning to plan, monitor and adjust their own learning. We help schools develop self-regulated learning in a way that respects the science of learning, not by assuming autonomy, but by deliberately using structure, practice and desirable difficulties.

Self-regulated learningMetacognitionModelling & scaffoldingGradual releaseDesirable difficulties

Core ideas

  • Taught, not assumedSelf-regulation is built step by step, not expected to appear on its own.
  • Plan, monitor, reflectStudents learn to set a goal and pick a strategy, keep an eye on their progress, and evaluate what worked afterwards.
  • Metacognition at the heartStudents learn to think about their own thinking: what they do and don't understand, and which strategy fits the task.
  • We make the thinking visibleThrough modelling and thinking aloud we show the strategies behind good work, then practise them with support.
  • Structure first, autonomy released graduallyChecklists, worked examples and prompts scaffold the work; support is faded as competence grows, not assumed from the start.
  • Reinforces formative actionFeedback targets the strategy, not just the answer, so students learn to read and steer their own progress.
How we work

Built to last, not to impress.

Improvement doesn't come from big interventions, but from small, daily decisions grounded in what works. So we work in four phases, the same model we use to embed change durably in schools.

01

Explore

We map your context, ambitions and what's already working, so we build on solid ground, not assumptions.

02

Prepare

Together we design the trajectory, secure buy-in and get the conditions right before anyone steps into a classroom.

03

Deliver

We train, coach and model alongside your team, putting evidence to work in real lessons.

04

Sustain

We hand over the habits, structures and ownership so the change keeps running long after we've gone.

Not sure which fits?

Tell us what you're working on and we'll suggest the right starting point, no obligation.

Book a conversation Meet the team