NPQH Practice Activities: Leading Teaching
Cycle 3 Practice Activities
Select three of the following nine activities to submit to your leadership coach.
Choose activities based on your areas of interest and the results of the initial needs analysis undertaken at the start of the course.
Teaching
Activity 1: Monitoring curriculum planning and delivery
As part of his strategy to ensure curriculum planning at Up Holland School demonstrated effective pedagogy (building on prior knowledge, use of retrieval and spaced practice, teaching new content in small steps), Paul Scarborough instituted teaching audits by senior leaders, faculty reviews and observations.
Meet with senior leaders in your school to discuss the current approach to monitoring the planning and delivery of the intended curriculum.
Does this approach provide the opportunity to evaluate the planned curriculum’s inclusion of retrieval and spaced practice to build automatic recall of important knowledge and interleaving of concrete and abstract examples?
Draft a plan to refine the current process for monitoring the planning and delivery of the intended curriculum to improve the focus on effective pedagogy, use of spaced practice and interleaving of concrete and abstract examples.
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership coach.
Resource
Practice piece: Paul Scarborough, headteacher at Up Holland High School
Activity 2: Developing a bank of models and examples
James Marsh developed a technology-based strategy for resourcing and developing the use of effective models and explanations in Leigh St Thomas Primary School.
How could you exploit technology for more experienced teachers to share subject-specific examples of effective explanations and modelling with less experienced teachers at your school?
Does your school currently have the technology and infrastructure in place to support this type of resource? How do you know?
What staff in your school currently have the required expertise to develop and share video resources and online handbooks? How do you know?
Identify the necessary support to increase the sharing of knowledge and teaching practice in your school (e.g., members of the governance team, external partners, parents, teaching staff).
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) summary of your response and submit to your leadership coach for feedback.
Resource
Practice piece: James Marsh, headteacher of Leigh St Thomas Primary School
Activity 3: The development of skills to support learning across the school
Ian increased the impact of professional development on teaching by focusing on the development of skills that would support learning across the school – vocabulary development, metacognition and working in groups.
Meet with senior leaders to evaluate the focus of professional development at your school.
Is sufficient time and resource devoted to supporting the improvement of class discussions? How do you know?
How could you work with senior leaders to refine the school’s professional development plans to increase the focus on improving the quality of class discussions?
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) summary of your response and submit to your leadership coach.
Resource
Practice piece: Ian Young, principal at Rainford High
Curriculum and assessment
Activity 4: Developing subject expertise
Executive headteacher Chris Jones brought in consultant subject specialists to support subject leaders in identifying core concepts and to support the development of subject knowledge, planning and assessment.
Meet with subject leaders in your school to identify available sources of support and subject expertise.
Select one source of support to pursue and draft a plan to access and engage with this support for developing subject expertise.
Explain why you have chosen to pursue this source of support for developing subject expertise, considering the following:
o potential impact on subject leaders, subject teachers and pupils
o links to school development plan and priorities
o need identified through teaching evaluations and pupil data
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) explanation of your choice and submit to your leadership coach.
Resource
Practice piece: Chris Jones, executive headteacher at Bruche Primary School and Ditton Primary School
Activity 5: Developing literacy
Read the summary of recommendations from the EEF improving literacy report most relevant to your context. If your school includes more than one stage, just select one of the reports.
Meet with your literacy leader or literacy coordinator to discuss the EEF’s recommendations for improving literacy, and choose one of the recommendations as an area of focus.
Work with your literacy leader or coordinator to draft a strategy for implementing that recommendation.
Summarise your reasons for choosing to focus on your chosen recommendation.
o What is the potential impact on teachers and pupils?
o How does it link to the school development plan and priorities?
o How was need identified through teaching evaluations and pupil data?
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) summary of your strategy and submit to your leadership coach for feedback.
Resources
EEF (2018) Improving literacy in secondary schools
EEF (2020) Improving literacy in KS1
EEF (2021) Improving literacy in KS2
Activity 6: Promoting the effective use of feedback
Read the EEF’s (2016) report, A Marked Improvement, paying attention to their findings relating to the effective use of feedback.
Review your school feedback policy with reference to research on the effective use of feedback.
What are the challenges to implementing alternative forms of feedback in place of written feedback?
What action do you need to take to support teachers to adopt alternative approaches to providing feedback while maintaining high standards?
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) summary of your response and submit to your leadership coach.
Resources
EEF (2016) A marked improvement
EEF (2018) Teaching and learning toolkit – Feedback
Additional and special education needs and disabilities
Activity 7: Effective use of teaching assistants
Read the EEF’s (2025) guidance on the use of teaching assistants, paying attention to the recommendations.
Meet with a teacher and teaching assistant to investigate the use of teaching assistants at your school by asking the following questions:
How do the TA and teacher divide up responsibilities for supporting pupils with SEND and improving attainment?
How do TAs work with teachers to add value, rather than replace teachers?
How are TAs deployed throughout the school year and across the school, for example, changing their timetable, focus or duties in response to assessment data and pupil needs?
How are TAs involved in training and development?
How are TAs involved in planning and assessment?
Share the recommendations from the EEF’s (2018) guidance with the teacher and TA.
How does the use of TAs in your school compare with the recommended practice?
What action would you need to take as a leader to promote the effective use of teaching assistants across your school (for example, engaging TAs in planning meetings or professional development activity, refining the assessment policy or SEND policy, sharing pupil data, refining TA deployment)?
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) summary of your learning from this task and submit to your leadership coach.
Resource
EEF (2025) Deployment of teaching assistants
Activity 8: Understanding SEND provision in your school
Read EEF (2017), Every Leader Is a Leader of SEND, and pages 10 to 19 of Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools.
To develop an understanding of SEND provision in your school, meet with your SENCo, or a senior colleague with SEND expertise, to answer the reflective questions for leaders in boxes 1 to 3 of EEF’s (2017) Every Leader Is a Leader of SEND.
After reflecting on your answers, note any areas requiring further investigation or discussion and make a plan to further develop your understanding of these areas. For example, you may wish to arrange to meet with relevant staff or experts to discuss SEND processes, policies and guidance.
Submission
Submit a 100-word summary of your learning from this activity to your leadership coach.
Resources
EEF (2017) Special educational needs in mainstream schools
EEF (2017) Every school leader is a leader of SEND
Activity 9: Investigating grouping strategies
Webster et al. (2017) found that attainment grouping could have a negative impact on pupil motivation, and there is the potential for some grouping strategies to limit pupil experience. Effective headteachers promote flexible grouping strategies that facilitate targeted support without limiting pupil access to highquality education. In this activity you will look through the lens of just two pupils to investigate the grouping strategies employed in your school.
Read pages 82 to 84 of McLeskey et al.’s High Leverage Practices in Special Education, which explains a variety of grouping strategies for different purposes.
Identify two pupils in your school with additional and special education needs and disabilities and follow the way they are grouped over a week (for example, their membership of homogenous or heterogenous groups for different tasks and subjects). You may need to liaise with their tutor or head of year to track this.
How were the pupils grouped over the week?
How do the grouping strategies employed support effective interventions and targeted support?
What is the rationale for the use of groups (for example, administrative, task focused, targeted intervention), and how does the strategy contribute to high-quality teaching?
Do the grouping strategies employed restrict access to the curriculum or disadvantage the pupils in any way? If so, what action was taken to compensate for this?
How do teachers monitor the impact of grouping on motivation and attainment?
How does the use of groups compare with the effective practice identified by McLeskey et al. (2017)?
Informed by your reading and research, produce a one-page guide for teachers and leaders at your school which explains:
the need to maintain high expectations for all groups
how to ensure all pupils have access to a rich curriculum
that any groups based on attainment should be subject specific
that pupils must not have the perception that these groups are fixed Submission
Submit a 100-word summary of your learning from this activity to your leadership coach.
Resource
McLeskey, J., Barringer, M-D., Billingsley, B., Brownell, M., Jackson, D., Kennedy, M., Lewis, T., Maheady, L., Rodriguez, J., Scheeler, M. C., Win, J., & Ziegler, D. (2017). High-leverage practices in special education. Arlington, VA: Council for Exceptional Children and CEEDER Center.