Why might you want to use the Toolkit?
The Toolkit offers ideas and structured support for teachers teaching primary or secondary students, particularly those in KS2 and KS3, in mathematics or other STEM subjects, English or humanities subjects interested in improving their students’ learning and/or engagement.
It can also be used by those in leadership roles to support the continuous professional development of staff and the improvement of teaching, learning and engagement in their departments/schools.
Here are some examples of goals that teachers might have that the Toolkit can offer tools to address. This is not an exhaustive list; the toolkit will be useful even if you have other aims.
| Improving learning in maths/science/English/humanities | Improving student engagement in class | Improving students' discussion skills |
| Improving students' confidence in learning | Improving students' vocabulary | Trying something new in your teaching |
| Developing cross-curricular teaching | Supporting high- / low-attaining students | Doing some Action Research in your class |
What this Toolkit offers
Based on rigorous research and tested and co-developed with teachers, this Toolkit offers:
- A range of concrete tasks to use in your classroom or as models in designing your own
- Ideas for projects if you want to go bigger
- Planning tools for projects
- Tools to develop classroom talk
- Evaluation tools to assess student learning / engagement
- A structure to document your students’ learning as evidence for others
- A framework for CPD
All based on rigorous research and tested and co-developed with teachers.
Information for leaders
If you are a head teacher or Head of Department, you can use the Toolkit as:
- A research-based framework and resource for continuous professional development of staff in your school, and for induction of new staff
- A tool for guiding and facilitating the improvement of teaching, learning and engagement in your school/department in an accountable and evidence-based way
- A tool for developing the culture in your school/department to help all staff create and maintain high expectations of all students.
Your support will really help your teachers to make the most of their Toolkit projects.
We thought we were already doing all this, but introducing the Toolkit made a massive difference. The Toolkit not only improved our students’ written learning outcomes in English and Maths, but also helped improve their confidence, resilience and engagement. It also helped us teachers in our planning.
Working with the Toolkit has had a positive impact on our whole department to make our discussions more purposeful both in class and in our team. And we now use it in the staffroom as well.