Notice
Compare reasoning in discussion, drawing or problem solving with the child’s usual written or timed output.
Our approach
Start with the thinking.
We ask what the task is meant to reveal, what the person can already do, how they understand the instructions, and which demands are blocking that evidence. Then teaching, tools, communication and environment can be adjusted together and reviewed.
Understand
Bring together the child, family, subject teachers and support staff. Check knowledge and genuine skill gaps as well as avoidable demands.
Change access
Keep ideas demanding. Teach weak skills directly; try a suitable route, scaffold, environment and way to respond.
Check
Compare demanding work, reasoning, effort, progress and independence across repeated tasks.
Share and adapt
Carry what helps across subjects. Keep, change or fade support as the task and learner develop.
Build self advocacy
Help children recognise what helps, choose strategies and explain what they need.
These are connected review actions, not six isolated interventions. Our school research programme applies them with children; the underlying questions also matter in adult work. The child compares how each route feels, while the teacher checks learning. More than one barrier may need changing at the same time.
Two routes to trial
Whole to part and part to whole.
A part-first lesson teaches components and connects them into a larger idea. A whole-first lesson shows the purpose or relationship, then explicitly teaches the required components within it. The route is chosen and revised from what pupils learn, not from a permanent label.
Both routes keep the same curriculum standard. Both require direct teaching of knowledge and skills.