Differentiation

Also called Adaptive teaching, Scaffolding

Adapting teaching so every pupil can access the same curriculum. The current word for it is adaptive teaching.

What it is

Differentiation means adjusting how something is taught so pupils with different starting points can learn it.

The term schools now prefer is adaptive teaching, which emphasises adjusting explanation, scaffolding and questioning in the moment, rather than producing three versions of a worksheet and giving the lowest one to the same children every time.

Scaffolding is the specific technique of temporary support — writing frames, worked examples, sentence starters — removed as the pupil becomes able.

Where it applies

Every classroom. It is the first line of SEND provision — the Code calls high quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, the first response.

How it works

Well done, it keeps every child on the same curriculum with different amounts of support. Badly done, it becomes a permanently reduced curriculum for the same group of children, which is how a gap widens rather than closes.

What you can ask for

Ask what your child is being taught, not just what support they get. If the answer is a different, easier curriculum indefinitely, that is worth a conversation.

Ask what scaffolds are in place and what the plan is for removing them. Support with no fading plan becomes dependence.

Where to get help

The class teacher first, then the SENCO. The EEF's "Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools" guidance report is the accessible source.