Chisnell Chatter – Edition 39

June 2026

Welcome to the next jam-packed edition of Chisnell Chatter; your professional leadership briefing. This edition has a smorgasbord of items including the 80:20 rule in leadership, getting the most out of think-pair-share, and the Dr Fox effect. As always, please share with colleagues who may find this helpful.

This read will take you around 8 minutes; grab a coffee and a chocolate digestive (other choccy biccies are available).

Leadership and the 80:20 rule

School leadership can sometimes feel like spinning plates… while answering emails… while covering a lesson… while wondering who booked a parent meeting at 4:45pm on a Friday 🤯

Which is why the 80:20 rule matters. It’s a powerful leadership concept. Brace yourself for the leadership truth:

80% of your impact often comes from 20% of your actions.

Yet many leaders spend 80% of their time searching for the missing glue stick budget code, replying to “just a quick one…” emails, locating a child’s unnamed PE kit or attending meetings that could probably have been replaced by… an email.

Challenge yourself to think about what are the 20% of things that actually move your school forward?

✅ Being visible around school
✅ Coaching staff well
✅ Sharp curriculum thinking
✅ Developing culture and climate
✅ Knowing pupils deeply
✅ Having courageous conversations early
✅ Protecting time to think strategically

Not reorganising the shared drive for the sixth time this term ( Oh yes, I’ve travelled down that rabbit hole many times). Great leadership is often less about doing more… and more about doing what matters most, consistently.

Sometimes the most productive thing a school leader can say is: “No… that does not need a 47-slide PowerPoint.” So, challenge yourself to deal with the 20% of jobs that make a difference and be easy on yourself with the 80% that will have limited impact. And in that space left behind, there may even be time for a digestive and a cup of tea – now that’s where the strategic thinking really takes hold!

Ofsted admits the relationship between disadvantage and achievement judgements

School leaders working in challenging circumstances will quietly welcome Ofsted’s latest commentary on “achievement” and attainment data.

For too long, there has been a fear that headline numbers alone define the story of a school. Yet those leading communities with high disadvantage, SEND complexity, mobility and attendance challenges know the reality is far more nuanced.

The emerging direction of the 2025 framework appears to recognise this.

Achievement is not simply a score. It is:
• whether pupils can access the curriculum
• whether gaps are closing over time
• whether attendance is improving
• whether vulnerable pupils are included well
• whether leaders truly understand the barriers their children face
• and whether the school is building a culture where pupils can flourish.

This does not mean standards matter less. Far from it. But it does suggest that inspectors are increasingly interested in the quality of the journey alongside the destination.

Schools serving complex communities should therefore be ready to articulate:
➡️ the reality of their context
➡️ the barriers pupils face
➡️ the rationale behind strategic decisions
➡️ the evidence of improvement over time
➡️ and the lived experience of children in the school – particularly the inclusive groups (disadvantaged, SEND and those who have been supported by social care).

The strongest schools I work with do this exceptionally well. They combine ambition with humanity. High expectations with intelligent support. Strong curriculum thinking with deep inclusion.

A Schools Week article on this issue is here: https://lnkd.in/eN-4eiFi

Dr Fox effect – Charisma, knowledge and the curse of expertise by David Didau

David Didau’s article, “The Dr Fox Effect: Charisma, Subject Knowledge and the Curse of Expertise,” challenges some widely held assumptions about effective teaching and leadership in education. His central argument is that engaging performance should not be confused with learning, and that deep subject knowledge remains the foundation of effective teaching.  

1. The Dr Fox Effect: We Can Mistake Entertainment for Learning – David revisits the famous 1970 “Dr Fox” experiment in which an actor delivered a lecture full of jargon, contradictions and nonsense. When delivered with charisma, humour and confidence, highly educated professionals rated the lecture positively despite learning virtually nothing.  

The lesson is clear: people often confuse:

  • Enjoyment with learning
  • Engagement with understanding
  • Confidence with expertise
  • Performance with impact

2. Engagement is Not the Same as Learning – David argues that schools often place too much emphasis on visible indicators such as participation, enthusiasm and lesson engagement. Whilst these factors can support learning, they are poor proxies for whether pupils actually know more, remember more or can apply knowledge later.  This has significant implications for lesson observations, instructional coaching and school monitoring.

3. Subject Knowledge Matters More Than Generic Teaching Skills – David challenges the belief that a “good teacher can teach anything.” He argues that deep subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge are more important than generic teaching techniques alone. Effective teachers understand:

  • The structure of their subject.
  • Common misconceptions.
  • How novices learn.
  • The sequence of knowledge pupils need.  

4. Students Often Know When They Haven’t Learned – Interestingly, later research replicated the Dr Fox experiment and found that although students enjoyed charismatic presentations, many recognised they had not actually learned anything new. Enthusiasm may increase satisfaction but does not guarantee learning.  

5. Beware the Curse of Expertise – David links this to his long-standing work on the “curse of knowledge.” As teachers become experts, they can forget what it is like to be a novice learner. Great teaching therefore requires not only expertise but also an understanding of how to make complex ideas accessible to beginners.  

Implications for School Leaders
  • Lesson observations should focus on learning, not performance.
  • Teacher development should prioritise curriculum and subject expertise.
  • Pupil engagement should not be used as the primary indicator of lesson quality.
  • Monitoring should focus on what pupils know, remember and can do over time.
  • Coaching conversations should move beyond generic pedagogy towards curriculum thinking and pedagogical content knowledge.  
The Takeaway

The article’s core message is that charisma may win applause, but knowledge drives learning. Effective teaching is not primarily about being entertaining; it is about possessing and organising knowledge in ways that help novices learn, remember and apply it successfully.  

For school leaders, this is a useful challenge to any evaluation system that confuses busy classrooms, engaged pupils or polished delivery with genuine learning. The question remains: What are pupils learning, remembering and able to do as a result?  This links well to the article on ratio in a previous Chisnell Chatter here.

Read David’s full article here.

Teaching our children about Safeguarding

When I undertake safeguarding reviews for schools, I always focus in on how effectively schools teach children how to be safe. This is a dimension that is too often missed by more corporate compliance based reviews that I read as an Ofsted when inspecting schools.

Carolyn Flynn recently posted about this issue and provided a super safeguarding graphic below. In her post, she made some salient points. She states that if we teach children about road safety, fire safety and staying safe online; why do we wait until a safeguarding before we teach children about safeguarding?

When safeguarding becomes a concept that children understand early rather than a punitive concept; we encourage children to:
• look out for each other
• understand emotions
• recognise unsafe situations
• know how to ask for help
• create safe spaces to talk
• learn kindness, empathy, and healthy boundaries

So, take a look at her graphic below and think about your own PSHE programme, and ask if this fully addresses the points above. If it does, then bravo! If not, then think about how you can use your own contextual safeguarding issues to guide your curriculum design.

Getting ‘think-pair-shair right’ – Kate Jones and Dylan Willams

Kate Jones and Dylan Wiliam argue that Think-Pair-Share is a powerful classroom strategy, but only when each stage is deliberately structured. Too often, teachers rush the process, particularly the “think” phase, reducing its impact on learning.  

1. Don’t Skip the Thinking – The most important stage is often the most neglected. Before pupils talk, they need sufficient time to think independently, retrieve knowledge and formulate their own response. This strengthens memory and ensures every pupil is cognitively engaged rather than relying on a partner’s answer.  

2. Pairing Requires Listening, Not Just Talking – During the pair stage, pupils should actively listen to one another. Jones and Wiliam suggest structured roles (e.g. Partner A speaks, Partner B listens) and accountability measures such as asking pupils to report back on what their partner said. This improves attention and encourages deeper thinking.  

3. Sharing Should Extend Thinking – When pupils share with the class, teachers should create pause time for reflection before moving on. The authors recommend the “Add, Build, Challenge” (ABC) approach:

  • Add something new.
  • Build on an existing idea.
  • Challenge a response with an alternative perspective.

This ensures pupils listen carefully and engage critically with one another’s ideas.  

4. Mini Whiteboards Can Strengthen the Process – Using mini whiteboards during the think phase encourages all pupils to commit to an answer, provides visible evidence of thinking and allows pupils to refine their ideas during the pair stage before sharing.  

5. Ask Questions Worth Thinking About – The strategy takes time, so it should be reserved for important questions that probe understanding, stimulate discussion and focus on key learning. Poor questions lead to superficial conversations; rich questions promote deeper thinking and provide valuable assessment information for teachers.  

Implications for School Leaders:

Effective Think-Pair-Share:

  • Increases participation from all pupils.
  • Strengthens retrieval practice.
  • Develops oracy and listening skills.
  • Provides teachers with rich evidence of pupil understanding.
  • Activates pupils as learning resources for one another.  

The quality of the thinking matters more than the activity itself. By slowing down the process, insisting on individual thinking first and structuring discussion carefully, teachers can transform a familiar routine into a powerful learning strategy.  

You can read Kate and Dylan’s article in full here.

Attendance – get em in and get em learning!

I have shared lots in my Chisnell Chatter about attendance. Here is a link to a my 30 leadership briefing on attendance that could be helpful for your team. Schools are being scrutinised deeply about their attendance in the new Ofsted framework. I recently came across Ibrahim who has produced a great little graphic on the roadmap to strong attendance.

Ibrahim Sanjaq suggests that attendance improves the fastest when school leaders stop asking the question, ‘how do we make students attend?’ but rather ask, ‘How do we make students feel connected enough to want to attend?’. His solution is to take these steps:

A practical roadmap could look like this:

1. Establish Whole-School Attendance Vision – Define attendance as a safeguarding, wellbeing and school climate priority. Create consistent language, expectations and leadership ownership.
2. Build Tiered Attendance Systems – Tier 1: Prevention, belonging, routines, parent awareness. Tier 2: Early identification and targeted intervention. Tier 3: Intensive multidisciplinary support plans.
3. Create Early Warning Systems – Weekly attendance banding reviews. Identify students declining from 96% → 94% → 92%. Cross-reference behaviour, wellbeing, SEND and safeguarding data.
4. Clarify Roles & Accountability – SLT drives culture and systems. Tutors build relationships and daily monitoring. Attendance teams coordinate follow-up. Counselors/pastoral teams address barriers. Safeguarding and SEND support complex cases.
5. Improve Student Belonging – Ensure every student is connected to at least one trusted adult. Expand mentoring, clubs, leadership and student voice opportunities. Reduce emotionally unsafe spaces and anxiety triggers.
6. Strengthen Family Partnership – Move beyond punitive communication. Build proactive parent engagement and early support conversations. Help families understand the long-term impact of absence.
7. Introduce Weekly Attendance Action Meetings – Every student discussed should have:
identified barriers, action plan, responsible adult, review timeline.
8. Measure Impact Beyond Percentages Track engagement, reintegration success, wellbeing,
participation, belonging, reduction in persistent absence.

Here is Ibrahim’s graphic:

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

My work is gained by word of mouth so my final humble plea is that if you have valued my work then please share this with colleagues. 

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 38

April 2026

Welcome to my next edu-blog post. In this post I explore attendance, the Inclusive Teaching Framework and advice on adaptive practice from the EEF. I hope you find this useful to your role. As always, please share with colleagues who may find this helpful.

This read will take you around 5 minutes; grab a coffee and a chocolate digestive (other choccy biccies are available).

Attendance – A fierce focus for inspection

Are you grappling with attendance in your school?

With the new Ofsted framework rolling into our schools; I have found that with the behaviour and attendance judgements being amalgamated, it is often seen that while behaviour is strong in a school, poor attendance limits the judgement evaluation to at best ‘needs attention’.

If your school is not at or above national expectations in attendance, what can you do?

The truth is, you are most probably doing a great deal already. The common error is addressing the outcome rather than swimming upstream to see where the root of the issues lie. Whether this is your curriculum design, engagement with parents, distributive leadership, approach to adaptive practice, pupil voice or whatever; there could be a core element of practice or pedagogy that could make a difference to your attendance.

Here is a recording of a my webinar on attendance. I hope this helps.

Let me know if you are interested in me visiting your school for an attendance review day. Powerful coaching for leaders and an analysis that will amplify your strategic vision for attendance.

Inclusive Teaching Framework

The Ambition Institute has published the Inclusive Teaching Framework (2026).

1. Inclusion is Everyone’s Responsibility

The framework positions inclusion as a whole-school priority, not a specialist function.

  • Every teacher is a teacher of SEND and vulnerable learners
  • Leadership, curriculum, teaching and culture must align around inclusion
  • Inclusion is judged through what pupils actually experience, not just provision on paper

👉 For leaders: Inclusion must be visible in classrooms, not just policies.

2. High-Quality Teaching is the First Lever

The framework reinforces that adaptive, high-quality teaching is the most impactful support for all learners.

  • Teaching should be responsive, not diluted
  • Same ambitious curriculum, different routes to access
  • Over-reliance on intervention is discouraged

👉 For leaders: Prioritise great teaching over bolt-on interventions.

3. The “Five Pillars” of Inclusive Practice

Most versions of the framework centre around consistent classroom principles:

a. Clear Explanations

  • Break learning into manageable steps
  • Reduce cognitive overload
  • Use modelling and worked examples

b. Scaffolded Support

  • Temporary supports (sentence stems, visuals, prompts)
  • Enable independence—not dependency

c. Flexible Grouping

  • Avoid fixed ability grouping
  • Use dynamic, responsive grouping strategies

d. Explicit Vocabulary Teaching

  • Pre-teach key vocabulary
  • Support language development for access

e. Checking Understanding

  • Frequent formative assessment
  • Adapt teaching in real time

👉 For leaders: These should form the non-negotiables of classroom practice.

4. Removing Barriers, Not Lowering Expectations

The framework is explicit:

  • Maintain high expectations for all pupils
  • Focus on removing barriers to learning, not simplifying content unnecessarily

Examples of barriers:

  • Weak working memory support
  • Poorly structured tasks
  • Limited vocabulary access
  • Lack of prior knowledge

👉 For leaders: Shift the narrative from “can’t do” to “what’s getting in the way?”

5. Precision Over Generalisation

Support must be diagnostic and specific:

  • Understand why a pupil is struggling
  • Match strategies carefully (e.g. scaffolds, pre-teaching, modelling)

Avoid:

  • Generic differentiation
  • Over-scaffolding without purpose

👉 For leaders: Build staff expertise in identifying need, not just applying strategies.

6. The Role of Teaching Assistants

The framework reframes the role of TAs:

  • Supplement, not replace, teacher instruction
  • Support independence—not create reliance
  • Be deployed strategically (e.g. pre-teaching, guided practice)

👉 For leaders: TA deployment should be intentional and evidence-informed.

7. Inclusive Curriculum Design

Inclusion starts at the planning stage, not as an afterthought:

  • Curriculum sequencing must support all learners
  • Knowledge is broken into logical steps
  • Prior knowledge is deliberately revisited

👉 For leaders: Inclusion = curriculum design + teaching, not intervention alone.

8. Oracy and Language as Gateways

Language is central to inclusion:

  • Pupils need structured opportunities to speak and think
  • Sentence stems, talk routines and vocabulary supports are essential

👉 For leaders: Develop a whole-school oracy strategy.

9. Belonging and Relational Practice

Inclusion is also about culture and relationships:

  • Pupils must feel seen, safe and valued
  • Strong relationships reduce barriers to learning

👉 For leaders: Inclusion is as much about how pupils feel as what they learn.

10. Leadership Implications

To implement effectively, leaders should:

  • Define clear, observable classroom expectations
  • Align CPD to inclusive teaching strategies
  • Use monitoring to focus on pupil experience
  • Integrate inclusion into performance management and coaching
  • Use data (e.g. Insight) to sharpen focus on groups

Adaptive teaching – advice from EEF

The Education Endowment Foundation have produced a really helpful document exploring the importance of checking for understanding relating to adaptive teaching.

Checking for Understanding… but then what?

👉 Checking for understanding only matters if it leads to action.

Too often in classrooms, we see:

✔️ Questions asked

✔️ Hands up

✔️ Answers given

…but teaching doesn’t shift.

So what does effective practice look like?

The article highlights three key shifts:

1. Check all pupils, not just the confident few: Use strategies such as cold calling, mini whiteboards, hinge questions—these give a truer picture of learning.

2. Diagnose, don’t just detect: It’s not enough to know that pupils don’t understand. We need to understand why. Look out for: misconception, vocabulary gaps, cognitive overload.

3. Act in the moment: This is where adaptive teaching lives. We need to re-explain differently, model again, provide (and strategically remove) scaffolds, adjust the task. Finally, we need to remember that feedback loops must be tight and immediate.

The leadership takeaway

This isn’t about adding more strategies. It’s about sharpening one of the most powerful levers we already have: responsive teaching.

In the strongest classrooms:

  • Assessment is continuous
  • Teaching is flexible
  • Pupils aren’t left behind quietly

When you visit lessons, ask:

👉 “What did the teacher learn about pupils’ understanding?”

👉 “What did they do next because of it?”

That second question is where the magic happens.

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

Here is a flavour of the support I give:

  • Safeguarding reviews
  • Pupil Premium reviews (very pertinent with the focus on disadvantaged in the new framework)
  • Attendance reviews (this involves coaching for action planning and new practice)
  • Independent investigations for capability and complaints
  • Initial Ofsted call coaching
  • Website reviews
  • Trust reviews (aligned to the Ofsted Trust Summary Evaluation Framework)
  • New framework training for subject leaders / senior leaders (many options available including live coaching of learning walks).
  • Twilight staff training for research practice
  • Twilight staff training for inclusion and adaptive practice for subject leaders 

My work is gained by word of mouth so my final humble plea is that if you have valued my work then please share this with colleagues. 

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 37

March 2026

Welcome to my next edu-blog post. In this post I explore the challenges posed in the Personal development and Wellbeing evaluation area in the new Ofsted framework. This is a single focus in this Chisnell Chatter as the article is a 5 minute read. I hope you find this useful to your role.

Ofsted – Personal Development and Wellbeing

As the 2025 Ofsted framework begins to unfold, school leaders are increasingly asking how personal development and wellbeing will feature in inspection. I recently delivered a briefing for school leaders on Personal Development and Wellbeing and thought the key points are worthy of sharing with you.

While wellbeing is not a discrete judgement area, the direction of travel is clear: inspectors are increasingly interested in the culture of schools — how pupils grow as people and how leaders create sustainable environments for staff and pupils to thrive. In other words, personal development is no longer an “add-on”. It is a central part of what makes a school successful.

Personal Development: Beyond the Classroom

Ofsted’s expectations continue to emphasise how schools prepare pupils for life beyond academic outcomes.

Inspectors will typically explore how schools develop pupils’:

  • confidence and character
  • sense of responsibility
  • understanding of society
  • readiness for the next stage of education or employment

This includes opportunities for pupils to develop leadership, resilience and independence through meaningful experiences.

Strong schools ensure pupils (particularly disadvantaged, SEND and pupils who have been in social care) can access:

  • leadership opportunities
  • debating and public speaking
  • creative and cultural experiences
  • community engagement
  • sport and outdoor education

Crucially, inspectors will look at who participates, not just the offer you provide.

The key question is often:

Do all pupils benefit, or only the most confident?

Inclusion and Belonging

A growing theme in inspection conversations is belonging.

Leaders should ensure that personal development opportunities are accessible to every pupil, particularly:

  • disadvantaged pupils
  • pupils with SEND
  • pupils with poor attendance
  • pupils who may feel marginalised

In strong schools, enrichment and personal development are carefully designed so that no group is left behind.

Wellbeing: A Cultural Indicator

Although Ofsted does not formally inspect staff wellbeing, the culture created by leadership is increasingly part of inspection dialogue.

Inspectors may explore how leaders support sustainable working practices through:

  • sensible approaches to workload
  • meaningful professional development
  • collaborative cultures
  • support for early career teachers

Schools that prioritise professional growth and psychological safety often find that staff confidence and pupil outcomes improve together.

The Link Between Wellbeing and Achievement

The emerging narrative within inspection is that engagement, belonging and wellbeing influence learning.

Pupils who feel:

  • safe
  • known
  • supported

are more likely to attend regularly, participate in learning and achieve well.

Personal development therefore contributes directly to the broader inspection focus on achievement and engagement.

Questions for School Leaders

As leaders prepare for the evolving framework, a few questions are worth asking:

  • Do all pupils access meaningful enrichment opportunities?
  • Are disadvantaged pupils fully included in wider experiences?
  • Do pupils develop leadership, confidence and character?
  • Does the culture support staff growth and sustainable working practices?
  • Is personal development woven through the life of the school rather than confined to isolated programmes?
The Leadership Challenge

The most successful schools understand that personal development is not a programme — it is a culture.

When leaders create schools where pupils experience belonging, opportunity and purpose, academic success tends to follow.

In the evolving Ofsted landscape, the challenge is not simply to demonstrate provision, but to show that young people are genuinely growing into confident, capable citizens.

And that, ultimately, is the purpose of education.

Finally, here are some common strengths in schools I have led and worked with:

1)   leaders have deliberately planned and sequenced the personal development programme in line with statutory guidance; its elements are taught throughout the school, and reflected in its ethos and values 

2)   leaders are ambitious for pupils in all elements of personal development; pupils are clear about these expectations and value both the programme and the support and guidance they receive from staff 

3)   leaders have clear aims for personal development and understand what it means for pupils to get better in a particular aspect (this is often articulated in the school’s equality objectives).

4)   subjects are led and taught by subject specialists who place an emphasis on wider opportunities within their curriculum design

5)   systems are in place to assess whether pupils have gained from what they have learned or experienced so that no child falls behind 

6)   systems are in place to monitor the quality of teaching in PSHE with a lens on personal development 

7)   pupils have rich and varied opportunities to gain the knowledge and skills they need to keep themselves safe, prepare them for life in modern Britain (pupils know, name and apply the fundamental British Values), and develop their talents, interests and character

8)   leaders have considered the different needs of their pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, and planned the programme to meet those needs.

And finally…

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

Here is a flavour of the support I give:

  • Safeguarding reviews
  • Pupil Premium reviews (very pertinent with the focus on disadvantaged in the new framework)
  • Attendance reviews (this involves coaching for action planning and new practice)
  • Independent investigations for capability and complaints
  • Initial Ofsted call coaching
  • Website reviews
  • Trust reviews (aligned to the Ofsted Trust Summary Evaluation Framework)
  • New framework training for subject leaders / senior leaders (many options available including live coaching of learning walks).
  • Twilight staff training for research practice
  • Twilight staff training for inclusion and adaptive practice for subject leaders 

My work is gained by word of mouth so my final humble plea is that if you have valued my work then please share this with colleagues. 

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 36

February 2026

Welcome to my next edu-blog post. In this post I explore the recent Education White Paper, formative assessment, the wisdom of Mary Myatt and consultation release of Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026. All essential reads for those in school leadership. Oh, and I also reflect on the importance of kindness in leadership.

Every Child Achieving and Thriving

Published on 23 February 2026, the Government’s schools White Paper sets out a long-term vision for education in England up to the 2030s, emphasising inclusion, high standards and redesigned school support structures.  

Core aims and commitments include:

1. Raising attainment and closing gaps
  • A national ambition that pupils leave school with improved qualifications — e.g., an average GCSE grade 5 or higher across the system.
  • A specific goal to halve the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.  
2. Transforming inclusion and SEND support
  • A major reform of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, moving toward new tiers of support — Individual Support Plans and Specialist Provision Packages.
  • Only the most complex needs would retain legally enforceable Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), while others receive statutory support plans locally in mainstream schools.
  • A £3.8–£4 billion investment to boost SEND provision, train teachers and expand specialist capacity.  
3. Broadening the school experience
  • A push from “narrow to broad”: enhancing enrichment, arts, citizenship, oracy and digital learning alongside core literacy and numeracy.
  • Schools encouraged to embed arts and other creative experiences more deeply.  
4. Teacher workforce and leadership
  • Plans include targeted incentives to recruit and retain teachers, especially in schools that face recruitment challenges.
  • A strategic plan for 6,500 additional teachers is set out alongside the White Paper.  
5. Stronger engagement and attendance
  • A renewed focus on raising attendance levels and pupil engagement, with expectations for schools to monitor and act on belonging and participation.  
6. System structure and accountability
  • Encouragement — and in some areas expectation — for schools to work in stronger collaborations, including trusts which can support improvement and inclusion at scale.
  • Changes to admissions and exclusions policy are also under consideration to further fairness and reduce off-rolling.  
So What Happens Next? Policy vs Implementation

White Papers in the UK are policy proposals and intentions, not legislation. They influence future bills, regulations or statutory guidance — but they do not themselves change the law. Any statutory reforms to SEND, curriculum, assessments or trust governance will require new legislation or regulation that Parliament must pass.  

What this means for schools:

✔ Immediate planning and consultation responses are expected

✔ Existing law (e.g., current SEND Code of Practice, accountability frameworks) remains in force until any new legislation passes

✔ Some proposals — particularly structural or statutory changes — may take several years to implement

What This Means for School Leaders and Governors?
  • Respond to the consultation: Many reforms invite formal responses from schools, families and trusts.
  • Plan for inclusion, not just compliance: The focus on inclusion benchmarks and engagement could shape inspections and accountability.
  • Watch legislative developments: School policy, accountability and SEN frameworks may shift significantly once the consultation closes and legislation is drafted.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment doesn’t fail because the idea is wrong. It fails because the implementation is weak. Kate Jones writes about the importance of getting formative assessment right in a recent blog post A summary of evidence based formative assessment strategies.

Dylan Wiliam defined it simply:

Use evidence in real time to modify teaching and learning.

Not marking. Not data walls. Not coloured pens. Real-time adjustment. Yet in many schools it becomes:

• Exit tickets with no follow-up

• Tick-box success criteria

• Peer feedback scripts

• Heavy marking policies

The strategy survives. The impact disappears.

The EEF’s implementation guidance explains why.

Change sticks only when:

🔹 Teachers are genuinely engaged

🔹 The approach fits the context

🔹 Leaders move through Explore → Prepare → Deliver → Sustain

Most schools jump straight to “Deliver.” No exploration. No shared understanding. No sustained support. We then call it inconsistency.

If you want formative assessment to work, stop asking: “Are teachers doing it?”

Start asking:

“Is teaching changing because of it?”

“Are misconceptions surfacing earlier?”

“Can pupils explain what quality looks like?”

Formative assessment isn’t a strategy.

It’s disciplined professional craft — sustained through intelligent implementation.

Completed work is not learning – the wisdom of Mary Myatt

Mary Myatt recently published a LinkedIn post on this issue and it is worthy of a read. As always, Mary grounds us in common educational sense, she reminds us that completed work is not the same as learning. For those who are not on LinkedIn (seriously, where have you been since the fall of Twitter?) her sis her post:

I’ve sat with pupils, talking about what they’ve been learning, their books full of neat handwriting and ticked boxes.

“Can you tell me something interesting that you’ve learned about recently?” I say.

Too often, the response is “I don’t really remember.”

The work was done, but the learning hadn’t stuck.

This is what happens too often when we offer tasks that keep children busy, worksheets that get finished, but where there’s no real thinking underneath.

We praise completion because it’s visible. It feels like progress, but completion without understanding is an illusion.

What should leaders look for instead?

👉 Can pupils explain what they’ve learned in their own words, not just read back what they wrote?

👉 Are there opportunties to build in talk before writing? As James Britton said “Writing floats on a sea of talk.” Without discussion, pupils have fewer ideas to commit to paper.

👉 Is there evidence of thinking, or just evidence of finishing?

When we talk with pupils, what they can, and can’t tell us, reveals everything.

KCSIE 2026

Take a look at this helpful synopsis from Nicole and consultation for 2026 KCSIE. Some important changes are afoot. 👇

The DfE has launched the KCSIE 2026 consultation, with significant proposals affecting every school, trust, and college. Here are the headlines you need to know:

🔹 Part One – Safeguarding for All Staff
• Removal of Annex A – all staff must now read full Part One
• Alignment with Working Together
• New Early Help indicators (e.g., repeated removals, part‑time timetables)
• Clearer legal definitions of rape and sexual assault
• Recognition that CSE victims may be criminalised through coercion
• Expanded guidance on serious youth violence
• Earlier expectation to consider LADO referrals

🔹 Part Two – Management of Safeguarding
Mental Health: Clearer guidance on when concerns become safeguarding issues
Gender Questioning: Integrated advice; legal duties on single‑sex spaces & sports
Technical updates:
• Racism & derogatory behaviour in preventative education
• New AI safeguarding guidance
• Annual filtering & monitoring reviews
• Cybersecurity recognised as a safeguarding issue
• Stronger expectations for AP, medical needs, SEND barriers
• Improved information‑sharing, including DSL‑to‑DSL handovers

🔹 Part Three – Safer Recruitment
• New SCR template
• Clearer rules preventing unnecessary DBS checks for work experience

🔹 Part Four – Allegations
• Trainee teachers explicitly included in all allegations processes
• Safeguarding responsibility confirmed for all individuals on site

🔹 Part Five – Child‑on‑Child Abuse
Revised structure aligned with the Hackett Continuum, clarifying:
1️⃣ Early HSB → 2️⃣ Sexual harassment → 3️⃣ Sexual violence

🔹 Annex Updates
• Guidance on AI‑generated child abuse material & Financially motivated sexual extortion (FMSE)
• Stronger expectations on DSL cover and required skills & experience

🔹 Evidence Base Development
Views sought on: affluent neglect, AI risks, BSL version of KCSIE, Children affected by Domestic Abuse (CADA), grooming gangs, gaming platforms, sextortion, non‑criminal HSB, staff self‑referral, Teenage relationship abuse (TRA), verbal abuse, and DSL workload.

📢 Have your say
These proposals will shape safeguarding practice for years to come.
Every voice matters: DSLs, teachers, governors, leaders, safeguarding partners, alternative provision providers, and social care colleagues.

👉 Access the full consultation here:
https://lnkd.in/eh3Nh6qE

I provide safeguarding audits for schools. This involves a two day on-site review with a full actionable report. Get in touch if you would like to talk this through.

Kindness in leadership

Kindness. Not the fluffy, laminated-on-the-wall kind. The disciplined, deliberate, courageous kind.

In school leadership, kindness is often misunderstood. It is not avoiding difficult conversations. It is not lowering standards. And it certainly isn’t trying to be liked.

Kindness is clarity delivered with care.

In a climate of sharper accountability, rising parental expectation and increasing staff pressure, the temptation is to harden. To become transactional. To manage by spreadsheet.

Here’s what I’ve learned working with headteachers, trust leaders and middle leaders:

Kindness is a leadership strategy.

It looks like:

• Pausing before responding to an email that raises your blood pressure
• Asking, “What’s happening for you?” instead of “Why hasn’t this been done?”
• Giving precise feedback without stripping someone of dignity
• Holding the line on expectations while holding people steady

Kindness creates psychological safety.

And psychological safety creates performance.

Staff who feel respected:
✔ take more risks in their teaching
✔ admit mistakes earlier
✔ engage more honestly in professional dialogue
✔ stay longer

In other words — kindness improves outcomes.

But here’s the twist.

Kind leadership is often harder than directive leadership.

It requires:
• Emotional regulation
• Deep listening
• Moral courage
• Consistency under pressure

It means having the uncomfortable conversation — but doing it in a way that says, “I believe in you enough to be honest.”

The schools I see thriving right now aren’t the loudest or the most performative. They are the ones where leaders are steady, humane and intentional. In a sector under strain, kindness isn’t weakness. It’s resilience in action.

And perhaps the uncomfortable question for us as leaders is this:

When the pressure rises, do people experience more of our authority — or more of our humanity?

Above all – in leadership, be kind.

And finally…

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

For those who have undertaken my professional training programme for subject leaders and senior leaders in the past, you may be interested in my updated programme that aligns to the new 2025 Ofsted Inspection Framework. This will empower your subject leaders to attune their practice to the inspection framework while strengthening their own professional knowledge and impact on pupil outcomes.

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 35

January 2026

Welcome to my second January 2026 edu-blog post. Busy, busy, busy!

The next (FREE) Chisnell Chatter Live session will take place in cyberspace on Wednesday February 26 2026 at 8:00am-8:30am and will focus on Inclusion and Inspection – embedding adaptive practice. With the focus on the quality of teaching and curriculum, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND and those known to social care in the Ofsted framework, this is an engaging session for all school leaders. Here are the Zoom joining instructions:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89236716121?pwd=IpafqrSd1h0C8wzdXDxiEofsUJaVci.1

Meeting ID: 892 3671 6121
Passcode: 929505

As ever, do get in touch if you would like any support, training or coaching for you or your teams.

Mobile Phones – to ban or not to ban…

Phones off. Phones away. Phones… occasionally spotted in blazers and socks. The updated government guidance on mobile phones has turned a familiar school issue into a live inspection consideration – and it’s one leaders can’t afford to ignore.

The DfE has published Updated Mobile Phone Guidance, here is what It Means for School Inspections 🎓

The Department for Education has strengthened guidance on mobile phone use in schools and Ofsted will now explicitly reflect this in inspections from 1 April onwards.

Here’s what leaders need to know:

🔹 Phone-free by default – The expectation is clear: schools should be mobile phone-free environments by default, with any exceptions well-justified and consistent.

🔹 Inspection focus – Inspectors will actively evaluate mobile phone policies as part of behaviour, attendance and attitudes. They will expect to see:
• A clearly communicated policy to staff, pupils and parents
• Consistent understanding and implementation across the school day
• Evidence of impact on behaviour, learning and wellbeing.

🔹 Policy rationale matters – If a school chooses to allow exceptions, inspectors will want to understand the reasoning and evidence behind that choice — not just the policy itself.

🔹 Context in inspection judgements – Mobile phone policy won’t be assessed in isolation — it will be considered alongside how effectively leaders shape culture and safeguard pupil wellbeing.

What this means for leaders:
➡️ Now is the time to ensure your phone policy is tight, effective, and consistently enacted.
➡️ Clear communication with staff, pupils and parents should underpin your approach.
➡️ Be ready to explain not only what your policy is, but why and how it supports behaviour, learning and wellbeing.

Great policy without great implementation won’t stand up to inspection scrutiny and that’s where leadership makes the difference.

Here is Ofsted’s blog digging deeper into mobile phone use in schools

Adaptive teaching – top tips from the EEF

Here’s a clear, practical blog-post summary for school leaders on the EEF’s recent piece about effective teacher feedback in adaptive teaching (from Adaptive teaching in practice: using feedback to check understanding – EEF blog):

Feedback and Adaptive Teaching: What Leaders Need to Know

In classrooms where learning thrives, feedback isn’t an add-on, it drives the way teaching responds to pupils’ needs in real time. The Education Endowment Foundation’s recent blog highlights how effective feedback underpins adaptive teaching and supports better outcomes for all pupils. The new Ofsted Framework has a tenacious focus on inclusion, as such, effective adaptive teaching is key to engaging our most vulnerable students. Here are 5 key points outlined in the EEF’s blog.

1. Understanding Adaptive Teaching

Adaptive teaching is less about rigid plans and more about what pupils show us they understand. Teachers gather evidence of learning continuously — through techniques like mini-whiteboards, hinge questions, and varied response methods — so they can tailor their next steps in the moment.  

2. Checking for Understanding

Effective feedback begins with checking for understanding that is:

  • Connected to clear learning goals
  • Inclusive of all learners, not just volunteers
  • Safe for pupils to reveal partial ideas or mistakes

This evidence becomes the foundation for meaningful feedback.  

3. Responding — Adapting to Move Learning Forward

Once teachers know where pupils are, they can adapt:

  • Pause and reteach when many haven’t grasped key ideas
  • Adjust support for those who are unsure
  • Extend learning for those ready to go furtherThese professional decisions ensure that instruction meets learners where they are, rather than where the plan assumed they’d be.  
4. Feedback as an Ongoing Cycle

Feedback isn’t a single event at the end of a task — it’s a cycle that:

  • Uncovers learning
  • Speaks directly to pupil thinking
  • Shapes what happens nextThis ongoing cycle builds confidence and keeps learning moving.  
5. Leadership Implications

For leaders, strengthening feedback and adaptive teaching means:

  • Supporting formative assessment cultures: prioritise techniques that gather rich, immediate evidence from all pupils.  
  • Investing in professional learning: feedback practice requires nuanced teacher judgement and skill.  
  • Monitoring practice thoughtfully: walkthroughs, coaching, and reflective dialogue can help teachers fine-tune how they check and respond in the moment.  

In short: feedback + adaptive decision-making = teaching that truly meets pupil needs. When teachers get better at reading the room and leaders help them do so; learning becomes both more visible and more equitable.  

Click here if you would like to talk through my training course on adaptive practice for subject leaders.

Poor Proxies for Feedback – Kate Jones

Kate Jones, in a recent blog for Evidence Based Education asks: what really counts as effective feedback? In her recent article, Kate Jones reflects on how well-intentioned classroom practices — including some forms of feedback — can sometimes look effective without actually improving learning. Drawing on the concept of “poor proxies” from research by Rob Coe and colleagues, she challenges leaders to rethink what counts as meaningful feedback in teaching practice.  

1. Beware of Poor Proxies for Learning

Some classroom behaviours are often mistaken for evidence of learning or good teaching — and this includes some feedback practices. Examples of such poor proxies include:

  • Students being busy or engaged
  • Written feedback that looks substantial
  • A calm, ordered classroom
  • Curriculum content that’s been coveredThese are positive conditions, but they aren’t reliable indicators that learning is progressing.  
2. Not All Feedback Really Advances Learning

Jones identifies common feedback practices that can appear effective but often don’t help students improve if they aren’t acted on:

  • Extensive written comments — look impressive, but rarely impact learning if students don’t read, understand, or act on them.  
  • Stamps or stickers — motivating, perhaps, but not informative about next steps.  
  • Generic praise — boosts confidence but doesn’t tell learners what was effective or what to do next. Precise praise — which highlights specific actions — is far more useful.  
  • Ticks/flicks — confirm checking, but often don’t communicate why an answer is correct or what to improve.  
3. The Real Measure of Feedback

The strongest indicator of effective feedback isn’t the presence of comments or marks — it’s what students actually do with it. As Dylan Wiliam and Siobhan Leahy aptly put it:

“The only thing that matters with feedback is the reaction of the recipient.”  

In other words, feedback must prompt change — guiding learners to act, revise, and deepen understanding. That’s when feedback makes a real impact.

4. Leadership Implications

For leaders striving to build feedback cultures that genuinely improve learning:

  • Look beyond surface indicators: Don’t equate busy books or lots of written comments with impact.  
  • Focus on learning behaviours: Emphasise feedback that generates student response, improvement, and metacognitive growth.  
  • Support professional learning: Develop shared understanding of what quality feedback looks like — and how to recognise whether students act on it.  

In short: Effective feedback is about learner action, not teacher output. As leaders, shifting attention from proxy behaviours to actual learning responses will ensure feedback drives improvement, not just appearances.  

Read Kate’s full article here.

Kaizen – The Japanese Secret That Makes Progress Feel Effortless

In a post on LinkedIn, Eric Parker introduces the Japanese concept of Kaizen. We often assume success comes from big breakthroughs. A bold decision. A dramatic change. A defining moment. In reality, most lasting improvement comes from something far quieter.

Kaizen

A Japanese philosophy that simply means “change for the better.” Not all at once. Not perfectly. But consistently. Originally rooted in Japanese industry and business, Kaizen has a powerful lesson for leadership, learning, and life: small steps, repeated over time, create extraordinary change.

Why Kaizen Works

Kaizen succeeds where grand strategies often fail because it is:

  • Simple and sustainable – no overwhelm, no reinvention
  • Momentum-building – progress creates motivation
  • Mistake-friendly – errors become information, not failure

It removes the pressure to transform overnight and replaces it with permission to improve gradually.

Putting Kaizen into Practice

1. Choose one thing

Start small. One habit. One routine. One behaviour.

Improve it by a fraction. Small change lowers resistance.

2. Learn from mistakes

Something didn’t work? Good.

Ask why, adjust, and carry on. Kaizen treats missteps as data.

3. Celebrate small wins

A quicker process. A clearer explanation. A calmer response.

Progress doesn’t need applause – just recognition.

4. Value feedback

Others see what we can’t.

Listening well accelerates improvement.

5. Stay consistent

Kaizen isn’t about intensity.

It’s about showing up again tomorrow.

6. Involve others

Improvement grows faster in community.

Shared reflection strengthens commitment.

7. Reflect regularly

Pause and look back.

What’s better than it was last month? Last term? Last year?

8. Keep it simple

If it feels complicated, it probably won’t last.

The best changes usually are the quietest.

9. Be patient

Real growth is slow enough to feel invisible – until suddenly it isn’t.

10. Never stop

There is always another small improvement waiting to be made.

A Way of Thinking, Not a Technique

Kaizen isn’t a programme or a productivity hack.

It’s a mindset. Start small. Stay steady. Trust the accumulation of effort. And one day, almost without noticing, you’ll look back and realise:

you didn’t just improve – you transformed.

Eric Partaker’s full post on Kaisen is here.

Chisnell Chatter Live

The first Chisnell Chatter Live school leader briefing took place in November and focussed on attendance top tips. A recording of the session can be found here. Chisnell Chatter Live in December focussed on Pitch Perfect Pupil Premium and a recording of this can be found here. The third session focussed on Talent Pathways, a strategic approach to CPD and talent management in schools.

The next (FREE) Chisnell Chatter Live session will take place in cyberspace on Wednesday February 26 2026 at 8:00am and will focus on Inclusion and Inspection – great ideas for adaptive practice. With the focus on the quality of teaching and curriculum, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND and those known to social care in the Ofsted framework, this is an engaging session for all school leaders.

Here are the Zoom joining instructions:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89236716121?pwd=IpafqrSd1h0C8wzdXDxiEofsUJaVci.1

Meeting ID: 892 3671 6121
Passcode: 929505

And finally…

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

For those who have undertaken my professional training programme for subject leaders and senior leaders in the past, you may be interested in my updated programme that aligns to the new 2025 Ofsted Inspection Framework. This will empower your subject leaders to attune their practice to the inspection framework while strengthening their own professional knowledge and impact on pupil outcomes.

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 34

January 2026

Happy new Year!

As the decorations find their home in the loft and the strain of Christmas lunch abates, welcome to my latest Chisnell Chatter.

In this edition I explore the role of governance in quality assuring the school’s approach to safeguarding, the new Ofsted inspection framework’s lens on leadership and governance, dealing with bereavement in school, the DfE’s new guidance on use of reasonable force and much more.

My next Chisnell Chatter Live session will take place in cyberspace on Wednesday January 14 2026 at 8:00am and will focus on Talent Pathways – great ideas for professional development for staff. With the focus on the quality of teaching and curriculum, in the Ofsted framework, this is an essential listen to all school leaders.

Here are the Zoom joining instructions:
Meeting ID: 879 8558 8794
Passcode: 290990

As ever, do get in touch if you would like any support, training or coaching for you or your teams. I have dates available in the coming weeks and months – get in early.

DfE releases: Use of reasonable force in schools

The Department for Education has published updated guidance on restrictive interventions, including the use of reasonable force in schools, which will replace the previous Use of Reasonable Force document from 1 April 2026. This is a significant shift in how schools should approach behaviour, safety, and safeguarding in practice.  

Here’s what school leaders need to know:

🔹 Broader Scope than Before: The new guidance covers not only the use of reasonable force but also other restrictive interventions — including restraint and seclusion — and emphasises the full range of practices that may restrict pupil movement.  

🔹 Statutory Recording & Reporting Duties: For the first time, schools will have a legal duty to record and report all significant incidents involving restrictive interventions (including seclusion and force) and to notify parents/carers as soon as practicable after an incident. This elevates transparency and accountability.  

🔹 A Stronger Emphasis on Prevention: The guidance places a clear focus on early support, de-escalation and prevention, encouraging schools to minimise the need for restrictive interventions before they become necessary.  

🔹 SEND Considerations: There is detailed advice on how to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) so restrictive approaches are used only when absolutely necessary and appropriate, and always with context-specific sensitivity.  

🔹 Clear Expectations for Policy and Practice: Leaders are expected to review and update behaviour policies to:

• explicitly include restrictive intervention procedures

• set out criteria for appropriate use

• outline consistent, transparent recording and reporting processes

• embed evaluation and improvement planning

• support staff training and pupil wellbeing.  

🔹 Focus on Reflection & Continuous Improvement: The new guidance encourages analysis of incidents with the whole school community to learn from critical events, refine behaviour support plans, and reduce future reliance on restrictive practices.  

👉 In practical terms, this update signals a shift from reactive response to prevention, reflection and accountability, aligning safeguarding practice with broader culture, SEND support and partnership with families.

✔️ Leadership action points

• Review and update behaviour and restrictive intervention policies

• Establish clear recording and reporting systems ahead of April 2026

• Invest in de-escalation training for all staff working with students

• Ensure SEND plans explicitly address risk and prevention

• Communicate practices clearly with staff, pupils and parents

Supporting girls with ADHD

Here is a link to the full article.

Here’s a summary of a super little article written by Vlad Glăveanu Professor of Psychology, Business School, Dublin City University. In the article, Vlad explores the challenges of identifying the needs of girls with ADHD symptoms.

New research highlights a critical issue for educators: ADHD in girls is frequently overlooked because it doesn’t fit outdated stereotypes. Traditionally, ADHD has been understood through a lens shaped by hyperactive, disruptive behaviours most common in boys. Teachers and professionals often look for these visible signs — but girls with ADHD tend to present differently.  

🧠 Girls may show symptoms that are subtler and internalised, such as:

  • daydreaming
  • inattention
  • quiet distractibility
  • being disorganised rather than disruptive
  • emotional reactivity rather than physical impulsivity  

Because these behaviours are often interpreted as personality traits, anxiety or simply “trying hard”, many girls go undiagnosed until their late teens or adulthood — sometimes with long-lasting impacts on self-esteem and wellbeing.  

What this means for schools:

✔ Recognise that ADHD looks different across genders.

✔ Train staff to identify non-stereotypical presentations.

✔ Support early identification and meaningful accommodations rather than waiting for disruptive behaviour to occur.

✔ Foster awareness that hidden struggles can be as significant as visible ones.  

Early recognition and support don’t just improve academic outcomes — they can also transform how young people see themselves. When we broaden our understanding beyond stereotypes, we unlock potential that may otherwise be overlooked.

Supporting Children Through Bereavement: A Quiet Lesson for Schools

The winter period can bring bereavement to many families. One of the most humane and quietly powerful books I’ve revisited recently is The Little Book of Bereavement for Schools by Ian Gilbert.

Written with his three children, the book is grounded not in theory, but in lived experience. It captures what schools did well, what they tried but missed, and what they sometimes avoided altogether when supporting a child after loss.

Its central message is disarmingly simple:

👉 bereavement doesn’t need fixing — it needs acknowledging.

The book offers practical, compassionate guidance for schools:

  • be honest and open rather than euphemistic
  • listen to the child rather than assume what they need
  • support classmates to respond with empathy
  • think carefully about curriculum triggers
  • remember that grief doesn’t follow a timetable

Perhaps its most important reminder is this: support must be sustained. Grief doesn’t end after the funeral or the first few weeks back at school.

For school leaders, teachers and pastoral teams, this is a powerful reminder that sometimes the most impactful thing we can do is be present, be human, and be brave enough to talk about loss.

A small book — but one with lessons that stay with you.

Kubler-Ross Change Curve

As we head to a new year, our leadership thoughts move to the challenge of change. I recently worked with a fab headteacher in Dartford on The Kübler-Ross Change Curve.

Change in schools is rarely resisted because it’s wrong.

It’s resisted because it’s felt.

The Kübler-Ross Change Curve, developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, helps school leaders understand the emotional journey staff often experience during change.

🔹 Shock – “I didn’t see this coming.” People need clarity, calm communication, and time to process.

🔹 Denial – “This won’t really happen.” A natural coping response. Repetition and reassurance matter more than urgency.

🔹 Frustration / Anger – “Why are we doing this?” This is the dip. Listen hard. Validate emotions without backing away from purpose.

🔹 Depression / Low Mood – “I can’t do this.” Confidence is fragile. Support, coaching and visible leadership are crucial here.

🔹 Experimentation – “Let me try…” Momentum builds when leaders model, encourage risk-taking, and celebrate small wins.

🔹 Acceptance & Commitment – “This works.” New practices embed. Collective efficacy returns.

💡 The leadership truth: Resistance isn’t defiance — it’s information.

Effective school leaders:
• Diagnose where individuals and teams are on the curve
• Adjust leadership style accordingly (directive early, coaching later)
• Hold purpose steady while compassion stays high

If you’re leading change right now, ask yourself:
👉 Am I managing the plan — or am I leading the people through the curve?

Remembering the emotion of change can guide you to support your staff to navigate change and empower them to reach your vision of the future.

The graphic below also outlines how leaders can counter the negative stages of change.

Safeguarding and Governance

Do you or your governors monitor safeguarding as a theme across your school or trust? Here is a solution. 👇

I have been working with a range of schools on safeguarding audits and this is an area that can often lack precision. Sometimes governors and trustees are diligent but aren’t clear about what key questions to ask when monitoring the quality of safeguarding provision in their schools.

I have devised a governance monitoring pro forma for safeguarding. While this does not cover every element of the school’s obligation for safeguarding, it does provide key prompt questions to start a wider discussion when reviewing practice. Give it a go and see where the conversation takes you.

Governor Monitoring Proforma 2025 FrameworkDownload

Ofsted – Leadership & Governance

The new Ofsted framework is now in full swing. In this edition, I focus on leadership and governance. The first point to note is that governance is now up front and centre in this evaluation area.

Under the new system:

  • Leadership and Governance is a distinct evaluation area on the report card, graded on a five-point scale (urgent improvement → expected standard → strong → exceptional).  
  • Inspectors will consider leaders’ roles in creating inclusive culture, promoting well-being, and responding to pupils’ and staff needs. Well-being and workload considerations are now explicitly part of inspection evaluation areas.  
  • The framework recognises contextual factors (e.g., local challenges, intake profiles, SEND complexity) when judging leadership effectiveness.  
  • Leadership performance is evaluated through evidence, narrative and dialogue, not just outcomes data — supporting a more transparent and balanced inspection experience.  
Top Tips for School Leaders Under the 2025 Framework
1. Know Your Report Card Criteria

Understand how Leadership and Governance will be graded and what inspectors will evidence. Leadership is not just about outcomes but also about:

  • strategic clarity
  • embedding inclusion and well-being
  • demonstrating sustained improvement
  • evidence of effective governanceand a sharp safeguarding culture.  

➡️ Tip: Work with your governance team to map evidence against the new criteria well before inspection readiness.

2. Lead With Clear Vision and Purpose

Inspectors will expect leaders to articulate:

  • a clear strategic direction
  • self-evaluation rooted in realistic evidence
  • meaningful action plans with measurable impact

Clarity of vision that is shared and understood across the school strengthens leadership narratives and reinforces trust.  

➡️ Tip: Revisit and refresh your school’s improvement plan regularly and ensure it aligns with current context and priorities.

3. Prioritise Inclusion and Well-Being

The updated framework places well-being and inclusion alongside core areas like curriculum, behaviour and safeguarding. Leaders must demonstrate how policies translate into practice that supports learners, staff and families.  

➡️ Tip: Regularly review staff workload, pupil support systems, and well-being strategies, and keep evidence of impact.

4. Strengthen Governance Roles

Leadership and governance are now intricately linked in evaluation. Governors and trustees should:

  • know their statutory roles
  • challenge effectively
  • demonstrate impact on school improvement
  • engage with data in meaningful ways as part of collective leadership accountability.  
  • for trusts: know and enact the trust scheme of delegation so that governance at every level is effective

➡️ Tip: Build structured evidence of governance impact throughout the year.

5. Use Narrative, Not Just Data

The new report card gives inspectors room for contextual narrative. Leaders should be prepared to explain not just what you do, but why and how it impacts pupils — especially in your context.  

➡️ Tip: Develop short, evidence-linked narratives for evaluation areas that reflect school priorities and outcomes. See my lesson visit and work scrutiny monitoring proformas as an idea of how to record the narrative of improvement.

6. Cultivate Shared Leadership

Ofsted’s renewed approach values distributed leadership — where leadership is evident at all levels (senior leaders, middle leaders, classroom practice). This shows sustainable leadership practice beyond the headteacher alone.  

➡️ Tip: Build leadership capacity through coaching, mentoring and professional growth opportunities.

7. Evidence Safeguarding With Confidence

Safeguarding is a standalone judgement of “met” or “not met,” separate from other leadership assessments. Leaders must ensure safeguarding practice is clearly evidenced and understood at all levels.  

➡️ Tip: Keep regular audits, training records and impact evaluations ready as a transparent evidence base. Ensure that safeguarding forms part of every relevant monitoring activity. See my governance safeguarding monitoring forms.

8. Prepare for Contextual Inspection Dialogue

Inspectors are encouraged to engage in professional dialogue and understand each school’s unique context — strengths, challenges, community needs — as part of the evidence gathering process.  

➡️ Tip: Create opportunities for constructive dialogue within the school community that positions leadership as reflective, responsive and contextual. The more you do this in the course of your work, the more natural this will feel when inspected.

Quick Leader Checklist: 2025 Ofsted

✔ Understand report card structure and toolkit grading

✔ Align improvement plans with core evaluation areas

✔ Evidence inclusion, well-being and leadership impact

✔ Strengthen governance evidence

✔ Prepare clear narratives, not just data

✔ Build leadership capacity school-wide

✔ Demonstrate robust safeguarding practice

✔ Engage in reflective, evidence-driven dialogue

Chisnell Chatter Live

The first Chisnell Chatter Live school leader briefing took place in November and focussed on attendance top tips. A recording of the session can be found here. Chisnell Chatter Live in December focussed on Pitch Perfect Pupil Premium and a recording of this can be found here.

The next Chisnell Chatter Live session will take place in cyberspace on Wednesday January 14 2026 at 8:00am and will focus on Talent Pathways – great ideas for professional development for staff. With the focus on the quality of teaching and curriculum, in the Ofsted framework, this is an essential listen to all school leaders.

Here are the Zoom joining instructions:
Meeting ID: 879 8558 8794
Passcode: 290990

And finally…

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

For those who have undertaken my professional training programme for subject leaders and senior leaders in the past, you may be interested in my updated programme that aligns to the new 2025 Ofsted Inspection Framework. This will empower your subject leaders to attune their practice to the inspection framework while strengthening their own professional knowledge and impact on pupil outcomes.

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 33

December 2025

Hello and welcome to my latest Chisnell Chatter.

As the dust settles from the Chancellor’s budget and Christmas trees appear in our hallways, I bring you festive greetings.

In this edition I explore the importance of achievement though Ofsted’s new Inspection framework and provide practical steps in how to embed a lens of achievement when reviewing pupils’ work. I reflect on great edu-reads such as Essential Motivation in the Classroom by Ian Gilbert. The blog also reflects on the key messaging for school leaders from the DfE’s National Behaviour Survey. Enjoy (Ho Ho Ho!).

Achievement – evaluating work

As an Ofsted inspector (I know!) I am always keen to use the inspection framework as a guide to my practice in school. This helps to focus school leaders on the language and methodology in the framework while remaining centred on student outcomes.

I have devised a monitoring pro forma that focuses on the achievement section of the 2025 Ofsted framework. So, let’s start with a clarification of what Ofsted mean when they speak about achievement.

In its broadest sense, achievement takes into account the student’s starting point, their progress from this to key attainment points. So, achievement is a balance of both attainment and progress.

The form below guides leaders in selecting a few key pupils who may not be achieving as well as they could or should in a given subject or across subjects. The document has helpful prompts for leaders and asks them to RAG (Red-not met Amber-partially met and Green-fully met) each area in order to define where strengths and areas for development may be seated.

When undertaking a work scrutiny, select a few students and this form can guide a pupil conference with them or their teachers alongside their workbooks. This can be used alongside governors as a format for monitoring, ensuring that governors remain knowledgeable about the rigour of your evaluative thinking as a leader.

Have a go at using the form and I would love to hear back from you about how helpful this is as a tool.

Work Scrutiny Proforma 2025 FrameworkDownload

DfE publishes the National Behaviour Survey

The National Behaviour Survey (NBS) 2024–25 was published in November 2025. The NBS finds that while schools are seeing improved leader and teacher perceptions of behaviour, and pupils feel safer and more included, significant work remains in ensuring fairness in rule-application, sustaining pupil motivation and translating behaviour culture into consistently positive pupil experiences. Here is a helpful summary of the key points:

Purpose and Approach

The survey covers four main areas: behaviour culture & policy; behaviour management; school environment & experience; frequency & impact of misbehaviour. Key Findings

1. Behaviour culture & policy
  • Only 18% of year 7–13 pupils thought school rules were applied fairly to all pupils all of the time.  
  • 84% of parents agreed they support their school’s behaviour rules (consistent with prior year) — primary parents’ support (89%) higher than secondary (79%).  
  • On mobile phones: 53% of school leaders said pupils can bring phones but must leave them in secure place (May 2025). Compliance: 96% of secondary leaders vs 63% of pupils said rules are followed at least some of the time.  
2. Behaviour management
  • 95% of teachers said they felt confident managing misbehaviour (32% ‘very confident’, 63% ‘fairly confident’). School leaders higher (99%).  
  • Access to training/support has increased: 54% of teachers in Feb 2025 said they could access behaviour-management training (up from 40% in May 2023).  
  • In March 2025, 86% of parents said the school communicates about their child’s behaviour (34% regularly, 52% when issues). Teachers: 84% felt confident communicating with parents about behaviour.  
3. School environment & student experience
  • In May 2025, 88% of school leaders, 63% of teachers, and 57% of year 7–13 pupils said their school was calm and orderly ‘every day’ or ‘most days’. 
  • Pupils feeling safe ‘every day’ or ‘most days’ rose to 80% (May 2025), up from 73% the previous year.  
  • Pupils feeling they belonged ‘every day’ or ‘most days’ rose to 69% (May 2025), up from 57% in May 2024.  
  • However, motivation to learn among year 7–13 pupils dropped to 70% in May 2025 (from 75% in April 2024).  
4. Frequency & impact of misbehaviour
  • School leaders reporting behaviour as ‘very good’ or ‘good’: 88% (May 2025), up from 72% in May 2024. Teachers: 65% (May 2025), up from 46% in May 2024.  
  • Teachers reported 7 minutes lost per 30 minutes of lesson time due to misbehaviour (May 2025), consistent with May 2024.  
  • The proportion of year 7–13 pupils reporting that misbehaviour interrupted at least some lessons: 62% (May 2025), down from 73% in May 2024.  
  • 21% of year 7–13 pupils said they had been victims of bullying in the past 12 months (May 2025), down from 24% in April 2024.  
Implications for Leadership
  • Although confidence in behaviour management is high, consistent and fair application of policy (especially from pupils’ view) remains weak.
  • Increased calm/orderly environment and belonging are positives, but the stagnation in learning time lost and drop in pupil motivation suggest further focus needed on engagement and culture.
  • Mobile phone policy compliance and parental awareness/support of policy are improving, but there remains a significant gap between adults’ and pupils’ views. This remains an educational hot potato, with the ban in Australia on social media for children and schools in the UK banning mobile phones, this is an issue worthy of careful consideration in your strategic planning and discussions, particularly where byullying and safeguarding concerns relate to the use of mobile devices. 
  • The drop in pupil motivation is a key warning sign: schools may need to focus more on student engagement, sense of belonging, and meaningful behaviour culture rather than only sanctions/structure.
  • The full document is available here.

Fluency – getting reading right

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £5,000,000 spend on books in schools (whoop whoop), Ofsted emphasise the importance of foundational knowledge in reading at the core of their new framework. So, from every lens, there is an urgency in ensuring that our schools have a focus on our students’ reading fluency.

Matthew Dix from the Fluency Factory has written a really helpful blog on the importance of reading fluency.

He emphasises the elements of fluency (it is not just about reading speed) Fluency = accuracy + automaticity + appropriate pace + prosody (Rasinski, 2010).

Real fluency teaching is simple: prepare the text, model it, rehearse it, and repeat it. Dix suggests that small tweaks in daily routines lead to smoother reading, better comprehension, and more confident learners (Rasinski, 2010; Shanahan, 2012; National Reading Panel, 2000).

It develops through:

  • Prepared vocabulary
  • Background knowledge
  • Teacher modelling
  • Echo reading
  • Choral reading
  • Repeated reading

Even small tweaks (shorter, scaffolded texts, modelling, repeated oral practice) produce measurable improvement in fluency and confidence.

So, what are the common pitfalls in developing fluency? In his article, Dix suggests the following points that emphasise what fluency isn’t:

  • Giving pupils a long, unseen extract and saying ‘read this’
  • Round robin, popcorn or turn taking
  • Reading as fast as possible
  • Silent reading
  • Something that you finish

So, in your setting; how do you ensure that your staff really understand fluency and how to teach this to their students?

Ofsted – achievement

In the next few Chisnell Chatters, I will focus on the new evaluation areas in the Ofsted Framework. Last edition focussed on curriculum and teaching so let’s move onto achievement. The first point to make is that progress is back. In your school IDSR you will notice that progress measures have returned. This evaluation area assesses:

  •  whether the school provides a high-quality education for all pupils (the impact), that gives them the necessary knowledge, skills and qualifications to succeed in life, and equips them for the next stage of their education, training or employment
  • pupils’ attainment and progress over time in national tests and examinations
  • the progress that pupils make across the curriculum from their starting points, so that they know more, remember more and are able to do more
Implications for School Leadership & Strategic Priorities
1. Embed equity-centred curriculum design
  • Audit and document the curriculum to ensure all pupils (particularly those who are disadvantaged, SEND and pupils who have been supported by a social worker.) have access to a broad, ambitious offer.
  • Monitor that foundational skills (reading, communication, numeracy, oracy) are explicitly built in — not assumed — so all pupils can access the full curriculum.
  • Ensure differentiation and scaffolding are effective, and that standards are high for all pupils.
2. Track progress holistically, not just via exam outcomes
  • Use internal data and progress tracking from individual starting points, especially where cohort size or complexity makes external data unreliable.
  • Ensure pupil work (books, projects, tasks) evidences “knowing more, remembering more, doing more” — across subjects, not just core ones
  • Develop internal quality assurance (work scrutiny, moderated assessment, curriculum sampling) to evidence progress and depth (take a peek at the work scrutiny monitoring form above in this blog).
3. Prioritise inclusion and support for vulnerable groups
  • Demonstrate equitable access and outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND, those know to social care, EAL learners, etc. — building systems of support, scaffolding, tracking, and review.
  • Ensure interventions and additional support are high-quality and consistently implemented; inclusion is not siloed but embedded across the school.
4. Build a culture of high expectations, ambition and continuous improvement
  • Set clear, shared standards and expectations for teaching, curriculum delivery, challenge and outcomes — across all staff.
  • Encourage professional reflection, peer review and collaborative planning to sustain high-quality teaching and curriculum implementation.
  • Use the new framework’s expectations to support whole-school improvement planning, self-evaluation cycles and strategic ambition (this includes a highly refined and purposeful Pupil Premium strategy).
5. Prepare robust evidence base for inspection and stakeholder accountability
  • Maintain a broad “portfolio” of evidence: curriculum maps, internal assessment data, progress tracking, work scrutiny, attendance, inclusion metrics, interventions, pastoral support — show a holistic picture, not simply exam results. This is for your internal systems of accountability but remember there is a multiple audience; governors, senior leaders, subject leaders, outside agencies and then… Ofsted. Don’t prepare this for Ofsted!
  • Engage governors/trustees in understanding the new framework and securing leadership oversight of Achievement, Inclusion, Curriculum, Teaching — integrated, not separate.
  • Foster transparency and communication with parents/carers: articulate how the school supports all learners, especially those with additional needs or starting points below national norms.
✅ Conclusion

The 2025 Ofsted framework reframes “Achievement” from a narrow outcome-driven measure to a broad, inclusive judgement of educational quality, equity and progress for all pupils. For school leaders, this means redoubling focus on curriculum structure, teaching quality, inclusion and evidencing impact, rather than relying on headline exam metrics alone.

The shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity: by embedding equity, rigorous curriculum and robust self-evaluation, schools can demonstrate a deep commitment to every pupil’s success — not just in grades, but in real learning, growth and life-long potential.

For more details take a look at the Ofsted Toolkit here. If you would like further support with this with training or coaching, then do get in touch.

Essential Motivation in the Classroom – Ian Gilbert

Ian Gilbert’s book, Essential Motivation, provides a really interesting perspective on the importance of motivation in schools. Ian suggests that motivation isn’t something we do to pupils; it’s something we design for them. He argues that students are more likely to work hard when learning feels meaningful, agency-rich, achievable, and a bit irresistible (oh I love that word!). Our job is to engineer the conditions—curriculum, pedagogy, climate, and adult behaviours—that make effort feel worthwhile.

Big ideas
  • Meaning before method: Start with “why this, why now?” Pupils (and staff) invest when purpose is explicit and authentic.
  • Autonomy with guardrails: Choice (task, process, grouping, product) boosts ownership when framed by crystal-clear success criteria.
  • Competence loops: Frequent, low-stakes success builds self-efficacy; struggle is motivating when the next step is visible and doable.
  • Relationships first: Credible, caring adults are the gateway to motivation; tone and trust are curriculum.
  • Curiosity & novelty: Well-placed puzzles, controversy, storytelling, and cognitive dissonance trigger attention and recall.
  • Metacognition matters: Teach pupils how motivation works (habits, routines, self-talk), not just what to learn.
  • Environment signals: Displays, routines, language, timings, and transitions should all say “effort is normal here.”
What this means for SLT
  • Vision & narrative: Make “motivation by design” part of the school story—purpose, autonomy, agency, and feedback as cultural pillars.
  • Consistency over charisma: Don’t rely on “inspirational” moments. Build common routines (e.g., Do Now, success criteria, exit tickets) that create momentum in every room.
  • Data you can feel: Track motivation through behaviour signals (try Ratio from my proviso blog), not just sanctions.
  • Adult culture: Staff motivation mirrors pupil motivation—clarity, autonomy, recognition, and growth pathways for teachers.
Practical strategies (whole-school playbook)

Curriculum & lesson design

  • Start topics with a hook + why (story, problem, artefact linked to real audiences).
  • Build choice architecture: two routes to mastery, alternative products, or role options.
  • Use tiered success criteria (“must/should/could”) to scaffold competence.
  • Plan frequent wins (retrieval, mini-tasks) and visible next steps.

Feedback & assessment

  • Switch some marking to feed-forward: one action that improves the next piece.
  • Make progress public and specific (learning walls, progress trackers, micro-badges).

Climate & routines

  • Embed entry/exit routines that start fast and end with reflection.
  • Coach teachers to use warm-strict language; narrate desired behaviours.

Pupil agency & metacognition

  • Teach a simple motivation toolkit: goal → plan → do → review → celebrate.
  • Use reflection protocols (e.g., “What made me try today?” “What will I change next time?”).
Finally, Ian suggests caution and shares what to watch out for:
  • Choice overload (too many options kills momentum). Keep choices bounded.
  • Novelty without learning (whizz-bang activities must serve the objective).
  • Inconsistent routines (motivation dips if expectations vary room-to-room).
  • Extrinsic trap (over-reliance on points/prizes can crowd out intrinsic purpose).
Leadership reflection questions
  • Where in our curriculum is the purpose least obvious to pupils? What will we change first?
  • Which routines guarantee early success in every lesson?
  • How do our recognition systems reinforce process and persistence, not just performance?
  • Where do teachers have permission to adapt tasks for agency without losing clarity?

Chisnell Chatter Live

The last Chisnell Chatter Live school leader briefing took place in November and focussed on attendance top tips. A recording of the session can be found here.

The next Chisnell Chatter Live session will take place in cyberspace on December 4 2026 and will focus on Pitch Perfect Pupil Premium (I do love a bit of alliteration). With the focus on disadvantaged pupils in the Ofsted framework, this is an essential listen to all school leaders.

Here are the joining instructions:


Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87985588794?pwd=vVdniiFqLfob0Wbw8srKF879ucFOGr.1

Meeting ID: 879 8558 8794
Passcode: 290990

And finally…

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

For those who have undertaken my professional training programme for subject leaders and senior leaders in the past, you may be interested in my updated programme that aligns to the new 2025 Ofsted Inspection Framework. This will empower your subject leaders to attune their practice to the inspection framework while strengthening their own professional knowledge and impact on pupil outcomes.

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 32

November 2025

Hello and welcome to my latest Chisnell Chatter.

I delivered my first session of Chisnell Chatter Live in October and it was a delight to meet face to face with school leaders across the primary and secondary phase. My next Chisnell Chatter Live event will take place on Wednesday 12 November (details below) and I hope to see you there.

In this edition I reflect on tips for heading off behaviour with upstream thinking, DfE documents on Sports funding and Martyn’s Law and updates on Ofsted’s new toolkit relating to curriculum and teaching.

Behaviour – Upstream thinking

I read a super little post by Peps Mccrea from Steplab on LinkedIn. He speaks about the concept of upstream thinking when considering an approach to behaviour management.

He starts with a quick parable:

You and a friend are relaxing by a river. Suddenly, there’s a shout from the water—a child is drowning. Without thinking, you both dive in, grab the child, and swim to safety. BUT…

Before you can recover, you hear another cry for help. You and your friend jump back into the river to rescue the next struggling child.
Then another drifts into sight…
and another…
and another…

The two of you can barely keep up. Suddenly, your friend wades out of the water, seemingly giving up.
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” you yell.
Your friend turns: “I’m going upstream to stop these kids falling in”.

There are times when we can get trapped in this kind of ‘downstream’ thinking. When we invest huge amounts of effort trying to deal with problems as they occur. However, our efforts can sometimes be better directed at tackling problems before they occur… towards prevention.

This is ‘upstream thinking’.

The further upstream we intervene, the closer we get to the cause, and the more leverage we gain over any outcome. If we look, we can see upstream thinking in lots of places…

→ Hospitals save more lives when they focus on smoking cessation alongside cancer treatment.
→ Fire services reduce casualties when they invest in fitting smoke alarms alongside improving fire truck response times.

Behaviour for learning is no exception.

When schools invest in upstream interventions—like culture, motivation, and systems—they are less likely to see undesirable behaviours manifest. The most effective schools are those which take steps to influence behaviour BEFORE it happens, as well as putting in place strategies for addressing it AFTER it has occurred.

Peps makes a valuable point here, we so often see behaviours and respond to them with sanctions and at best, restorative practices. In order to make a deep change in the culture of behaviour in our school, we need to go upstream to meet pupil behaviour at the point before it manifests into misbehaviour. Whether this is a focus on the clarity of vision and values, the PSHE curriculum, opportunities for pupil voice or training for staff; heading upstream can provide a lasting improvement in the behaviour of your pupils.

So.. what can your school do to move things further upstream?

DfE PE and Sport Funding Guidance

The DfE has released its latest PE and Sports Funding guidance for primary schools. Here is a synopsis of the key points in the document.

The 5 Key Indicators

Schools should plan impact around these indicators:
1️⃣ Engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity.
2️⃣ Raised profile of PE/sport as a tool for whole‑school improvement.
3️⃣ Increased staff confidence, knowledge, and skills.
4️⃣ Broader experience of sports/activities for all pupils.
5️⃣ Increased participation in competitive sport.

Smart Use of Funding – What Works

✔️ Professional development for teachers and subject leaders.
✔️ Embedding activity into the school day (active travel, active lessons).
✔️ Inclusive initiatives targeting least‑active pupils, girls, SEND, or disadvantaged.
✔️ Sustained partnerships with sports networks or clusters.
✔️ Top‑up swimming lessons for pupils below national curriculum standard.

Avoid Using It For:

❌ New building projects or fixed play equipment.
❌ Staffing core PE lessons or standard curriculum provision.
❌ One‑off events or coach hire with no long‑term impact.
❌ Substituting existing school budget commitments.

Accountability & Reporting

• Publish a detailed impact report by 31 July 2026 on your website.
• Complete the DfE digital expenditure return (including swimming data).
• Demonstrate how improvements will be sustained beyond this funding year.
• MATs must publish individual school reports – not one joint return.

Leadership Tips for Impact

⭐ Link PE spend to school priorities: wellbeing, behaviour, attendance, readiness to learn.
⭐ Build sustainability: invest in staff skills and systems, not just resources.
⭐ Track who benefits – especially least‑active and disadvantaged pupils.
⭐ Engage governors: encourage them to ask impact and sustainability questions.
⭐ Showcase success: PE should be visible in school culture, not hidden in timetables.

The full document can be found here.

Martin’s Law and education settings

Martyn’s Law (Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025) introduces new legal duties to help keep pupils, staff, and visitors safe from the risk of terrorism. It requires schools and education settings to assess risk and implement proportionate protective measures. Although there is a 24-month implementation period, the document is worthy of early consideration and adoption.

Who It Applies To

• Maintained schools, academies, free schools, independent schools, early years settings, FE colleges and universities.
• Applies in full to settings with 200+ people on site (staff and pupils combined).
• Smaller settings are encouraged to prepare voluntarily.

Core Leadership Requirements

1️⃣ Conduct a terrorism risk assessment for your premises.
2️⃣ Implement proportionate protective security measures.
3️⃣ Review site access, visitor management, and emergency procedures.
4️⃣ Plan and rehearse evacuation and lockdown responses.
5️⃣ Liaise with local security partners and emergency services.
6️⃣ Embed awareness into safeguarding, staff training and induction.

Timeline

• Act published 2025, full implementation expected by 2027.
• DfE guidance available now; statutory guidance to follow.
• Schools should begin preparatory work in 2025–26.

Key Questions for Leaders & Governors

✔️ Have we completed or scheduled a terrorism risk assessment?
✔️ How do our site access controls, perimeter, and visitor management protect pupils?
✔️ Are staff confident in lockdown and evacuation procedures?
✔️ How is security integrated into safeguarding and wellbeing policies?
✔️ What communication plans exist for parents and the wider community?
✔️ Do governors receive assurance on compliance and readiness?
✔️ How will we review, train, and update measures annually?

The full document can be read here.

Ofsted’s new toolkit – A focus on Curriculum and Teaching.

In the next few Chisnell Chatters, I will focus on the new evaluation areas in the Ofsted Framework. Last edition focussed on inclusion so let’s move onto curriculum and teaching.

The first point to make is that teaching is back. After a focus on the quality of education in the previous framework, the quality of teaching has returned in this evaluation area. This evaluation area assesses how effectively school leaders design, implement, and monitor a high-quality curriculum and teaching that secures knowledge, vocabulary, and foundational skills for all pupils. Inspectors consider both intent and implementation, focusing on equality of access and the impact of teaching.

What Inspectors Look For

1️⃣ Strategic Leadership of Curriculum & Teaching
• Leaders (including governors) understand the quality of curriculum and teaching across subjects.
• The curriculum covers statutory requirements and is at least as ambitious as the national curriculum.
• The school equips all pupils, particularly disadvantaged and SEND pupils, for success in later life.
• Leaders ensure teachers have strong subject knowledge and access to professional learning.
• Barriers to learning are identified and reduced through curriculum design and adaptive teaching.

2️⃣ Securing Strong Foundations for All Pupils
• Reading, spelling, handwriting, and maths are prioritised.
• ‘Keeping up, not catching up’—gaps are addressed swiftly through early identification.
• Vocabulary, oracy, and reading competency are developed across all subjects.
• Pupils are explicitly taught to communicate effectively through spoken language.

3️⃣ Early Foundations (EYFS and KS1)
• Early curriculum defines foundational knowledge for later learning.
• Daily story time, phonics, and dialogue strengthen language development.
• Repeated practice builds fluency in number, handwriting, and vocabulary.

4️⃣ Older Pupils (KS2 and Beyond)
• Assessment identifies gaps in literacy, language, and maths.
• Targeted teaching ensures pupils catch up rapidly.
• Teachers are supported to adapt instruction based on evidence of learning.

Leadership Implications

⭐ Align curriculum intent, teaching quality, and outcomes.
⭐ Prioritise professional learning that deepens subject and pedagogical expertise.
⭐ Use assessment intelligently—inform teaching, not workload.
⭐ Communicate curriculum ambition clearly to staff, pupils, and governors.
⭐ Model high expectations for all pupils, avoiding lowered standards in the name of inclusion.

Governor & SLT Discussion Questions

✔️ How do we know our curriculum is as ambitious as the national curriculum for all pupils?
✔️ What systems ensure teachers have the expertise and subject knowledge to deliver effectively?
✔️ How are reading, vocabulary, and oracy embedded across the curriculum?
✔️ Where are we prioritising ‘keeping up’ interventions—and what’s the evidence of impact?
✔️ How do we evaluate teaching quality without overloading staff?

For more details take a look at the Ofsted Toolkit here. If you would like further support with this with training or coaching, then do get in touch.

Chisnell Chatter Live

The first Chisnell Chatter Live school leader briefing took place in October. The session provides school leaders with a 30 minute micro briefing on a range of topics plucked from my Chisnell Chatter edu-blog. The first live session focussed on Ofsted’s new framework and how to use this to strengthen monitoring in your school.

The next Chisnell Chatter Live session will take place in cyberspace on Wednesday 12 November 2026. Sign up for the session here.

And finally…

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

For those who have undertaken my professional training programme for subject leaders and senior leaders in the past, you may be interested in my updated programme that aligns to the new 2025 Ofsted Inspection Framework. This will empower your subject leaders to attune their practice to the inspection framework while strengthening their own professional knowledge and impact on pupil outcomes.

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 31

October 2025

Brace yourself, more change afoot!

We have more educational and political change afoot, we await the White Paper on SEND amongst clarity on how the new Ofsted inspection framework will unfold from November 10th 2025. Dip into my latest Chisnell Chatter (I can’t believe this is edition 31) and pick up on some nuggets of inspiration and information.

In this edition I reflect on School’s Minister Georgina Gould’s perspective on SEND; the Children Commissioner’s report into children and pornography and Ofsted’s new Toolkit.

SEND

The schools minister, Georgina Gould, has hinted at the forthcoming reforms to SEND education. Here is an article published in Schools Week that reflects on Georgina’s comments.

The key messages are:

Four Principles for SEND Reform:

• Children, families, teachers, and support staff must be at the forefront of reform.

• Early intervention is critical – support must be given as soon as issues appear.

• Provision should be local – children shouldn’t travel long distances for support.

• Collaboration beyond schools – include health services, youth clubs, play, and workplaces that embrace neurodiversity.

Legal Rights to Support

• The government is committed to maintaining a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.

• The minister also gave a commitment that no child will be left behind in education reforms.

• Government adviser Dame Christine Lenehan previously suggested EHCPs could be narrowed or limited to special school pupils as part of reforms under consideration.

What are the implications for school leaders?

• Expect a continued emphasis on early identification and intervention – schools must strengthen their graduated response.

• Local partnerships will be critical – build stronger links with health, community services, and families.

• Prepare for reforms to EHCPs – ensure robust evidence and inclusive practice in anticipation of system changes.

• Leadership voice matters – ensure staff, pupils, and family experiences are fed into consultation and reform discussions.

It is clear that SEND reforms are imminent. As school leaders, we must prioritise early intervention, strengthen local provision, and engage with families to safeguard the rights and support of children with SEND. This echoes the heightened focus on inclusion in the new Ofsted framework for 2025 where inclusion has its own judgement area in the toolkit.

Children’s commissioner report into children and pornography

The Children’s Commissioner released a new report into children and pornography during the summer. This may have been lost in the myriad of publications during the summer months. Nonetheless, there are some important points that have implications on how we design and deliver our PSHE programmes and undertake our safeguarding of children.

Key messages include:

🔟 Key Points

  1. Early exposure – Children are exposed to pornography young, often by age 11, sometimes as early as 6 years of age.
  2. Accidental access – Most first encounters happen unintentionally via social media algorithms or poor platform design.
  3. Extreme content – Many children report exposure to violent or degrading acts, including strangulation and non-consensual sex.
  4. Normalisation risk – Pornography is shaping young people’s beliefs about what “normal” sex looks like.
  5. Links to harmful behaviour – Pornography is cited in cases of child-on-child sexual abuse and harmful sexual behaviours.
  6. Consent confusion – Some young people believe harmful myths regarding consent.
  7. Vulnerable groups at higher risk – Children with disabilities, those on free school meals, or with social workers are more likely to be exposed early.
  8. Safeguarding gap – Online Safety Act measures are not enough; children can bypass protections.
  9. Platform responsibility – Algorithms and design choices actively push harmful content towards children.
  10. Call to action – Stronger regulation, closing loopholes, and equipping schools to address the impact are urgently needed.

As school leaders we need to be aware of this document (full report here). We need to ensure that our PSHE or SRE curriculum addresses the points in order to safeguard our children. Also, that our filters in school swiftly alert us of pupils who may search for pornography and minimise the risks for our children in accessing inappropriate information when online. Finally, that our staff and families are alerted to the potential risks and that our safeguarding teams are knowledgeable of the signs and symptoms posed by these risks.

Ofsted’s new toolkit – A focus on inclusion.

In the next few Chisnell Chatters, I will focus on the new judgement areas in the Ofsted Framework. Let’s get started on inclusion.

Inclusion is the first judgement area in the toolkit after safeguarding. This gives an important message of the priority the framework places on the importance of inclusion.

So what is inclusion? Let’s not get trapped into thinking inclusion is just pupils with SEND. The toolkit defines inclusion as:

  1. Socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils (those eligible for the pupil premium)

2. Pupils with SEND; this means pupils receiving special educational needs (SEN) support, and those with an education, health and care (EHC) plan

3.  Pupils who are known (LAC) or previously known (PLAC) to children’s social care, such as children in need and looked-after children

4. Pupils who may face other barriers to their learning and/or well-being, which may include pupils who share a protected characteristic.

For more details take a look at the Ofsted Toolkit here. Get your SEND team to read through pages 10-16 and become familiar with the language and content and use this to reframe their strategic thinking, their monitoring and evaluation. If you would like further support with this with training or coaching, then do get in touch.

Behaviour – consistency is key

Simon Currigan, writing in linkedIn challenges us to think why school behaviour policies may not work.

He suggests that it’s not because policies are badly written but rather because they’re applied inconsistently.

➡️ One teacher gives a warning when a child breaks the rules.
➡️ Another jumps straight to a sanction.
➡️ A third ignores it completely.

Same behaviour. Three responses.

As a result, pupils learn that the adults are unpredictable and that rules aren’t really rules.

And for pupils with SEMH needs, that unpredictability fuels anxiety, stress, and dysregulation. As a result, pupils feel unsafe. As Dylan Williams would say, the adults need to change.

Unpredictable adults = unsafe pupils.

Currigan suggests the solution is simple and that consistency is key. It means creating predictable, calm adult behaviour that students can trust. Also, having clear procedures your whole team follows, while still using their professional judgement.

There’s a formula that explains why some staff stick to the policy… and others don’t.

⭐️ It’s called The Change Equation.

Understanding it is the key to winning hearts, overcoming resistance, and getting your team pulling in the same direction.

Because consistency isn’t just a strategy – it’s the foundation of a strong school culture.

✔️ When adults are predictable, pupils feel safe.
✔️ When pupils feel safe, they learn.
✔️ That’s why consistency matters more than any poster, policy, or reward chart.

You’ll see the payoff in calmer pupils, less stress for staff and a more focused classroom.

Here is the link to Simon Currican’s site for more details.

Top tips for engaging CPD

I recently led a training session for an NPQ cohort of middle leaders on highly effective CPD. Here is a short video of some of the tips taken from Shaun Allison’s book Perfect Teacher-Led CPD. You will need a LinkedIn account to view this, if you haven’t got one, just get one; this is a great place for professional dialogue.

And finally…

If you would like me to work with you then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

For those who have undertaken my professional training programme for subject leaders and senior leaders in the past, you may be interested in my updated programme that aligns to the new 2025 Ofsted Inspection Framework. This will empower your subject leaders to attune their practice to the inspection framework while strengthening their own professional knowledge and impact on pupil outcomes.

Chisnell Chatter – Edition 30

September 2025

Welcome back!

As the weather turns autumnal and the fresh paint in the corridors dries, I hope this edition of Chisnell Chatter finds you well. I have been refining my training and support programmes during the summer recess.

In this edition I reflect on top tips for classroom practice including the 3-2-1 reflection and whether to stream students. Reflect on the DfE’s AI training modules and wider thoughts on schools using Alternative Provision. Have a read and do share with any colleagues who would benefit from the content. Wishing you all a wonderful term.

3-2-1 reflection

I came across the 3-2-1 reflection when reading an article by Zipporah Murugi Muli. This provides a simple yet powerful reflection strategy. It’s quick, effective and works across subjects and grade levels. This can be used as an exit ticket in the classroom to check in on the depth of learning and understanding within a lesson. The three steps are to ask students to think about:

📍 3 things they learned
📍 2 questions they still have
📍 1 thing they want to remember

This strategy shifts the focus from teaching to learning. It tells the teacher not just what content has stuck but also where curiosity lies and what deserves revisiting. Even more, it empowers learners to take ownership of their thinking.

Zipporah also shares a worksheet to record the student’s thinking and this also can provide a helpful reference tool for students as they look back over their work.

DFE release guidance on Alternative Provision

As a lead inspector, I often come across schools using Alternative Provision for their students. Alternative Provision provides a valuable resource for our schools for students who need specialised support. I have also had the privilege of recently supporting an Alternative Provision provider to register to become an independent school.

As the range of Alternative Providers grow, the DfE have recognised that many are unregistered and the oversight by Local Authorities differs. The DfE has overhauled its guidance for Alternative Provision (AP)—replacing the 2013 version—with a strong emphasis on clarity, accountability, and outcomes. This update reflects changes in legislation and policy, and highlights key improvements in how AP should be structured and delivered.  

** What You Need to Know:**

  • Clear Legal Duties: Reinforces local authority responsibilities under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 for children who can’t access mainstream education—due to exclusion, illness, or other reasons.  
  • Improved Funding Transparency: Clarifies funding streams, such as high needs budgets, top-up funding, and school contributions, and stresses the importance of sustainable, high-quality AP.  
  • Early Intervention & Reintegration: Encourages collaborative planning among AP providers, schools, and local authorities to support pupils’ return to mainstream education—or transition into post-16 pathways.  
  • Flexible, Inclusive Delivery: Recognises a broader range of AP settings—including PRUs, FE colleges, vocational training, remote education, and unregistered providers—with an expectation of full-time education wherever possible, or well-justified part-time alternatives.  

Why It Matters

This refreshed guidance provides clarity and practical direction for all stakeholders involved in delivering AP. By advocating early intervention, transparent funding, reintegration pathways, and diverse delivery mechanisms, it aims to ensure pupils receive a tailored, safe, and consistent education—regardless of their circumstances. For school leaders, you need to be clear about the close liaison and engagement with the AP, if these elements are not in place then you will be open to some tricky discussions with an inspection team:

  • Ensure that you have visited the AP to assess the safety and curriculum and that you are clear about the oversight of safeguarding from the Local Authority and that you have a Risk Assessment in place.
  • Have a clearly defined curriculum that you can monitor and review regularly with the AP.
  • Remain responsible for attendance to ensure that your student attends and you keep a record of attendance.
  • Maintain clear liaison with the AP to ensure any safeguarding issues are raised and acted on.
  • Build in regular reviews with the AP and ensure that the parent/carer remains informed.
  • Have a clearly defined reintegration plan that is time limited with clear milestones of success to this point.

The complete DfE document on AP is available here.

AI training modules

The DfE has released modules for teachers and school leaders on the use of AI in schools and colleges. These provide helpful guidance as this emerging technology takes purchase.

Originally published on 10 June 2025, the DfE’s leadership presentation—“Using AI in Education”— offers school and college leaders a strategic toolkit for integrating AI safely and effectively into education settings. 

The suite of training modules cover:

  • The opportunities AI brings, such as reducing teacher workload and enhancing personalisation.
  • Safety considerations, including risks like hallucinations, bias, data protection, and child safeguarding.
  • Self-audit tools to assess current AI use and identify gaps or areas for development.
  • Guidance on strategic planning, including how to embed AI into your institution’s digital strategy. 

The presentation for leaders supports internal discussions among senior leaders and governors, helping frame key questions such as:

  • How do we ensure AI tools comply with GDPR, IP law, and school safeguarding policies?
  • How do we prepare staff to respond to AI-related safeguarding concerns?
  • How can AI enhance personalised support—especially for SEND or EAL learners?
  • What should we include in our AI risk assessment and CPD plans? 

Why It Matters?

  • Strategically Positioned: It equips leaders—from SLT to governors—with structured, scalable tools to approach AI integration.
  • Safety First: The presentation stresses critical oversight: AI should support teachers, not replace them.
  • Practical & Reflective: It includes tools to audit current AI usage, guide planning, and embed AI within wider digital priorities. 

Bottom Line for School Leaders

The DfE’s leadership presentation is your entry point into confidently and safely integrating AI in your setting. It frames AI not merely as a technical tool, but as a strategic opportunity—best harnessed through thoughtful planning, human oversight, and staff development.

Here are the links to the training modules for Teachers:

Understanding AI in education – Module 1

Interacting with generative AI – Module 2

Safe use of generative AI – Module 3

Use cases of generative AI – Module 4

For schools and college leaders:

Using AI in education – Leadership support

Teaching One Pagers

Jamiee Clark has produced a super book called One Pagers. This provides a one page synopsis of key educational theories and ideas. He has produced a range of posters that also accompany this and these are available here. An example of a poster available on his site is here:

To set or not to set? That is the question.

Schools engage in a range of grouping strategies for students. Whether primary or secondary schools, the research in the effectiveness of streaming or setting is always in hot debate. Here is an article by Joe Mason that unpacks the issues around setting, streaming and mixed ability learning. A worthy read to stimulate a fresh lens on your own practice.

The key points he makes in the article are:

There is no definitive answer as to whether to set, stream or operate mixed ability learning. Ultimately, the decision depends on your context, your teachers, your students, your resources. Good setting works. Good mixed-ability works. Bad versions of either widen gaps and leave students behind.

Joe asserts that The implementation—the people, the systems, the culture—matters more than the grouping itself.

If you’re leading a school or department, or your own classroom, the best advice is:

  • Know your students (not just their scores).
  • Make grouping flexible and humane.
  • Invest in your weakest sets (in teaching, resources, and expectations).
  • Watch out for bias—gender, ethnicity, relative age.
  • And never, ever let a student (or teacher) believe a low set means a low ceiling.

DFE releases outcome of its review on RSHE

New Guidance Becomes Statutory (Sept 2026)

The revised statutory guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), and Health Education will come into force from 1 September 2026. Schools must update their curriculum and policies accordingly and consult parents in advance.  

Key Principles Remain Central

The updated guidance reaffirms essential principles:

  • Preparing young people for a complex modern world—supporting their safety, wellbeing, and ability to form respectful relationships.
  • The critical role of parents and carers as primary educators.
  • Ensuring content is age-appropriate, inclusive, and sensitive to community values.
  • Allowing schools the flexibility to tailor content to their specific pupil needs.  

Schools Must Engage Parents and Be Transparent

Schools are reminded to:

  • Involve parents in policy development and revisions.
  • Clearly publish their RSHE policy, outlining content, delivery timelines, responsible staff (including external providers), and parental withdrawal protocols.  

Addressing Emerging Threats and Social Issues

The new guidance strengthens or introduces content on:

  • Sexual harassment and violence.
  • Developing age-appropriate responses, such as teaching about deepfakes, incel culture, and the impact of online misogyny.
  • Topics like financial sexual exploitation, strategies for personal safety in public spaces, and framing positive gender identities and consent.  

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Reflecting extensive feedback (with 79% support), updates include:

  • Clarification that not all negative feelings indicate mental health issues.
  • Enhanced focus on building resilience and coping strategies.
  • Requirement for secondary schools to have suicide prevention plans in collaboration with mental health professionals.  

Respecting Inclusivity and Legal Clarity

  • Schools retain the flexibility to teach sensitive or “contested” topics (e.g., LGBTQ+ and gender identity), without endorsing any particular viewpoints. They must teach the facts and law.  
  • Sensitivity to parental and community values remains a guide, not a restriction.

Why it matters for leaders?

This revised RSHE framework equips schools to better safeguard pupils against modern threats—particularly online harms and societal pressures. It offers clearer communication with parents and supports the mental health of children. Crucially, it balances statutory requirement with flexibility and inclusion.

And finally…

I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on any of the elements of this blog.

If you would like me to work with you in the coming year then do get in touch. We can have a coffee and a chat. The graphic below shares some of the ways that school and trust leaders have used me in the past year. As always, happy to engage in bespoke work that suits your needs.

For those who have undertaken my professional training programme for subject leaders and senior leaders in the past, you may be interested in my updated programme that aligns to the new Ofsted Inspection Framework. This will empower your subject leaders to attune their practice to the inspection framework while strengthening their own professional knowledge and impact on pupil outcomes.