Adapt high-quality whole-class teaching — what the DfE now calls adaptive teaching — not separate ‘easier’ worksheets. Scaffold, group flexibly, instruct explicitly, then review through assess-plan-do-review.
First move: adapt, do not water down
The single most important shift is the one the word ‘differentiation’ quietly undid. The statutory SEND Code of Practice (2015) says at paragraph 6.37 that high-quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have special educational needs — and that no amount of extra intervention makes up for teaching that is not good enough in the first place. In practice that means keeping the same ambitious learning goal for every pupil and changing the route to it, rather than printing a shorter, simpler task that caps what a child is expected to reach. Setting lower expectations for a particular group is what widens attainment gaps; adapting the teaching is what narrows them.
Second move: the five things that actually help
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) sets out five evidence-based, whole-class approaches — its ‘five-a-day’ — that benefit pupils with SEND and, usefully, every other pupil too. These are the concrete adaptations to reach for before you ever create a separate task:
- Flexible grouping. Group by need for a specific task, then regroup — not fixed ‘ability tables’ that quietly become a ceiling.
- Cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Teach pupils how to plan, monitor and check their own work, so they need less of you over time.
- Explicit instruction. Model clearly, break the new idea into steps, and check understanding before moving on.
- Scaffolding. Add supports — writing frames, worked examples, vocabulary mats, extra processing time — and remove them as the pupil gains independence.
- Using technology. Reading pens, speech-to-text and similar tools let a pupil access the same content and show what they actually know.
This is also the language Ofsted and the framework now expect. Since the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF, 2024), the DfE talks about adaptive teaching rather than ‘differentiation’, precisely to stop teachers creating artificially distinct tasks that lower the bar for some pupils. If your scheme of work still says ‘differentiated three ways’ with a bronze/silver/gold worksheet, that is the wording most likely to be marked down.
Where it sits: the graduated approach
None of this is a one-off. It belongs inside the statutory graduated approach — the assess-plan-do-review cycle — which the Code makes the class teacher responsible for, working with the school's SENCO. You assess what the pupil can and cannot yet do, plan the adaptations, deliver them in your everyday teaching, then review whether they worked and refine for the next cycle. The same approach applies whether or not the pupil has a diagnosis or a plan: high-quality adaptive teaching is the first step for any pupil who may have SEN, on SEN Support or with an EHCP alike. For how that cycle runs in detail, see what the graduated approach (assess, plan, do, review) involves.
Where the law comes from
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This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.