Quality-first teaching (now usually called adaptive teaching) is inclusive whole-class teaching that the SEND Code names as the first step for any pupil with SEN, before any intervention or EHCP. It is what the teacher does in the room for every child, not a separate programme bolted on for some. The EEF's evidence-based core is explicit instruction, scaffolding, flexible grouping, metacognitive strategies and using technology.
Why it comes first
The Code is blunt about the order. Paragraph 6.37 states that high-quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have SEN, and that additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good-quality teaching (SEND Code of Practice 2015, para 6.37). Because the Code is statutory guidance that schools must have regard to, this is a legal floor, not a best-effort aspiration. A teaching assistant or a withdrawal group cannot paper over teaching that is not itself inclusive. This is the universal first tier of the graduated approach and the provision every pupil should get before anyone considers SEN Support funding or an EHCP.
The strategies, in practice
The EEF anchors this in five evidence-informed approaches, often shorthanded as the five-a-day, which benefit all pupils and particularly those with SEND:
- Explicit instruction - clear explanation, teacher modelling, worked examples and frequent checks for understanding.
- Cognitive and metacognitive strategies - teaching pupils to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning.
- Scaffolding - temporary supports, such as writing frames or partly worked problems, that are gradually withdrawn.
- Flexible grouping - short-lived groups based on a pupil's current grasp of a task, not fixed ability sets.
- Using technology - tools such as text-to-speech or speech-to-text that remove a barrier rather than replace the teaching.
Day to day, schools deliver these through the same practical moves: clear routines, instructions chunked and repeated, visual supports, extra processing time, pre-teaching of new vocabulary, and checking each pupil has understood before moving on. See the EEF's full report on special educational needs in mainstream schools for the underpinning evidence.
A note on the words
The terminology has moved on, which is where many summaries blur. Quality-first teaching is the legacy label; current DfE framing in the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (2024) and the NPQ SENCO uses adaptive teaching in place of the older differentiation. Adaptive teaching is not producing three versions of a worksheet or sorting pupils into fixed ability groups; it is responding to need in the moment. The substance is unchanged, and it sits below both SEN Support and an EHCP as the thing tried first.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.