Lesson Planning

Expectations around lesson planning have changed considerably over recent years. In many schools, departments and multi-academy trusts, teachers now work from carefully sequenced curricula, shared schemes of work and established banks of high-quality resources. 

We therefore do not expect our trainees to routinely create lessons and resources from scratch, or to produce lengthy written lesson plans for every lesson they teach. This reflects Department for Education guidance on reducing workload in Initial Teacher Education, which encourages trainees to develop their planning expertise by learning to evaluate, select, use and adapt existing high-quality curriculum materials, before progressively taking greater responsibility for curriculum and lesson design.

For us, effective lesson planning is therefore less about producing a plan and more about the thinking that takes place before teaching. Trainees should increasingly be able to explain what they want pupils to learn, anticipate the cognitive challenges and barriers pupils may encounter, select and adapt appropriate pedagogical approaches and resources, plan for inclusion, and consider how they will determine whether pupils have learned what was intended. Mentors play an important role in making this thinking visible, helping trainees move from initially working with established materials towards making increasingly confident, purposeful and evidence-informed planning decisions of their own.

The guidance and documentation below is provided to trainees and here, will help mentors understand our requirements and expectations. 

Trainee Teaching Timetable Template