Flow Routines

Why Shared Routines Matter

Building on the success of our ‘Every Second Matters’ routine, our cross-trust teaching and learning team have now created a comprehensive suite of shared ‘FLOW Routines.’

This is because, used thoughtfully, they can:

• Make learning clearer and more consistent for learners

When learners encounter familiar routines like Cold Call, Turn and Talk or I Do–We Do–You Do, they do not have to work out how the lesson is running each time. This frees them up to focus on the learning itself.

• Reduce cognitive load and support inclusion and belonging

Predictable structures help all learners—and particularly those with SEND—by removing unnecessary uncertainty. Routines act as a steady framework that supports access, confidence, and participation.

• Give us a shared professional language

Common routines allow colleagues to talk precisely about teaching and learning. This strengthens collaboration, makes professional dialogue more meaningful, and supports collective improvement.

• Support effective coaching and development

When routines are shared, leaders and colleagues can observe, coach, and give feedback with clarity and consistency, focusing on learning rather than surface differences in style.

• Protect high-quality learning for all learners

Shared routines help ensure that learners experience strong, inclusive teaching regardless of class, teacher or setting—while still leaving room for professional judgement and contextual adaptation.

• Raise expectations and challenge for all learners

Well‑designed routines are not about lowering the bar or simplifying learning; they help ensure that thinking, participation, and challenge are expected of everyone, not just the most confident or able.

 Using the videos thoughtfully

These videos are not intended as scripts to copy verbatim, but as professional learning prompts. They illustrate routines that are grounded in strong pedagogical thinking and clear FLOW principles.

The questions below are designed to help you slow down implementation, surface the thinking behind what you see, and consider how the foundations of the routine might best serve your learners, your subject, and your context.

Used well, they help ensure routines enhance learning rather than becoming a rigid or robotic set of steps.

You may be asked to engage with these questions as part of the professional development and implementation process, but moreover please or dip into them independently over time.

Either way, the aim is the same: intentional, thoughtful implementation that protects learning for all.

Viewing the routine through a FLOW lens

Rather than focusing on what the teacher does step-by-step, consider the underlying design choices.

• Where do you see FLOW in action here?
  (Which elements are most clearly supporting learning, attention, participation, or independence?)

• What decisions has the teacher made to make the routine work?
  (What does this suggest about how the teacher is thinking about learning, misconceptions, pace, or cognitive load?)

• What must be kept intact for this routine to work well?
  (Which foundations matter most—and what might dilute its impact if misunderstood or copied without thought?)

Viewing the routine through an inclusion and belonging lens

These questions invite you to notice how inclusion is already being designed into the routine, and to consider where further intentional adaptation might deepen access, participation and belonging—while protecting learning for all.

• Where can you already see learners being included and supported to succeed?
  (What has the teacher planned or designed that helps learners access the learning and feel part of it?)

• What adaptations are embedded in the routine itself?
  (Which supports are built in as a normal part of teaching, rather than added on?)

• What opportunities are there for responsive adaptation in the moment?
  (How might the teacher adjust explanations, questioning, pacing, or interactions to meet need as it arises—while maintaining challenge?)

• How is a sense of belonging being established or reinforced?
  (Through language, routines, relationships, expectations, or participation structures.)

• Which adaptations here are likely to benefit everyone, and which are more targeted?
  (How is access widened without fragmenting the learning experience?)

• What well-intentioned adjustments might be unhelpful?
  (For example, lowering expectations, over‑supporting, or breaking the coherence of the routine.)

• If this were used regularly in a mainstream classroom, what additional moves could strengthen inclusion at scale?
  (What is realistic, sustainable, and likely to improve outcomes for the whole class?)

Shared Routines Examples