Parkside Academy has been using the Great Teaching Toolkit for almost 2 years. In this blog they offer a valuable insight into how the Toolkit has supported the development of high-quality coaching across the school. First published in Issue 17/March 2026 of the Advancing Teaching & Learning journal by Advance Learning Partnership.

The Great Teaching Toolkit: A Catalyst for Coaching

Rochelle Wingfield, Assistant Headteacher at Parkside Academy, explains how the Great Teaching Toolkit functions as a catalyst for high quality coaching by deepening reflective dialogue, supporting metacognitive growth, and strengthening alignment between individual pedagogy and whole school improvement, thereby enhancing collective efficacy and sustained professional development.

Across our school we share a simple premise: the most powerful lever for improving classroom practice is supportive, reflective coaching. Regular, high-quality feedback that helps teachers make small, deliberate refinements to what they do every day. Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation shows that the most effective professional development relies on specific mechanisms including goal setting, feed back, modelling and rehearsal.

These mechanisms directly shape teacher behaviour and coaching is the only professional development model that reliably embeds all mechanisms consistently. The Great Teaching Toolkit explicitly embeds these mechanisms and provides teachers with structured tools for deliberate reflective practice. When considering our CPD model it was important to ensure that ‘one off’ CPD formats were avoided and instead replaced with instructional practice that improves teacher development and contributes to positive gains in student achievement.

To translate the invaluable evidence provided by the GTT into a sustainable, school-wide approach, we implemented the Great Teaching Toolkit as the backbone of our coaching because it explicitly builds mechanisms linked to effective professional development and provides staff with evidence-based techniques to study and utilise in their practice; helping staff to pinpoint what high-leverage elements of instruction to work on and how to practise using short, specific and observable steps that support deliberate and reflective practice over time.

Why the GTT? A coherent, evidence-led approach

As a school we recognised that while coaching was beginning to strengthen professional dialogue, staff and middle leaders needed a clearer, evidence-informed structure to guide development without increasing workload. We required a framework that would reduce ambiguity, create consistency and support leaders to prioritise high-leverage aspects of teaching without adding layers of documentation or extra meetings. The GTT provided this missing element: a shared, research grounded model that helps teachers and leaders focus on what matters most, streamlining improvement work and ensuring coaching conversations remain purposeful and manageable.

The GTT provides middle leaders in our school with a coherent, evidence-informed structure that strengthens their ability to lead teaching and learning effectively without increasing workload.

One of its biggest advantages is that it gives leaders a shared, research-grounded model of great teaching, enabling them to support staff in a consistent, focused way. This aligns directly with EEF guidance, which stresses that effective professional development must build knowledge, motivate staff, develop techniques and embed practice.

This offers leaders a clear framework for sharing development conversations and decisions. Instead of relying on subjective judgement or broad developmental targets, leaders can use the GTT’S rehearsal routines, reflection prompts and precise teaching components to coach colleagues in small achievable steps. Creating greater consistency across departments, the GTT also simplifies things by providing a ready-made, evidence-based curriculum for teacher learning, reducing the need for leaders to generate resources for themselves. This aids in strengthening confidence in leaders’ judgements and helps them support staff through coaching that is focused, manageable and aligned with priorities.

What’s the impact?

A year into our journey, the GTT is beginning to shape teaching and learning across the school. Teachers have reported that the GTT has led to more intentional explanations with a clearer success criteria. We are seeing a growing consistency and tighter alignment with our lesson structure as well as more responsive teaching informed by live checks for understanding and purposeful questioning.

Coaching conversations have become sharper and more focused, with teachers able to articulate precisely which component of practice they are refining and why. Middle leaders report greater confidence in giving feedback rooted in shared language rather than personal preference. Importantly, staff describe feeling supported rather than judged, viewing development as incremental and achievable. While we remain early in implementation, early indicators show improved student engagement, stronger classroom routines and a culture where professional growth is both collective and sustained.

Amy Darby, Head of English, reflects on the impact of the GTT on coaching

Using the Great Teaching Toolkit to frame coaching conversations following lesson development drop ins has transformed the way I give feedback.

Instead of offering broad developmental comments, I can anchor discussions in specific components of effective teaching. This creates clarity and shared understanding, helping our department identify precise, actionable next steps. The structure means feedback feels developmental rather than evaluative, and teachers leave conversations knowing exactly what to practise and why. It has strengthened both my confidence as a middle leader and the professional dialogue within our department.

Top Tips for Using the GTT to Strengthen Coaching:

1. Anchor every conversation in a specific component: avoid broad targets, use the GTT to identify one precise, high-leverage element of teaching
   to refine.
2. Keep goals small and observable: translate evidence into short, actionable steps that can be practised, rehearsed and reviewed quickly.
3. Use shared language to reduce ambiguity: frame feedback around agreed teaching components to ensure consistency and avoid subjective judgement.
4. Build rehearsal and deliberate practice: don’t stop at discussion – model, script or practise key techniques during coaching sessions.
5. Revisit and refine: make coaching cyclical –review, impact, reflect on pupil response and adjust the next step to sustain incremental
   improvement.

The GTT is not a silver bullet, but it is a powerful catalyst. By grounding coaching in research informed mechanisms, providing tools for deliberate practice, and building a shared language of effective teaching, it helps schools move from generic professional development to meaningful, classroom-embedded professional learning.

Crucially, it aligns individual development with whole-school priorities, ensuring that professional growth is coherent rather than fragmented. As our implementation deepens, we are seeing not only refinements in instructional technique but a strengthening of collective efficacy; teachers see themselves as learners and improvement feels cumulative rather than episodic.

In a landscape where teachers face increasing complexity and competing demands, the combination of supportive coaching, reflective practice and high-quality instructional frameworks such as the GTT offers a compelling route to sustained improvement; and most importantly, better learning for every student.

If this approach resonates with your context, the Great Teaching Toolkit offers a structured, evidence-informed way to strengthen coaching and professional learning across your school.

Book a demo to see what the platform can you do for you.