Tom Cragg
Head of Client Success, MFL Consultant and Examiner, School Governor, former Head Teacher
Over the summer term, I spoke to a number of school leaders about the lesson planning skills of ITTs and ECTs. What struck me was how consistent their views were: most felt that teachers entering the profession today are less able to plan lessons independently compared to a few years ago.
To test this further, I ran a poll on LinkedIn and the results were clear:
A recent LinkedIn poll of school leaders highlights a trend in ITT/ECTs ability to plan lessons independently.
This led me to ask, are we at risk of losing the art of lesson planning?
Why planning matters
Lesson planning isn’t just about producing a set of slides or worksheets. At its best, planning is about:
Sequencing learning in a logical and effective way.
Anticipating misconceptions and addressing them.
Building lessons that are tailored to the needs of specific pupils.
When this is done well, delivery feels natural and purposeful. When it’s missing, lessons can feel superficial or falter as teachers struggle to adapt to the class in front of them.
Why might this be happening?
Through conversations with school leaders, a few themes have emerged:
Reliance on centralised resources
Many ECTs are accustomed to teaching from pre-prepared PowerPoints and schemes of work. While these resources support consistency and save time, they don’t always encourage teachers to understand the pedagogy behind them.
Changing approaches in ITT
Some ITT providers actively encourage trainees to use school resources in their first terms so they can focus on behaviour management. While well-intentioned, this can reduce opportunities to develop planning skills early on, which would in turn help to improve behaviour.
Workload pressures
It is absolutely right that we find ways to reduce unnecessary workload, but there’s a risk that we’ve swung too far towards “ready-made” lessons. A resource is not a lesson, and turning a resource into a meaningful sequence of learning is a very different skill.
What's the risk?
If new teachers aren’t developing planning skills, the impact goes beyond their first year:
They may struggle to adapt lessons to meet the needs of their pupils (adaptive teaching).
Behaviour issues may increase if lessons aren’t well-tailored.
Their ability to contribute to curriculum planning later in their career could be limited.
What's the solution?
Schools are responding to this challenge in different ways. Some examples I’ve come across include:
Setting clear expectations: One school I work with has banned generic PowerPoints altogether. Teachers are provided with medium-term plans and resources but are expected to craft their own lessons from them.
Coaching through feedback: Another school uses lesson feedback sessions to remodel part of a lesson with the teacher, then has the teacher re-plan and re-deliver that section themselves. This not only sharpens delivery but also develops planning confidence.
Blended approaches: A gentler model is to expect ITTs/ECTs to fully plan a proportion of their lessons each week, while using central resources for others. Over time, this builds their own bank of lessons while keeping workload manageable.
Final thoughts
Planning remains a crucial part of teacher development. Resources and schemes of work have a valuable role to play, but they should not replace the skill of planning. If we want teachers who can think critically about curriculum, adapt learning to pupils, and embed strong pedagogy into their practice, we need to create space for them to plan, not just deliver.
At ProgressTeaching, we’re passionate about supporting teachers not just in lesson delivery, but in the planning and pedagogy that sit behind it. If you’d like to explore more on this theme, you may find our free eBook: Lesson Feedback – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly a useful starting point. And if you’d like to talk to us directly about supporting ITTs and ECTs in your school, book a call with us here.