The first few weeks of term are when priorities turn into practice. From lesson feedback routines to professional development planning, the way schools launch their year often determines how teaching and learning will evolve across the months ahead.
So, how are your teaching and learning priorities taking shape? And, most importantly, how do you know?
We spoke with three school leaders about how they’ve set up their monitoring, feedback, and evaluation cycles this term. Their approaches reveal how purposeful routines at the start of the year can create a consistent culture of feedback and professional growth.
Building shared responsibility for feedback
Natasha Bell
Vice Principal
At Skinners’ Academy, feedback has become a shared responsibility across leadership layers.
Regular SLT involvement: Each SLT member completes three drop-ins per week.
Faculty ownership: Every Head of Faculty ensures two feedback records per teacher per half-term, either completed directly or delegated to their 2iCs.
Aligned feedback culture: Joint drop-ins early in the term ensure expectations are consistent and that everyone models the same principles for effective feedback.
The result? Middle leaders are positioned as the engine of improvement, ensuring feedback isn’t something done to teachers but something they own and drive together.
Aligning QA and professional development
Leonie Coulson
Assistant Principal
At City of Peterborough Academy, the focus has been on linking monitoring directly with professional development, right from day one.
INSET launch: September training introduced middle leaders to the academy’s new teaching principles model, setting the tone for both QA and CPD.
Planned and purposeful: All QA activity and CPD are mapped into the academic calendar around those principles.
Faculty accountability: Middle leaders conduct weekly learning walks in addition to SLT visits, each focused on the agreed principles of pedagogy.
Ongoing feedback: Teachers receive developmental drop-ins at least once per half-term.
Built into leadership: QA and CPD planning are standing agenda items in line management meetings, keeping the focus sharp.
As Leonie explains, the key is to focus learning walks on trending teaching principles while leaving space for personalised feedback. This ensures a balance between consistency and professional autonomy.
Clarity, focus, and the '6 Essentials of Teaching'
Mhairi Stewart
Vice Principal
At The City Academy, Hackney, the leadership team has prioritised clarity and coherence, connecting every strand of teaching and learning through a small set of shared priorities.
Their ‘6 Essentials of Teaching’ were launched through INSET, complete with success criteria and deliberate practice routines.
Early feedback: SLT visited lessons in the first three weeks, giving every teacher developmental feedback linked to the 6 essentials.
Strategic allocation: SLT members were paired with specific teachers to ensure consistent feedback and coverage across subjects.
Structured practice: Twilight sessions focused on 15-minute deliberate practice activities directly connected to teachers’ feedback.
Aligned appraisal: Teaching and learning targets are tied to action steps, making feedback a live driver of appraisal rather than a separate process.
This approach has strengthened the connection between feedback, practice, and performance – a model for how feedback can drive genuine school improvement.
Mhairi and her team emphasise that for all this linking to work, there must be lots of short, focused lesson visits with clear action steps and strengths, reinforcing a ‘little and often’ approach that keeps feedback meaningful and actionable throughout the year.
Key takeaway: Middle Leaders at the heart of improvement
Across all three schools, one message stands out: middle leaders are the driving force behind effective feedback.
By giving them accountability, time, and clear structures, schools ensure that teaching and learning leadership is shared, consistent, and genuinely developmental.
As seen at Riverside School and across other ProgressTeaching partner schools, empowering middle leaders creates lasting change, turning feedback into an ongoing conversation rather than an isolated event.
Next steps
Every school approaches the start of term differently, but one thing is clear: structured, collaborative feedback routines empower teachers to improve faster and more confidently.