At Lipson, our vision is to have “A great, trusted teacher in every classroom.”

What is Incremental Coaching?

Frequent and short observations from your own teaching coach. They focus on one area of the lesson and then choose one single action step that will help staff to improve. This will be supported by a follow up coaching session where the action step is  discussed and modelled. This remains as a target until it becomes a habit and is consistent within a teacher’s practice.

Powerful Action Steps

At Lipson Co-operative Academy, we use Powerful Action Steps (PASpro) as our method of recording and monitoring the coaching model. This is a simple and effective way to capture each individual teacher’s professional development. 

Our single action steps are largely taken from the ‘Teaching Walkthrus’ programme delivered by Sherrington and Cavliglioli but also feature steps from Lemov’s ‘Teach Like A Champion’. Each step is also mapped out against EEF Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools Recommendations to ensure that improving literacy is a crucial part of teaching and not seen as a bolt on. 

How is Incremental Coaching implemented?

Action Step	Description
Cold Calling	No hands up questioning
No Opt Out	Turn ‘I don’t know’ into success
Say it again, better (Literacy)	Encourage students to develop responses using more knowledge or improved literacy.
Whole Class Understanding	Assess that all students have understood through regular hands up/down, true/false or mini whiteboards.
Signal, Pause, Insist	Stop and wait for attention. Give verbal and non verbal signals.
Give Them the Words (Literacy)	Use the Frayer model to provide students with an ambitious vocabulary to use and practice
Chunk, Stop, Annotate (Literacy)	Plan reading effectively in advance and annotate small chunks under a visualiser for meaning.
Reading Ruler (Literacy)	Teacher led reading with students using a ruler to actively track the text.

The Coaching Cycle

 

A Typical Coaching Conversation

See It, Name It, Do It, Do It Again. 

STEP		PROMPT
Praise 1-2 mins	Precise praise used to discuss positives from last coaching session	Last time, we identified…. And I can see this being applied effectively when...
Probe- See It 1-2 mins	Question to identify the core issue	How did you use….  What strategy did you use to…
Action Step- Name It 2-3 mins	State single, high leverage action	Improvements could be made with… Replace… with...
Practice 4-5 mins	Simulate how to do it	Let’s practice together. Do you want me to be the teacher or pupil? Role play action step
Plan ahead 1-2 mins	Design/revise upcoming lesson plan together	When would be a good time to implement this in your next lesson?
Follow up 1 min	Establish timeline/method for sharing practice	When would be best to come and observe you implementing this? I will come and observe this during your lesson on...

What do our staff say about Incremental Coaching and CPD at Lipson?

“Setting the scene and sharing the vision for the year with all staff was really powerful. There was a real emphasis on the value added by all staff to provide the high standard of education the school delivers”
 

“I think the model the school has adopted is progressive, supportive and insightful for staff at all levels. The move towards a horizontal model of coaching rather than a top down approach removes pressures of formal observations towards a more regular and realistic developmental rather than judgmental model.”