Research School Network: Universal provision: The Teacher is the Intervention Phil Stock continues his series on Greenshaw HIgh School’s Graduated Response exploring Stage 0: Universal Provision.

In the first blog of this series, we explored the origins of the Graduated Response and how we’ve adapted it at Greenshaw High School into a whole-school model of inclusion.

The five stages of our Graduated Response reflect the increasing levels of support we provide for pupils, based on their current level of need.

In this post, we focus on Stage 0: Universal Provision – the entitlement we ensure every pupil receives in every lesson, regardless of prior attainment or current need.

By naming this Stage 0, we are signalling to everyone that this is a foundational entitlement: a deliberate set of strategies designed to meet the basic needs of all pupils, particularly the most vulnerable.

Developing our Graduated Response’s Stage 0

At this stage (and the next), the teacher is the intervention. This encompasses the dual role of class teacher and form tutor. In both cases, the teacher is the most powerful lever for inclusion. Through the environment they create – what they say and do – teachers go a long way in ensuring that every pupil feels included and that they belong.

A guiding mantra in recent years in our school has been that everyone owns the school strategy. This began with our approach to addressing disadvantage and has expanded to how we tackle all the significant challenges we face: from improving attendance post-pandemic to meeting the needs of rising numbers of pupils with SEND. It gives us a shared understanding of our priorities and a collective ownership of our response to them.

The notion of universality is crucial at this stage of our Graduated Response. It emphasises that everyday classroom strategies – such as greeting pupils at the door or using relational approaches to manage behaviour – are not just routines, but purposeful interventions. These practices support all learners while proactively addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. In this sense, they represent both effective intervention and high-quality teaching.

Embedding our strategies

These Stage 0 strategies are embedded within a Great Teaching Framework – our shared understanding of what constitutes high quality teaching and learning at Greenshaw High School. The framework is organised into three dimensions:

1. Inclusive Classrooms
2. Organising Instruction
3. Language for learning

For the purposes of this blog, only the first dimension – Inclusive Classrooms – will be considered. This dimension is underpinned by three core components:

• Powerful Routines
• 100% Participation and
• Supportive Strategies.

Together, these elements work in harmony to foster classroom environments where all pupils feel included and are able to thrive. Their interaction in shaping an inclusive classroom is illustrated below:

Inclusive Classrooms – Powerful Routines

We use 12Powerful Routines across the school, combining well-established strategies, such as Show Me, Turn and Talk, and Live Marking, with routines tailored to our specific context and priorities.

These more context-specific routines include:

• Daily Check-In, which supports pupil organisation and readiness;
• Seat for Success, which uses strategic seating plans to maximise learning; and
• Call and Connect, which involves making regular contact with families to strengthen relationships, particularly for pupils at greater risk.

Inclusive Classrooms – 100% Participation

100% Participation refers to 12 teaching techniques designed to ensure that every pupil is actively engaged in their learning.

These approaches have evolved from an initial focus on securing 100% attention – based on the principle that pupils must be focused in order to learn — towards a deeper commitment to 100% participation.

The techniques are grouped into three categories: securing attention, giving instructions, and building relationships.

Below is an overview of three strategies within 100% Participation:

• Gesture It – A non-verbal technique in which the teacher uses deliberate hand gestures to praise, prompt, or correct behaviour.
• Clear Steps, Clear Checks – A structured method for giving instructions that reduces cognitive load and ensures all pupils, particularly those with limited working memory, understand what is expected and can respond accordingly.
• Connect Before Correct – A relational approach where the teacher makes a positive connection with a pupil before addressing a behavioural issue.

Inclusive Classrooms – Supportive Strategies

Finally, our Supportive Strategies, which are designed to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. These are embedded in everyday teaching practice to ensure all learners, regardless of starting point or need, can access the curriculum and succeed.

There are again 12 distinct strategies in total: 6 focused on learning and cognition, and 6 that support social and emotional development.

Developing our Inclusive Classrooms dimension

The three strands of the Inclusive Classrooms dimension within our Great Teaching Framework represent the result of nearly a decade of ongoing development – refined and strengthened year by year.

Most of the strategies have been shaped through our whole-school coaching model, which includes half-termly, cross-curricular CPD groups. In these sessions, staff build a shared understanding of each strategy through role play and scenario-based learning.

When consistently embedded in everyday teaching, these strategies ensure that the majority of pupils’ needs are met within the classroom, reducing unnecessary escalation to the next stage of the Graduated Response – our targeted in-class intervention known as the Focus Five.

I’ve written about this intervention previously, but in the next blog, I’ll explore how Focus Five has evolved and how it now fits within our whole-school Graduated Response model.

The power of Universal Provision

At Greenshaw, Stage 0 isn’t where support begins – it’s where inclusion lives. It is the daily, intentional practice of teachers who understand that great teaching is great intervention.

By embedding these strategies across every classroom, we’re not only meeting needs – we’re pre-empting them.

The power of Universal Provision lies in its simplicity and consistency: when every teacher owns the strategy, every pupil benefits.