Research School Network: When Inclusion isn’t an Intervention What if inclusion isn’t an intervention, but simply great teaching designed so that more pupils can succeed?

Closing the disadvantage gap remains one of the greatest challenges facing schools. Whilst targeted interventions and additional support have an important role to play, we know that what happens in the classroom every day matters most. For pupils experiencing disadvantage, access to high-quality teaching, ambitious expectations and effective support can make a significant difference to both attainment and long-term outcomes.


Yet when we talk about inclusion, it is easy to think about something additional: an intervention programme, a specialist strategy, or a bespoke resource designed for a particular group of pupils.


The EEF’s Inclusive Teaching guidance challenges this way of thinking. It reminds us that inclusive teaching begins with strong universal provision: the everyday decisions teachers make about explanations, modelling, questioning, practice and scaffolding. Often, the approaches that support pupils with SEND and pupils experiencing disadvantage are the very same approaches that strengthen learning for everyone.


Recently, I was teaching a Year 7 French class. Pupils were learning to write a short paragraph describing themselves using language we had been practising over several lessons.


As pupils began writing, I noticed one pupil was struggling. They knew many of the individual words and phrases we had learned, but found it difficult to combine them into accurate sentences independently. My immediate thought was to provide something different: perhaps a simplified task, fewer sentences to write, or a gap-fill exercise.


The pupil may well have completed the task successfully. But would they have learned how to construct sentences more independently?


Instead, I returned to a sentence builder we had been using throughout the unit. The sentence builder contained the key structures, vocabulary and grammatical patterns pupils needed to be successful. Rather than reducing the challenge, it reduced the complexity of organising and constructing language.


The pupil still had to think. They still had to make choices. They still had to write their own paragraph.


What struck me, however, was that the sentence builder was not only supporting that pupil.


A pupil who had missed a previous lesson used it to catch up quickly. Another referred to it when checking word order. Several pupils used it to improve the accuracy of their writing. Some of the strongest linguists in the room used it to manipulate language and create more ambitious sentences.


What began as support for one learner became a tool that strengthened learning for many.


Crucially, the scaffold was not intended to be permanent. As the lesson progressed, I encouraged pupils to rely on it less frequently, recalling language from memory where possible and using the sentence builder only when needed. Over time, the goal would be to remove the scaffold altogether.


This is an important principle of inclusive teaching. Effective scaffolds should not create dependency. Instead, they should provide temporary support that enables pupils to access learning whilst gradually developing the knowledge, confidence and independence required to succeed without it.


The barrier was reduced, but the challenge remained. More importantly, the pathway towards independence remained too.


This experience reminded me that inclusion is not always about creating something different. Sometimes it is about strengthening universal provision so that more pupils can participate and succeed.


Too often, we ask:


​‘What additional support does this pupil need?’


A more useful question may be:


​‘How can I improve the learning experience for everyone in the room?’


This is particularly important when we think about closing the disadvantage gap. Pupils experiencing disadvantage do not need a less challenging curriculum or lower expectations. In fact, they often have the most to gain from strong universal teaching, carefully designed scaffolds and ambitious classroom practice. The goal is not to make learning easier. The goal is to make learning more accessible whilst maintaining high expectations for all.


For me, this is where inclusive teaching and closing the disadvantage gap come together. Inclusion is not an intervention that sits alongside teaching. It is teaching. It is the deliberate design of learning experiences that support participation, challenge and success for as many pupils as possible.


Sometimes the most inclusive thing we can do is not create something extra.


It is to make the everyday classroom experience better for everyone.





Further Reading


Education Endowment Foundation (2026). Inclusive Teaching Guidance Report. Available via the EEF website.