From CPD to Classroom Practice: Sustaining Inclusive Support in Post-Primary Schools
Turn professional learning into a manageable schoolwide routine: choose a classroom priority, support teachers to try it, and review what students experience.
A teacher returns from CPD with a useful approach. The next challenge is making room to try it, discuss it with colleagues, and decide whether it helps students participate and learn.
For post-primary school leaders, that means planning what happens after the course. What will teachers try, what support will they have, and when will the school return to it?
What the New Evaluation Tells Us
On 21 October 2026, ETBI reported findings from an independent DCU evaluation of the Instructional Leadership Programme. Participants described greater confidence in supporting diverse learners, more active and collaborative teaching, and improved student engagement. ETBI highlighted principals' and deputy principals' involvement as important to sustaining learning across a school.
The full evaluation explains the programme's two-year structure and school triads bringing senior leaders and classroom teachers together. It identifies time for collaboration as a practical difficulty. It also cautions against treating the programme as a simple cascade in which attendees pass course content down to colleagues.
The research relied mainly on participants' accounts, had no comparison group, and collected no direct attainment measures. It offers useful evidence about professional learning and implementation, rather than proof that a particular routine will improve examination results.
Note
From findings to a school routine
The steps below are practical suggestions for school teams. They are not an ETBI programme requirement or a tested implementation model from the evaluation.
1. Choose a Classroom Problem You Can Describe
Start with a situation teachers recognise. “Improve inclusion” gives a team little to work with. “Some first-year students struggle to begin written tasks after whole-class instructions” gives colleagues something concrete to examine.
Check that description with students and teachers before choosing a response. Is the difficulty understanding the task, remembering the sequence, finding materials, or knowing what a finished answer looks like?
For example, a team might trial a visible first step alongside spoken instructions. Keep the subject content appropriate: beginning a history paragraph and starting a science investigation need different explanations.
Write one sentence naming the barrier and one naming the teaching change. Use those sentences to decide which professional learning is relevant.
2. Give the Work an Owner and a Place in the Calendar
Agree who will coordinate the trial, which teachers will take part, and which senior leader will help resolve practical barriers. Include a special education teacher where their knowledge is relevant, alongside the subject teachers who will use the approach.
A manageable starting point might be two subject departments working with one year group. Set a review date before starting and place a short discussion in an existing meeting.
The principal or deputy principal can make the commitment concrete by agreeing what fits within available time and what other activity can be deferred. Avoid giving one enthusiastic teacher responsibility for chasing everyone without time or support.
3. Share a Lesson Example Colleagues Can Adapt
Bring an actual task to the discussion. Show the original instructions, the revised version, and how students will encounter them. Ask colleagues to adapt the example to their own subject.
For the first-step trial, agree the essentials: students can find the starting action, the teacher explains it, and there is a way to check understanding. Leave room for different resources and classroom contexts.
An English teacher might model the opening of a paragraph. A practical subject teacher might display the first action beside the equipment. Both can discuss whether students understood how to begin.
Keep the conversation specific: what took extra preparation, what was unclear, and what would make the next attempt easier?
4. Check What Students Experience
Choose a small amount of evidence before the trial begins. Use ordinary classroom work wherever possible.
| Question | Possible evidence |
|---|---|
| Can students identify the first step? | A brief check before independent work |
| Are fewer repeated explanations needed? | A short teacher note from comparable lessons |
| Does getting started lead to useful work? | A sample of the work completed |
| What remains difficult? | Student responses to “What helped you begin?” |
Look beyond a class average. An approach may help some students while leaving others with the same barrier. Give students a way to respond privately or in writing if speaking to the group is difficult.
Record differences between subjects and tasks. A quieter classroom alone does not tell the team whether students understand more or can participate more fully.
5. Decide What to Keep and Make It Easy to Find
At the review, decide whether to continue, adapt, extend, or stop the trial. Record the reason in a few sentences. A useful outcome might be that the visible first step helped, but students also needed a worked example.
Keep an agreed example in the school's existing staff resource area. Name someone to update it and include it when introducing new colleagues to the department's practice.
If the approach is extended, invite the next group of teachers to test and adapt it. Set another review point. Avoid turning one promising lesson into an expectation that every teacher uses the same worksheet or teaching sequence.
Keep Documentation Close to Teaching
A short school improvement note can capture the classroom priority, teaching change, responsibility, evidence and next decision. Individual Student Support Plans can record relevant adaptations where a student needs more specific support.
For that individual planning work, see our guide to collaboration and review records. SENScribe can help teachers draft Student Support Plans from the information they provide, with teachers reviewing and editing the draft.
At your next team meeting, choose one classroom barrier and agree one teaching change to explore.
Sources: ETBI announcement, 21 October 2026 · Morrissey, Brennan and Gorman (2026), Evaluating the Impact of Ireland's Instructional Leadership Programme, especially the executive summary and Chapters 3, 6 and 7.