Responsive Coaching at Scale
Building a responsive PD system that combines subject expertise, evidence-informed practice and personalised support.
Horizon Community College, Barnsley
SITUATION
Horizon Community College identified several challenges within its professional development offer. Feedback from staff suggested that provision could be further personalised and more closely tied to subject-specific contexts. Teachers expressed a desire for development that better reflected their career stage, expertise and curriculum area. Leaders recognised the need to balance whole-college priorities with responsive, evidence-informed professional learning that could improve classroom practice at scale.
THEORY
Leaders anticipated that if professional development became responsive, subject-specific and individualised, then teachers would engage more deeply with improvement, so that changes in practice would be more likely to transfer into classrooms. The RAISE model - Responsive, Appropriate, Individual, Subject-specific and Evidence-informed - provided the blueprint. WalkThrus became the vehicle through which whole-college priorities, departmental development and personalised coaching could work together rather than in isolation.
ACTION
The college developed a shared teaching and learning toolkit built around WalkThrus, creating common language, practical strategies and accessible resources. Following a departmental pilot, leaders refined coaching processes and trained coaches to use the 5Ps and ADAPT frameworks to identify precise next steps. The programme then scaled across the college, with 48 trained coaches supporting 128 teachers. Quality assurance systems, coaching-on-coaching and responsive coaching principles helped ensure support remained aligned to individual needs, expertise and readiness.
RESULTS
The programme now generates more than 500 coaching conversations each year and has helped establish a stronger evidence-informed culture. Teachers report greater collaboration, more personalised professional development and easier access to practical teaching strategies. WalkThrus have strengthened coaching consistency while maintaining responsiveness to individual needs. Leaders report accelerated professional development, effective use of the ADAPT model and positive influence on student outcomes.
TAKE-AWAYS
Create clarity, consistency and adaptability within coaching systems.
Invest in coaches through training, coaching-on-coaching and protected time.
Use WalkThru clusters and simple resources to make improvement accessible.
Build quality assurance processes that strengthen coaching without creating bureaucracy.
Listen to feedback and adapt systems regularly to ensure they remain responsive to staff needs.
PROFILE
Simon Benson, Assistant Principal, Horizon Community College. Horizon is an 11-16 secondary school serving approximately 2,000 students. Through the development of the RAISE model and large-scale instructional coaching, the school has built a responsive professional development system that combines subject expertise, evidence-informed practice and personalised support.
Written by
Simon Benson, Assistant Principal