The VNET Annual Conference puts inclusion firmly at the centre, bringing together educators and school leaders to explore the power of high-quality classroom practices.
Keynote: High Expectations, Different Routes: Adapting Access Without Lowering Ambition with Amjad Ali
Adaptive teaching is not about making learning easier. It is about identifying the barriers that prevent pupils from accessing ambitious learning and making purposeful adaptations that help them succeed. In this keynote, Amjad Ali explores the tension between high expectations and appropriate support: when should we adapt the task, the teaching, the environment or the support around a pupil – and when might an adaptation unintentionally lower expectations?
Through practical examples, humour and reflection, Amjad will challenge delegates to consider whether we are adapting the learning or adapting access to the learning. He will explore how modelling, scaffolding, vocabulary, chunking, worked examples and responsive teaching can maintain challenge while increasing accessibility. The session will also consider when support becomes substitution, how adaptations can build rather than restrict independence, and why ‘needed for some, benefiting all’ can remain a powerful principle for inclusive teaching.
