C2. Set High Floor, No Ceiling toolkit
Toolkit
Setting a high floor, no ceiling means making expectations consistent and non-negotiable across all aspects of school life, while ensuring they are never treated as a limit. This planner helps leaders define the baseline entitlement that everyone must experience, then deliberately design opportunities for excellence and stretch beyond that foundation. It applies equally to teaching, learning, routines, systems, behaviour, culture, and leadership practice.
| Area of Focus |
| Which aspect of school life is being considered (e.g. classroom routines, professional conduct, curriculum design, student leadership, attendance systems)? |
| High-Floor Entitlement |
| What is the non-negotiable baseline standard? Define the consistent expectation that everyone must meet. |
| No-Ceiling Stretch |
| What opportunities are deliberately created for going beyond the baseline? How do staff, students, or systems reach for exceptional performance, innovation, or excellence? |
| Design for Access |
| How will the high floor be made achievable for all, and how will stretch be structured so that it is open and visible to everyone, not just a select few? |
| Bright Spots |
| Where are individuals, teams, or groups already exceeding the baseline? How can these examples be shared, celebrated, and replicated? |
| Monitoring and Adjustment |
| How will leaders check that the floor is secure, stretch is being accessed, and adjustments are made to widen opportunity where gaps are seen? |
| Reflection Prompts |
| Are we mistaking the floor for the ceiling? Are our high-floor expectations being applied consistently across all areas? Do we explicitly design stretch, or leave it optional? How do we celebrate bright spots and encourage others to follow? |
C2. Set High Floor, No Ceiling: example toolkit
Role: Head of Department
| Area of Focus |
| I am focusing on teaching and learning across Key Stage 3 Science, with a focus on consistency in lesson structure, questioning, and challenge for higher prior attainers. |
| High-Floor Entitlement |
| Every lesson includes a clear learning objective, retrieval practice, and opportunities for guided practice. I use cold call questioning to involve all students and provide immediate feedback to correct misconceptions. Books show regular assessment with actionable feedback every two weeks. These expectations are visible in all classrooms and form the baseline for my monitoring and coaching. |
| No-Ceiling Stretch |
| I will design at least one extended task or higher-order question each lesson that pushes beyond the main objective, allowing students to apply, justify, or critique scientific ideas. Challenge walls and stretch tasks are displayed in every classroom to promote self-selection for deeper learning. Each term includes an enrichment project linked to real-world science applications, culminating in presentations or competitions that celebrate advanced understanding. |
| Design for Access |
| Support is built in through modelling, scaffolds, and pre-teaching key vocabulary for lower prior attainers, ensuring they can reach the high floor. Stretch tasks are open and visible to all students rather than reserved for a top group. I will coach staff to plan layered activities that allow all students to start strong and move upward from a secure foundation. CPD sessions will model this inclusive stretch in action, showing practical examples of how to scaffold up rather than down. |
| Bright Spots |
| Two colleagues are consistently demonstrating high floor and high stretch in lessons, with clear routines and advanced questioning sequences. I am using their work as a model in department meetings, and they have recorded short walkthrough videos for staff CPD. A Year 8 class recently completed an optional project on Science in Sport that showed how curiosity flourishes when stretch is accessible to all. |
| Monitoring and Adjustment |
| I will use learning walks and book looks fortnightly to check both floor and ceiling. The baseline standards will be revisited each half term in department meetings. Where drift appears, I will address it promptly through coaching. A mid-term review will gather student feedback to ensure challenge remains accessible to all. I will adjust support and training where needed. |
| Reflection Prompts |
| The floor feels secure, but there is still an inconsistency in how stretch is planned. Next term, I will focus on refining high-level questioning and ensuring every lesson contains visible opportunities for deeper thinking. Bright spots show what is possible, and sharing these openly will help ensure that stretch becomes part of the culture, not an add-on. |