Case study: Strengthening coaching quality at Elaine Primary School

At Elaine Primary School, leaders had already begun to rethink their approach to teacher professional development (PD). They had moved away from one-off CPD sessions towards a model that builds knowledge over time. But there was still a persistent gap between understanding effective teaching and applying it consistently in classrooms.

For Emma Baldwin, Head of School at Elaine Primary, Steplab helped close that gap. More recently, taking part in Steplab’s Certificate in Coaching Leadership (CCL) - the programme that has since evolved into the Certificate in PD Leadership - helped the school refine the quality of instructional coaching even further.

Elaine Primary School serves a community with significant levels of disadvantage in Medway. Around 51% of pupils are disadvantaged and 30% are identified as having SEND. The school also hosts a specialist SEMH provision and supports a highly mobile pupil population, including many children living in temporary accommodation.

As Emma explains, leaders “see a lot of poverty” in the community, which makes the quality of teaching, support and PD especially important.

The school is also experiencing increasing diversity, bringing both opportunities and challenges as leaders work closely with the wider community around tolerance, inclusion and respect.

Within this context, high-quality teaching and PD matter enormously.

Before working with Steplab, Elaine Primary had already identified problems with its CPD offer.

Professional development had become rigid and repetitive. Sessions were changing week by week, but leaders were not always seeing the impact they wanted in classrooms.

The school began to shift towards a more cumulative approach, building understanding over a half term rather than delivering disconnected sessions. This improved teachers’ pedagogical knowledge, but classroom application remained inconsistent.

Emma and her team recognised that something was still missing: a mechanism to help teachers turn understanding into confident, consistent practice.

Elaine Primary had already implemented instructional coaching across the trust. But as the model grew, leaders began to realise that the quality of coaching itself needed more attention.

The school had trained coaches internally and scaled the model across several schools. Over time, however, misconceptions had begun to creep in.

“We were almost running with some misconceptions because we were trying to deliver this third hand without having the expertise as coaches ourselves.”

That mattered because weak coaching can embed ineffective practice rather than improve it. Emma recognised that coaches needed a more precise understanding of what effective coaching looks like, from observation and diagnosis to modelling, rehearsal and feedback.

CCL gave Emma the time, structure and expert input to drill down into the components of great coaching, then bring that learning back into school.

The first module of CCL had a significant impact at Elaine Primary.

Emma used it to refocus her coaching team on the foundations of high-quality instructional coaching, especially observation notes and selecting the right action step.

Previously, coaching notes were often too brief and sometimes mixed fact with opinion. This made it harder for coaches to identify the highest-leverage next step for a teacher.

Through the programme, Emma worked with her team to revisit examples, analyse timestamps, watch model videos and rehearse the process more carefully.

“Coaches have become more confident in recording accurate observation notes, which has transformed the rest of their coaching cycles because they now have solid evidence to unpack.”

This strengthened both confidence and consistency across the coaching programme. Coaches became better equipped to diagnose classroom practice accurately and identify precise, actionable next steps.

The second module helped Emma think more carefully about how Elaine Primary develops coaches over time.

Rather than assuming that initial training would be enough, the school began creating more deliberate opportunities for coaches to reflect on and improve their own practice.

This now includes observing coaching conversations, giving live feedback, rehearsing coaching techniques and reviewing coaching practice through Steplab.

For Emma, this reinforced an important principle: if coaching is going to improve teaching, coaches need high-quality professional development too.

Coaches who have experienced strong coaching themselves are often more secure in their own practice. As Emma explains, some colleagues developed a much stronger understanding of the process because they had lived that experience themselves.

Like many schools, Elaine Primary has had to work hard to create the time and structure needed for coaching to work well.

Initially, phase leaders used existing release time for observations and feedback. But this led to inconsistency because of competing demands across the trust, including training, moderation and wider responsibilities.

The school has now moved to a clearer rhythm: one week is dedicated to group PD, while the alternate week is used for Steplab study modules or coaching. Staff being coached receive protected time, while colleagues not currently in coaching cycles still engage in personalised professional development.

This structure is designed to make professional development more consistent, manageable and responsive.

Another important development has been the decision to extend coaching more widely across staff roles.

In addition to class teachers and phase leaders, Elaine Primary is now bringing specialist staff into coaching cycles, including pastoral leaders, behaviour leaders and the home-school support worker.

Emma is clear that “everybody’s role here matters” and that every member of staff is entitled to high-quality CPD.

This reflects a whole-school approach to PD, where coaching is not reserved for classroom teachers alone.

One of the clearest impacts has been cultural.

Teachers no longer stop what they are doing when someone enters the room. Instead, Emma describes classrooms where staff continue teaching because feedback feels purposeful and supportive, rather than threatening or evaluative.

She also shared the experience of one highly experienced teacher who initially questioned why she needed coaching at all. After engaging with the process, that teacher recognised that her practice had improved and that specific areas had been refined through the programme.

This reflects a wider mindset shift across Elaine Primary. Coaching is no longer seen as something for novice teachers or staff in difficulty. It is part of a culture where everyone can keep improving.

For Emma personally, CCL has also had a significant impact on her leadership of whole-school professional development.

“It’s really shown me how to spend the time for CPD doing the right thing.”

Rather than producing more presentations or trying to cover too much, the focus has shifted towards precise pedagogy, deliberate rehearsal and more effective implementation.

Emma has also been able to take this learning beyond Elaine Primary and into wider trust conversations about coaching, rehearsal and group PD. The programme has not only strengthened coaching at school level, but helped build professional development leadership more widely.

While Emma is careful not to claim that CCL alone is responsible for the school improvement, she sees a clear connection between the school’s investment in coaching and the positive shifts happening across Elaine Primary.

The school has seen improved staff confidence, calmer and more purposeful learning environments, stronger staff stability, positive staff and pupil survey outcomes, strong external reviews and consistently strong attainment.

“There is a direct correlation between the work we’ve done with Steplab and what we’re seeing on the ground at Elaine.”

At its core, Elaine Primary’s experience of CCL helped the school move from a coaching model that was promising but uneven to one that is more deliberate, better understood and more consistent.

It has sharpened observation notes, improved the precision of action steps, strengthened coach development and created a stronger culture around feedback.

Most importantly, it has helped ensure that teacher professional development is not just well intentioned, but genuinely effective.

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