Go and look
Rather than act on the description of a problem. Sit with the child, read the data, watch where the lesson actually loses the room.
What I believe, and what I do
Three lines I plan from.
Safety before growth.
A dysregulated child can't think. Emotional safety isn't the warm-up to the learning; it's the condition for it. Seven years of pastoral counselling is where I learned that, and it hasn't stopped being true in a classroom.
Inquiry has to be built.
Curiosity isn't a substitute for structure. The teacher designs the conditions; the child does the thinking.
Technology should give time back.
Every hour a platform takes from a teacher is an hour taken from children.
Method
Systematic by nature.
A routine that isn't landing, a curriculum gap, a strained relationship, a piece of software — I work through them the same way, I lead a team through them the same way, and I teach my students to do the same.
Find the real cause
A class that won't settle after lunch is usually a timetable problem. A child who "won't write" is usually a child who can't yet start.
Smallest change
One adjustment, then measure it. Big rebuilds are mostly a way of avoiding the diagnosis.
Make it stick
A fix that depends on me isn't finished. Document it, train a colleague, watch it run without me.