You don’t always need more. Sometimes you need better return from what’s already in place. Before adding another strand to your CPD plan or commissioning new training, it’s worth asking a harder question: are you getting the full impact from the development, expertise and resources you already have?

Deciding what’s actually worth staff time You’re making decisions right now with limited budget, limited time, and limited capacity. Most of them aren’t ideal choices — they’re more like trade-offs. If something new comes in, something else has to give. If time is spent in one place, it’s taken from another. That’s why return on time is a useful lens. But that isn’t what the new EIF is asking for.

When frameworks change, expectations tend to creep up with them. There’s a sense that schools should already have answers, already be further along, already be able to point to impact everywhere at once. But that isn’t what the new EIF is asking for.

One of the most powerful — and often overlooked — leadership skills under the new EIF is noticing. Inspectors are placing high value on how leaders understand the real lived experience of staff and pupils: confidence levels, attendance patterns, small shifts in behaviour, subtle barriers emerging in particular groups.

Term has finished. Classrooms are quiet. You’ve finally stepped out of “school mode” and into something slower, softer, and—hopefully—restorative. Before you switch off completely, I wanted to send a small Christmas message and a few thoughts that might make your January return feel a little steadier.

The new EIF is officially live, and Inclusion is already proving to be the area schools feel most exposed in. Inspectors want to see how consistently staff remove barriers, how leaders know what’s happening in classrooms, and how schools track the difference this makes for pupils who face disadvantage or additional needs.