Written by Jack Coughlin, Assistant Headteacher, Epsom College, Malaysia

Coach: “When you asked the class, you went straight to ‘Siti, what’s the answer?’ Notice how that gave everyone else permission to switch off. Let’s try Question, Pause, Name instead.” 

Teacher: “So I ask the question first, pause, then choose a student?” 

Coach: “Exactly. That way, every pupil is thinking about the answer before anyone is called. Next week when I drop in, I’ll look for that sequence.” 

And just like that, a teaching habit begins to shift. No grand CPD keynote. No three-ring binder of strategies. Just a short conversation, one tweak, and a promise to pop back next week. 

Imagine if feedback in schools always looked like this. Not a shopping list of “areas for improvement” that leave you wondering which one to tackle before Friday, but one clear adjustment that you can try in your very next lesson. Small enough to feel achievable. Precise enough to make a difference. And crucially, someone actually comes back to see it in action. That’s the habit-forming magic. That’s how we want The Epsom Way to live and breathe in classrooms.

Of course, we’re not there yet. You don’t just wander into the staffroom on a Monday and announce: “Surprise! Everyone’s doing drop-ins now!” That’s a recipe for panic, not progress. An open-door, developmental culture needs careful foundations: trust, positivity, and genuine buy-in. Push too hard, too fast, and the whole idea collapses before it’s even started.

So, we began by finding a focus. Rather than observing “everything and nothing,” we worked out a set of evidence-based teaching principles that actually matter. That became The Epsom Way. But instead of rolling out the full set at once, our mantra was “little but in-depth.” We started with just two: questioning and retrieval.

And even those we stripped back to essentials. For questioning, we honed in on two routines: Question, Pause, Name, ensuring every pupil has time to think before anyone is called and probing questions that dig deeper than the first half-right answer. For retrieval, we built it into lesson starters: short, low-stakes tasks to bring knowledge back to the surface and strengthen memory. Simple, practical, evidence backed. In other words, things teachers could actually use without adding three extra hours to their planning.

With our focus clear, it was time to get the ball rolling. And we knew straight away: positivity had to lead the way. This wasn’t about “gotchas” or surveillance; it was about celebrating what’s already strong and making it visible. So SLT volunteered as guinea pigs a ‘practice what you preach’ move that said, If anyone’s teaching is going to be under the microscope, let it be ours first.

Drop-ins had rules. They would only ever generate positive comments. They were not to be used for accountability. They would happen in the first 15 minutes of a lesson, and feedback had to link back to questioning or retrieval. To model the process, we even filmed ourselves teaching and showed the clips at INSET, not perfect, polished showcase lessons, but the real thing, wobbles and all. Because this isn’t about “performing.” It’s about everyday teaching; the kind pupils actually experience.

The response? Immediate. After our SLT trial, we opened drop-ins to the whole staff body, and within the first three days there had been over 150 visits. Monday morning briefings, once notorious for information overload, were reborn as celebrations of teaching and learning. We highlighted the “top droppers,” shared classroom snippets, and, for once, the buzz around school wasn’t about looming deadlines but about teaching itself. A shift had happened. Staff were excited to be seen and to see each other.

But here’s the catch: we can’t stay in “praise-only” mode forever. Compliments are lovely (and frankly too rare in teaching), but growth also needs gentle nudges. Our next step is to start layering in small developmental prompts, along the lines of “I liked this, but have you tried…”. The key is timing. Do it too soon, and trust evaporates. Wait too long, and the momentum fizzles out. By sticking tightly to questioning and retrieval, we can keep suggestions structured and consistent, so they feel like part of a shared professional language rather than one person’s preference.

And the bigger picture? The end goal is to train a team of instructional coaches who use regular drop-ins and tight feedback cycles to keep practice sharp across the school. That’s where we’re heading. But we know the hurdles: finding time in the chaos of a school day, training enough coaches to keep pace with a growing staff, and  most important of all, holding onto the positivity and buy-in that made this work in the first place. 

This is just the beginning. We’ll keep sharing our progress as we go. Step by step, tweak by tweak, drop-in by drop-in, Stay tuned!