What do we mean by high expectations?

"They can because they think they can."

('Possunt quia posse videntur')

Virgil's 'Aeneid'

High expectations can be a mysterious thing. Something ineffable. You can understand them when you experience it. You may be able to tell a tale about when someone had high expectations for you, but it can often prove hard to put those expectations into words.

We have all experienced school and have our personal interpretations of high expectations that linger with us.

I went to a tough comprehensive boys school in Croxteth, Liverpool. Then, and for two decades since, it has been on the brink of failure (until a more recent takeover). I remember the fabric of the school was worn and tattered. The hopes of its male students for academic success weren't shining either.

In rooms full of Lynx-laden Liverpool teenagers, where ideas like wider reading or homework were anathema, it was easy to assume high expectations were in short supply. I certainly didn't feel it in all my classes all the time.

But in history teachers like Mr Delahunty or Mrs Keogh, or maths teachers like Mr Laing, high expectations still slipped through the cracks in the walls and made themselves known.

They made explicit expectations we should work hard and prove our worth compared to boys from the posher schools. There were expectations you would listen and learn. There was an expectation that effort was non-negotiable, even if you hadn't read the books, or knew the special words. I didn't fully understand it then, but there were expectations, teaching practices, and behaviour nudges that meant high expectations were evident. Crucially, for me, they made a difference.

Defining high expectations

The hard thing about high expectations is that everyone thinks they have them. It becomes an act of stating the bleedin' obvious. And yet, when we try and define it, we may crystallise some useful reflections and refinements as to what we actually think and do.

In the new OFSTED Toolkit, high expectations runs throughout the document. It is clearly evident in their view of inclusion, where "setting high expectations is noted as a factor that contributes strongly to inclusion".

It is also a factor in having "high expectations for all pupils’ attendance, behaviour and attitudes, and design effective policies that communicate these high expectations clearly to staff, pupils, and parents."

In a recent speech, the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillopson, extended high expectations to parents too, "So high expectations of children must mean high expectations of parents too. To live up to our responsibilities. To play an active role in our children’s learning."

So, sky-high expectations - everyone should have 'em!

And yet, a dictionary definition of high expectations doesn't do much for us. It needs to be specific. For leaders, they need to establish and sustain high expectations with daily habits and practices. Each leader, teacher, and teaching assistant is likely to need to share the same understanding too.

If we don't break down high expectations into things we think and do (often as a relentless habit), then it becomes an empty platitude. Or worse, it morphs into an unrealistic or punitive 'no excuses' mantra that can squander necessary goodwill.

Mr Delahunty was relentlessly supportive of me so that I could learn history. That came with some pressure, and a great deal of demanding expectation, but it was rooted in care, understanding, and clear instructions about what I should do.

High expectations in every classroom

I think high expectations will look different in nurseries, schools, and colleges. If we try and narrow it down to a simple formula for all, we may stop people thinking, instead of supporting them to reflect, refine, and act.

But if I was to visit one of these settings (which is one of my professional privileges), then I would consider some practices that bake-in high expectations into teaching and learning. My notion of high expectations in the classroom could include:

1. Setting challenging goals. Feedback and setting meaningful but challenging goals can be a tricky business. We can boost motivation or break the hopes of students. We make decisions about it all the time: some explicit and some tacit. For example: Do we enact clear feedback and goal setting - and how? Do we issue target grades or not? If we do issue target grades, how challenging are they? Do we encourage self-regulation goals and not just academic goals? Do goals fuel students' motivation or foster fear - and how would we know?

• Read my blog on 'Goal setting and building cathedrals' - with its breakdown of different goals - HERE.
• Read the EEF guidance on 'Teacher feedback to improve pupil learning' - HERE.
• Read this by Prof Becky Allen on setting target grades - HERE.

2. Model excellent work. The nuts and bolts of high quality teaching include modelling. It is inclusive, responsive, adaptive - take you pick! But it is tricky to do well. We might consider live modelling of academic writing, or modelling of product design or brilliant self-portraits in art. We would make decisions about how to model excellence. For example: How should we best model? How many worked examples would be effective? What would excellence look like for this given task? If we are scaffolding the task, when do we remove the scaffold? How do TAs support independence with their support and prompts?

• Read my blog on 'Adaptive teaching: Scaffolds, scale, structure, and style', where I unpick how you can maintain high standards with meaningful adaptations - HERE. And see my free resource on 'Modelling writing approaches' HERE.
• Read Tom Sherrington's brilliantly clear and practical blog on 'Five ways to secure progress through modelling' - HERE.
• Read Mary Myatt's passionate call for 'Beautiful work' - HERE.

3. Build accountable communication. Who is talking in class may be our first question. But who is listening and thinking hard may be the key question, if we are to have the highest of expectations of both communication and learning. Doug Lemov's notion of 'ratio' works well here. That is to say, who is thinking hard and participating? What is the ratio in our classroom at any given point? To establish high expectations we need to model listening, build brilliant book talk, expect routine discussion with well-practised strategies, and more. We then have questions about the quality of academic talk and accountable communication. For example: Should we have 'no-hands up' or 'Cold call' to assure students are accountable? Can we deploy talk routines (like 'ABC feedback') to foster listening and responsive communication? Do we expect academic language to be used routinely - if so - how do we scaffold it?

• Read my blog on 'Disciplinary talk' to understand how we may communicate differently across the curriculum - HERE. My 'Three pillars of vocabulary instruction' explores how we build academic language - HERE.
• Read Julian Grenier's EEF blog on 'Building learning in the early years: How conversations can change children's lives for the better' - HERE.
• Read this St Matthew's Research School blog on 'Accountable classroom talk' - HERE.

4. Scaffold self-regulation and independence. High expectations could plausibly be characterised as students routinely managing a tricky task to the best of their ability with increasing independence. High expectations is expecting a young children in nursery to play with their peers; high expectations in secondary school is expecting a student to undertake their revision with effort and diligence; high expectations in college is to expect wider reading around the topic, or independence in seeking more knowledge or work experience. We are left with questions. For example: What learning behaviours do we scaffold and expect? How do we support independent tasks best, such as wider reading, homework, or exam revision? How do approaches to build self-regulation or independence change between Early Years and year 1, or between primary and secondary school? What strategies help children persevere through difficulties and struggle?

• Read my blog on 'Improving independent learning' - which unpacks 'learned helplessness' and 'learned industriousness' - HERE.
• Watch the EEF animated explainer on 'Metacognition - A brief explainer' - HERE.
• Read the AERO practice guide on 'Supporting self-regulated learning' - HERE.

Of course, there are so many interpretations of high expectations. What I have characterised may not encompass what schools and settings do, think, or prioritise. But the thinking and reflection matters. We need to distil high expectations into something concrete, replicable, clear and sustainable.

High expectations is not some idealism that every child can achieve a 9 or an A*, but it should be something useful that believes and builds a culture that supports every child to be the best version of themselves. It is how Mr Delahunty approached teaching me history.

We should ask then: what do we mean by high expectations?