Department for Education is not responsible for the content of resources outside of GOV.UK. Any links are an example of external resources you may want to use, not an exhaustive list and not a specific recommendation from the department. You should always refer to the specific advice of your training provider first.

An important part of your teacher training will be learning how to plan lessons. Through this, you’ll develop your teaching ability.

You’ll likely have the opportunity to do this alongside your mentor or another class teacher.

You’ll likely be given templates to start with by your provider and they or your placement school may require you to use specific resources.

You should check with your school and training provider what their requirements are.

A quote I remember is ‘it never gets easier, you just get better.’

Physical education (PE) trainee from 2024/25

Use the national curriculum

All lesson planning should consider the national curriculum. The national curriculum sets out the programmes of study and attainment targets for all subjects at all 4 key stages.

All local-authority-maintained schools in England must teach these programmes of study.

You might want to read the national curriculum. This is an external link for your key stage or subject to help you understand what you’ll be teaching.

To see how this works in practice, you could watch recorded lessons from other teachers, for example, from Oak National Academy. This is an external link.

You can also look at your placement school’s website to understand what’s covered on their specific curriculum and how they implement this.

Early subject knowledge preparation can help out loads! Read the texts, textbooks, revision guides.

English trainee from 2024/25

How lesson planning works

An important part of lesson planning will be how you incorporate:

  • assessment for learning
  • adaptive teaching
  • schemes of work, if relevant

Assessment for learning

Assessment for learning is how you’re measuring the progress of the students in your lessons.

You need to know if your students have understood what you’ve just taught them and how you can assess this as part of your lesson.

Adaptive teaching

You’ll adapt your lesson planning based on your class and their needs. Understanding what these are will inform the ways you tweak your lessons and how you might adjust your teaching if your students have not understood something.

Schemes of work

Some schools will use specific schemes of work – this is where each lesson is part of a wider, structured plan of how subjects will be delivered.

Schemes of work operate as a roadmap for teachers to help them plan and deliver lessons consistently.

You should talk to your placement school about any schemes they follow.

Curriculum Hubs

Department for Education funds a national network of Curriculum Hubs. This is an external link through the Education Endowment Foundation.

They’re designed to help you develop expertise in teaching a specific subject and offer support to schools or individuals. Some hubs target specific phases of education, for example, English hub support is largely for primary schools whereas languages hub support is for secondary schools.

Subject associations

As part of your teacher training, you may want to find and join a subject association. This is an external link. They provide access to resources and professional development.

Some will provide access to free resources whereas some will require a membership fee.

The Geographical Association was extremely helpful for me. It provided teaching tips and advice within my field.

Geography trainee from 2024/25

Lesson planning resources

The Chartered College of Teaching tips

Before you start your training, you could read some lesson planning tips for trainees from the Chartered College of Teaching. This is an external link

Oak National Academy

If you’re looking for more inspiration for your lesson planning, you could consider resources from Oak National Academy for: