Saskia Roobaert, who led on the NACE Challenge Award accreditation at Walton Priory Middle School, reflects on the role of leadership in creating a “high-challenge culture” in which all learners can thrive.

More able provision isn’t built in classrooms; it’s built in cultures. Schools that consistently stretch high-potential learners don’t rely on isolated strategies or pockets of great practice; they create an aligned system where leadership behaviours, governance oversight and classroom routines all work in the same direction. 

In this blog post I will explore three leadership levers that drive high-quality challenge:

1. Culture: how predictable norms, routines and expectations create the conditions for deep thinking.
2. Curriculum & pedagogy: how leaders model and embed challenge as a non-negotiable, not an add-on.
3. Governance: how governing bodies can ask the right questions and monitor the right signals to sustain more able provision over time.

… aiming to give school leaders, governors and trust executives a clear, practical framework for embedding sustained challenge, positioning more able learners at the heart of whole-school improvement.

When we talk about improving outcomes for more able learners, the conversation often jumps straight to the classroom: targeted tasks, adapted resources, stretch questions, challenge strategies. All this matters, but none of it lands consistently without something deeper and more powerful behind it.

Challenge isn’t a technique. It’s a culture. And culture is a leadership responsibility.

Schools that offer sustained stretch for more able pupils do not rely on enthusiastic individuals, new initiatives or curriculum tweaks. They build a shared operating system where high expectation, deep thinking and intellectual curiosity are part of the school’s DNA. That system is designed, safeguarded and modelled by leaders and held accountable through governance.

In an era of widening attainment gaps, acute teacher recruitment challenges and increased complexity of need, the leadership lens on more able education has never been more important.

1. Culture: the invisible architecture behind challenge

The most consistent differentiator between schools that stretch their more able learners and those that struggle is the predictability of culture. In high-performing environments, routines are stable, expectations are transparent and behavioural norms are shared. Pupils know what learning feels like. Teachers know what challenge looks like. Leaders know what they will see when they walk into a classroom.

More able learners thrive when the school climate:

• Sets “challenge for all” as a cultural non-negotiable
  High expectations aren’t reserved for identified pupils; they’re embedded as a default. This avoids the common pitfall of designing exclusive provision for a small cohort and instead creates an ecosystem where stretch is a daily entitlement.
• Reduces cognitive noise for teachers and pupils
  When routines, transitions and behaviour expectations are consistent, teachers have more bandwidth to plan for depth and thinking rather than survival. More able pupils benefit first from this stability.
• Rewards curiosity and intellectual risk
  In the most successful cultures, leaders normalise productive struggle. Pupils are encouraged to attempt difficult work, articulate their thinking and persevere when they reach cognitive friction. This psychological safety is foundational to high challenge.

Culture is intangible, but its impact is unmistakable. Leaders shape it intentionally – through modelling, messaging and relentless clarity.

2. Curriculum & pedagogy: from patchwork to coherence

While individual teachers can deliver pockets of excellence, sustained more able provision requires a coherent, sequenced and evidence-informed approach to curriculum and pedagogy. This coherence is impossible without leadership.

Effective leaders do three things exceptionally well:

• Define what challenge means in their school
  Challenge cannot be left to interpretation. Some see it as harder worksheets. Others as independent projects. Others as open-ended discussion. When definitions vary, provision becomes inconsistent. Leaders who crystalise what “challenge” looks like, sounds like and feels like create alignment across classrooms.
• Build teaching systems rather than initiatives
  Too many schools rely on intermittent CPD sessions to improve challenge. What works is an operating system: modelling, coaching, feedback loops, shared planning practices, and curriculum routines that make challenge the default, not the exception.
• Use curriculum design to secure depth, not pace
  High ability learners don’t need to race ahead; they need to go deeper. Leaders who prioritise conceptual understanding, metacognitive routines and deliberate practice create the conditions for genuine mastery.

Curriculum and pedagogy are leadership levers. When leaders make challenge coherent, teachers deliver it with confidence – and more able learners experience it daily.

3. Governance: the oversight that sustains challenge over time

 In many schools, the more able agenda fluctuates with staffing changes, inspection cycles or competing priorities. Governance is the stabiliser. Governors provide continuity, strategic accountability and a lens that transcends immediate pressures.

Effective governance for more able provision typically includes:

a) Strategic questioning

 Governors ask:

• How do we know our more able pupils are experiencing consistent stretch?
• What evidence, beyond attainment data, demonstrates deep learning?
• How are we monitoring the quality of challenge in mixed-ability settings?

These questions elevate the conversation from compliance to culture.

b) Monitoring meaningful signals

Rather than relying solely on exam outcomes, governors track leading indicators:

• Lesson walk quality
• Pupil voice on challenge
• Engagement of more able pupils in wider opportunities
• Staff confidence and training in high-challenge pedagogy

This balance of qualitative and quantitative monitoring protects depth over superficial acceleration.

c) Resourcing leadership capacity

Governors ensure leaders have the time, structure and professional learning needed to maintain high-challenge systems – especially during periods of reduced budgets or staffing turbulence.

When governance is aligned with leadership intent, challenge becomes embedded, not episodic.

High-challenge cultures benefit all learners

One of the most powerful insights from the NACE Challenge Development Programme is that provision for more able pupils isn’t about exclusivity, it’s a catalyst for whole-school improvement. When leaders design systems for depth, curiosity and independence, the gains cascade downwards

High-challenge cultures improve:

• Teacher clarity – expectations and routines tighten.
• Curriculum coherence – sequencing strengthens.
• Behaviour climate – classrooms become more purposeful.
• Pupil thinking – metacognition develops across cohorts.
• Equity – disadvantaged more able learners are less likely to be overlooked.

In short, when leaders raise the ceiling, the floor rises with it.

A call to leadership: challenge as a strategic priority

More able provision cannot be an add-on, nor can it sit solely with individual teachers or one enthusiastic lead. It must be woven through leadership, curriculum and governance. That requires courage, clarity and a relentless focus on simplicity, reducing the noise so teachers can deliver what works.

As schools navigate unprecedented complexity, from staffing shortages to SEND pressures, the temptation can be to narrow the curriculum and play it safe. But the opposite is needed. More able pupils require more than safety; they require intellectual ambition. And ambitious cultures are built by leaders.

Challenge doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design.

To learn more about what this high-challenge culture looks like at Walton Priory Middle School, register now for:
• Member Spotlight with Walton Priory Middle School: 13th January 2026 (free online event, exclusively for NACE members)
• Challenge Award Experience event at Walton Priory Middle School: 29th January 2026 (in-person event; open to all; member discount)