Brain-based learning

New Ofsted Toolkit expectations

To be graded ‘Expected Standard’, teachers and leaders MUST be able to demonstrate:

“the school’s approach to teaching is based on an evidence-informed understanding of effective teaching and how pupils learn“.

Long-term Memory, Learning and Curriculum Design

Unlock the science of how children really learn and turn it into practical classroom action. This course explores how the brain encodes, stores and retrieves information, and shows you how to design curriculum and teaching that help pupils know more and remember more over time. Grounded in cognitive science and fully aligned with DfE and Ofsted expectations, it gives you a clear, usable model for planning learning that sticks.

Why this course?

Too often, pupils appear to understand something in the lesson but cannot recall or use it weeks later. This course tackles that problem directly. You will see how working memory, long-term memory and schema actually operate, why overload happens, and what teachers can do to prevent it. You will learn how repetition, retrieval practice, spacing and interleaving strengthen neural pathways so that learning is retained rather than lost.

What you’ll learn

By the end of the course, you will:

• Understand the key features of long-term memory, working memory and neuroplasticity
• Recognise what overload looks like and how to reduce it through clearer instruction and task design
• Use retrieval practice, spacing and interleaving to strengthen retention and reduce forgetting
• Build schema deliberately using vocabulary, models, examples and prior knowledge to deepen understanding
• Apply memory principles to curriculum design, sequencing and progression planning
• Use writing, oracy and vocabulary as tools to consolidate learning across subjects
• Support pupils with additional needs by reducing cognitive barriers and adapting how knowledge is rehearsed and retrieved

What’s included

• High-impact training session on long-term memory, learning and curriculum design
• Clear explanations of brain processes in teacher-friendly language
• Practical classroom strategies for retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, summarising, note-making and “Find and Fix” activities
• Curriculum design guidance for sequencing, progression, knowledge organisers and recall routines
• Templates and tools you can use immediately

Evidence and Inspection Alignment

Grounded in cognitive science

This course is built on clear evidence about how learning is encoded, strengthened and retrieved over time. It demonstrates how techniques such as spacing, retrieval and interleaving help knowledge move into long-term memory, making learning more durable.

Aligned with DfE guidance

Current DfE expectations in the Writing Framework highlight the importance of reducing cognitive load, securing foundational knowledge and building automaticity. This course supports those principles by showing how long-term memory can be strengthened and how writing, oracy and vocabulary deepen understanding across the curriculum.

Matches Ofsted’s expectations for high-quality curriculum design

Ofsted expects curriculum to be carefully sequenced so that pupils gain knowledge incrementally and reach clearly defined end points. This course provides practical tools for structuring learning, building schema and ensuring knowledge is revisited and retrieved so it is retained securely. It also supports the requirement for assessment to help pupils embed key concepts and use knowledge fluently.

Reinforces inclusive practice

Inspection expectations emphasise that the most effective inclusion strategy begins with high-quality teaching. This course shows how memory, cognitive load and classroom design interact with additional needs, disadvantage and wider barriers to learning. You will learn how to adapt teaching so that pupils who find learning hardest can access and retain essential knowledge.