In today’s world of education there are a great many words and phrases bandied around by schools that, even I as an educator, have difficulty in understanding. What does a school mean by ‘dynamic vision’? What is a ‘unique learning experience’? What is a ‘global learner’? If it is hard enough for educators to fathom I can only imagine how difficult it is for parents to navigate this landscape and make sense of it all. As a parent, as well as an educator, one of my first questions to any school is: ‘Can you please provide me with evidence of this?’ One of the key aspects of teaching and learning at the Alpha School which is easily explained and understood, yet in reality is often difficult to achieve in depth and with rigour, is differentiation. Many schools talk about it. Few schools do it. Even fewer schools do it well. Differentiation is the practice of offering a range of different pathways for a child to follow in order for him to reach his learning goals. It is simple to state but it is more complex to put into action. All of our children are different and so we need diverse ways to help every individual’s learning. Some would argue that all children need to follow identical routines as they will all one day be taking the same exams. I would argue that they will need to have taken various routes to get there. The outcome may be the same yet the journey can be very different. This is even more important with our younger children whose rate of development can vary so much between individuals. Previously a teacher would decide what needed to be taught. She would explain and demonstrate with examples, and then instruct the children to engage in an exercise, or hand out identical worksheets and expect all children to complete the same work. However, this approach does not take account of the range of ages within a year group and the stages of child development. What happens to the child for whom that lesson is a mystery? How are they meant to complete the work? What about the child who has found the work easy to learn and remember up until that point? After they have completed the work in a matter of moments, are they meant to sit quietly and wait for everyone else to finish and catch them up? Do you send your child to school to sit and do nothing for twenty minutes each lesson? At the Alpha School we ensure that each of our lessons is designed to meet the needs of all learners -including co-curricular lessons such as sport, art, music and drama as well as our core lessons of mathematics, English and science. The teachers ensure that they are very familiar not only with their own assessments of each child but also the previous year’s data. Thus, the teacher can differentiate the questions that she puts to each member of the class from the very beginning of the year. She can delve deeper into the degree of understanding of each child in the initial stages of the lesson. All of our teachers vary the tasks that the children complete. They do this through challenging questions and encouraging critical thinking. This is achieved by allowing the child the space and time to develop her own ideas and explain them to us and through a range of different activities to push their learning forward with the aid, support and guidance of their teacher. There are several ways in which a good, qualified and well trained teacher in a great school can develop a series of lessons that meet the needs of all learners. Differentiation is the cornerstone of this. At the Alpha School we ensure our staff have the time to create vibrant, inspirational lessons with a variety of activities available to the children so that they can choose their pathway to success. Children want to learn. Children want to improve their skills, their knowledge and their understanding across all areas of the curriculum; differentiation will meet the needs of every learner at the Alpha School. We have the evidence to prove that the needs of all learners are being met – and we are always happy to keep our door open to parents and actively involve them in the learning journey of their children, no matter what their age or stage of development. The writer is principal of Alpha School Lahore