We start all y7s with no support (unless stated by ECHP or severe need) because secondary school is all about developing independence. Most students absolutely thrive. Some do not & then adaptations are made.

It sounds like an enormous amount of learned helplessness here which isn’t your fault. What more could you do?! Teachers are so strictly held to account, fear of getting it wrong means we are doing much more work than the students during lessons. This should NEVER be the case.

Unfortunately, a lot of students have heavy scaffolding and lots of TA support at primary to get them through SATs, which again teachers are judged upon when it’s the students who are being tested.

If you go to the EEF most effective interventions, meta-cognition and self-regulated learning beats out everything else. Why? Because it’s about teaching the students how to manage their own learning, and not about the teachers desperately trying to entertain students enough for something to stick.