Hello all,
We're aiming to lift our A* share (the proportion of A-level grades that are A*, the top grade) from 22% to 33%. There's now a bank of 188 classroom ideas to help, all using Google tools we already have: Classroom, Forms, NotebookLM (Google's AI notebook that answers only from sources you give it), Gemini (Google's AI assistant), Vids and Sites.
Open the A* Toolkit
188 ideas across 9 tools, every subject we teach, filterable by subject, pedagogy and evidence.
Open →Coaching activities
Twelve ready-made ways to use the toolkit in instructional coaching, from a 15-minute department “pick one” to a rehearsal and a keep, adapt or drop review.
Open →Glossary
Every abbreviation and technical term, in plain English: SAMR, TPACK, AO, NEA, EEF, retrieval practice, effect size and the rest.
Open →What it is
Each idea is one concrete thing you can run in a lesson or set for homework. It tells you what to do, what to type or paste, and what the students actually do. Most take minutes to set up.
The part that matters most: every idea comes in three versions, depending on whether a student is currently sitting at an A, a B or a C. They are genuinely different approaches, not just more of the same for the weaker group.
Finding yours
Open the link and pick your subject. Every subject we teach is there, including French and Spanish, the community languages, Core Maths and the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification). Not sure where to start? Press Quick wins for low-effort, high-impact ideas. If you would rather scan a table than read cards, switch to Table view.
Tap the star on any idea to add it to your shortlist, which you can print or copy for a coaching conversation. Any view, filters included, can be shared as a link.
Under More filters you can also filter by teaching approach. Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction are ten research-based habits of effective teaching; pick one, say Provide models or Check for understanding, and see only the ideas that use it. Every idea names the principles it rests on and links the research behind them.
Anything underlined with dots, anywhere in the toolkit, is a term with a plain-English definition: hover over it or tap it.
Also worth a look
- What your exam board actually rewards at the top, with real grade boundaries. The A* mark ranges from about 70% in some subjects to 94% in others, so a single “aim for 90%” target misleads most departments.
- A SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) adaptation on every idea. It removes the barrier to access and keeps the thinking just as demanding.
- A straight account of what the research does and does not support. Several popular techniques have weaker evidence than people assume, and it says so rather than selling them.
Two honest caveats. The ideas were checked against what the tools can really do, but they have not been trialled in our classrooms. Check anything against your specification before you use it.
And the obvious one: if the tool does the thinking, it is working against the A*. Every idea is built so the student does the work.
Also published
AI pilot decision plan 2026/27
How each AI pilot is scored on value, cost, quality and risk, which call it gets (Scale, Shrink, Pause or Kill), when it is re-scored and who decides.
Open →Pick one, try it, and tell me what happened. That is the part I want.