What is differentiation?

Every class has children with a wide range of skills and abilities and with previously gained knowledge at different levels. Class teachers are trained to look at the needs of their class and while all the children are learning about the same topic (or part of a topic); they plan work of a different type or level of difficulty to match the needs of all the children. For those who finish early, for whatever reason, they may provide additional pieces of work. This process is known as differentiation.