This was exactly my thought today. My starter required them to read the question and just draw the diagram on their whiteboards. It was amazing what an improvement there was in the quality and detail when they applied so much focus to the diagram.

Oh, now I understand your post. I'm all for mixed in KS3. We have it in KS4 though and it's not easy at all!

I'm glad it has worked out for you. My experience has been far less successful over the last 6 years and seems worse since covid. Have you had completely mixed attainment from y7 right up to y11? So students taking higher getting a 3 and a 9 in the same class in y11.

Have you taught mixed attainment for a significant length of time? I hope that you have done it for a few years at least (recently) in order to qualify your comment.