Curriculum Delivery - Our Approach to Teaching and Learning

At Callington Community College, we are guided by cognitive science principles to ensure students learn deeply and retain what matters. Our lessons are deliberately designed to maximise attention, minimise distraction and cognitive overload, and reduce forgetting. Teachers carefully plan and connect learning to build coherent, transferable knowledge over time.

We aim to provide a broad, imaginative, and creative education, widening horizons through ambitious and stimulating lessons that offer rich, fulfilling, and memorable experiences.  Learning is at the centre of everything we do, and we are committed to fostering a life-long love of learning for all students and staff.

Our approach is underpinned by the College values: we are courageous in tackling challenging ideas, ambitious in striving for excellence, respectful in creating focused learning environments, and encouraging in supporting every student to succeed.

Callington Community College Lesson Structure

We follow clear expectations and a consistent approach to teaching and learning, ensuring teachers, parents/carers, and students understand and work towards the highest standards.  Teachers retain autonomy to design bespoke, responsive lessons, with the needs of students with SEND at the heart of every learning opportunity.

Predictable and well-established classroom routines play a crucial role in creating a learning environment where all students can thrive.  All of our lessons follow the same structure, which helps everyone know what to expect and how to be successful.   

All members of our learning community are familiar with and confident in how lessons are delivered meaning that the conditions are set to make the most of every minute in every lesson.  Our lesson structure is designed to help all students be at their best, every single day.

All lessons are planned carefully to include:

Get to Work Task  - students complete five questions designed to retrieve key knowledge in silence as soon as they enter the classroom.  This means that students begin thinking and engaging with learning immediately and they feel supported and included, remaining cognitively present, engaged, and accountable.

Expert Explanation - teachers deliver new learning with clarity and precision by breaking down key concepts into manageable, sequential steps.  Students listen to their teacher silently, actively and attentively so that they understand new learning the first time it is taught.

Check for Understanding - teachers pre-plan and ask questions which require all students to respond using a mini-whiteboard or a similar mechanism.  This allows teachers to accurately assess understanding ‘in the moment’ and ensures that everyone can benefit from immediate, accurate feedback.

Silent Independent Practice- there is a period of uninterrupted, silent independent work built into every lesson allowing all students to learn without distraction, and access support from their teacher when they need it.

You can find more information in our Teaching and Learning Policy (download a copy below)