Year 7 Open Evening -Thursday 25th September 2025 from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm and Sixth Form Open Evening – Thursday 13th November 2025 from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm

King Charles is open today Thursday 9th January for all year groups.

Students and staff must take great care when making their way to school as after the recent snowfall roads and pavements may be a cause for concern and should only be travelled if families and individuals consider it safe to do so in their particular circumstances.

Please report any absences in the usual way.

Teaching and Learning

Our teaching is informed by research into cognitive science, and we focus our time and energy on approaches that have the greatest impact on student learning, ensuring that every lesson is purposeful, challenging and carefully sequenced. Clear routines and consistent expectations create an environment in which all students can concentrate, participate and thrive. These approaches draw upon the work of researchers including Peps McCrea, Barak Rosenshine, and the Education Endowment Foundation. It reflects our understanding of how students acquire, retain and apply knowledge.

We recognise that students are novices whenever they encounter new learning. Effective teaching therefore involves explicit instruction, clear modelling, guided practice and timely feedback before students move towards greater independence. 

Our teachers receive regular professional development to continually strengthen their understanding of evidence-informed teaching and to refine their classroom practice. They take time to understand each student’s strengths, needs and aspirations. They use this knowledge to adapt their teaching, provide appropriate support and ensure that every student can access a challenging curriculum while being encouraged to achieve their personal best.

Teaching at Lacon Childe School has the following core elements: 

  • Simple, effective and research driven teaching; 
  • The importance of checking for understanding and responsive teaching; 
  • The importance of practice; 
  • Expert teachers. 

 Our practice is focused on three key areas: 

  1. Intentional Inclusion: ensuring that every student is seen, supported, and challenged.  
  2. Pedagogical Planning: designing learning that is purposeful, coherent, and ambitious. 
  3. Communication and Cognition: building understanding through language, dialogue, and thinking. 

This simple model of memory underpins our approach to pedagogy:

Our lessons have the following elements at Lacon Childe School:  

At Lacon Childe we… 

So that… 

Complete a retrieval practice ‘Do Now’ every lesson 

We know more and remember more, because practising retrieving knowledge from our long-term memory stops us from forgetting it. 

Work silently during deliberate practice 

We can concentrate and produce our best work without our attention being distracted, because attention is the gatekeeper to learning. 

Answer questions using mini-whiteboards  

Our teachers know whether or not you’ve understood their explanation, and can repeat or re-teach it if you haven’t. 

Read aloud in lessons 

We are more articulate and feel more confident. 

Pay attention to our teachers and our work in lessons 

We are able to remember more from our lessons, because if we aren’t paying attention then the information won’t even enter our heads in the first place.