Recovery Curriculum 2020
We acknowledge that our students will have had different experiences during this time. However, the common thread running through all is the loss of routine, structure, friendship, opportunity and freedom.
Professor Barry Carpenter has developed the Recovery Curriculum, as a response to the losses described above. It is a way to help our students come back into school life, acknowledging the experiences they have had.
CLPT actions are to be based on the work of Barry Carpenter.
The key word throughout the recovery curriculum is ‘KINDNESS’. This will be evident in everything we do Our mission statement for this time will be:
“Heath Park will provide every student with appropriate opportunities to rebuild relationships and a sense of community. They will be given space and support to re-establish a sense of self, routine and structure. Every member of school community is committed to ensuring that all our young people are supported and equipped to meet the potential challenges that lie ahead. The vision that, all students will become fully engaged, creative, effective and successful learners. At the core of the recovery curriculum is the understanding that our schools must not just prepare students for the future but also help them make sense of the present.”
Losses
Loss |
Potential impact on our young people |
ROUTINE
|
Many young people manage their mental health through maintaining routines. As routines are disrupted, anxiety can increase and this can impact upon how young people cope with different situations. Many young people describe routine or specific activities as important coping mechanisms. |
STRUCTURE
|
Young people can find it alarming that the infrastructure of their week has been abandoned, however logical the reason. The sudden end to their normal structures and interactions can lead to feelings of abandonment. Our young people need to know what they are doing now and what will come next. Lack of structure will lead to our young people becoming anxious and concentration decreasing over time.
|
FRIENDSHIP
|
The loss of friendship and social interaction can trigger a bereavement response in some of our young people. They will grieve for that group of peers who affirms them as the person they are and want to be. The rules of the peer group have vanished without warning. They will mourn for how their life was compared to how it is now. They have undergone a period where friends and family members have been avoided because they were a threat. |
OPPORTUNITY
|
Our young people were expecting and preparing themselves for experiences that never materialised. The sudden loss of opportunity can lead to anxiety, trauma and lack of confidence for their future pathways. |
FREEDOM
|
Things like not being able to participate in meaningful work, engage socially with friends and family, and move about freely will lead to feelings of sadness. Our young people may be feeling a sense of sadness about what it is they can no longer do, experience or engage with. Unrecognised or unacknowledged grief can sometimes be difficult to process. For some, this loss of freedom will be combined with a weight of responsibility that will have made academic learning feel inconsequential.
|
The Recovery Curriculum is built on 5 Levers, as a systematic, relationships-based approach to rebalance the love of learning and work through a process of re-engagement.
How we will address each lever
On return to school in September; tutors will be delivering extended tutorial sessions to their form groups based around the 5 levers. This will provide opportunities for the school community to share experiences and time will be given for discussion and reflection.
Relationships
We will invest in and restore relationships across the school community and where necessary provide extra support for our students.
Community
We will recognise that curriculum will have been based in the community for a long period of time. We will listen to what has happened in this time, understand the needs of our community and engage them in the transitioning of learning.
Metacognition
We will make the skills for learning in a school environment explicit to our students and reskill and rebuild their confidence and scholarly behaviours.
A Transparent curriculum
We will address any gaps in learning, consulting and working with our students to heal this sense of loss.
Space – to be
We will achieve calming reassurance through restoring direction and expectations.
This is Barry Carpenter’s original think piece – https://www.evidenceforlearning.net/recoverycurriculum/
This is a link to the wordless books focused on the experience in the pandemic – https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/downloads-shop/beating-the-virus
