The Recovery Curriculum

How will this help me to learn?

What this might look like in school?

Children and adults need to be aware that it’s ok and perfectly normal to feel anxious. It can also be useful for pupils to understand that things might change; but if they are worried, they can speak to identified key adults in their life (both at school and at home) about how they are feeling. This will help children to relax and prepare to learn.

• Children to be taught to identify their physical signs of anxiety and be aware of the key people they can turn to for support.
• Support to identify positive coping strategies that help children to manage their anxiety, such as taking regular breaks, doing physical activity, practising breathing exercises, talking about or expressing their emotions, having a regular routine and connecting with others.
• Praise and reward small (and big) successes when children face their anxieties, encouraging them to remain positive.
• Create a sense of safety in school by providing structure, routine e.g. bubble groupings, different break times and lunchtimes.
• Listen to pupils and use the learner profiles to seek feedback and opinions from children and their parents and carers.  
• Provide online videos giving information that sets out how things will be the same or different and help children to see what they can control.
• Talk about coronavirus and related worries, use this as an opportunity to correct inaccurate information.
• Ensure academic needs are met but don’t put too much academic pressure on children.
• Support teachers and families with their own stresses and anxieties, which will in turn help pupils.
• Flexible and supportive approach when applying behaviour policies.

How will this help me to learn?

What that may look like?

Many pupils will have been unable to see their friends, extended families, teachers and other trusted adults. As relationships are an important part of social and developmental growth, any disruption to relationships can be very impact children’s well-being. Relationships will be a key part of helping children and young people to reintegrate into school life.

• Maintaining the same staff as much as possible.
• We will take care in putting pupils into groups and regularly review how these groups are working.
• Sharing experiences of lockdown.
• Activities planned to ensure children feel a sense of belonging to their group.
• Provide time and space for pupils to reconnect with each other and with school life.
• Pupils aware of the support options available to them, both internally and externally to the school. This will help to foster a sense of trust and containment that will be important for relationship building.

How will this help me to learn?

What that may look like?

Staff in each year group will design their timetable carefully taking in to account the experiences of the cohort as well as individual needs to ensure it is relevant and accessible by all. Routine is important to our students so elements of core learning skills such as English and Maths will be introduced early on for those who are able to access this.  Considering engagement and a manageable level of challenge will be key in the current climate – games, for example, would be a good starting point to re-engage students in English as they have engaged in less English than maths when working from home. We aim to provide opportunities to boost the children’s self-esteem and support them to recognise their strengths and prepare them for learning as ‘normal’.

• Asking pupils, parents and carers about their experiences of remote learning through the use of the learner profile – what did they like and not like?
• Children are likely to have missed regular feedback on their work and so making sure that they are getting lots of this could help them to concentrate and engage.
• Some pupils may struggle to maintain the level of concentration required in school and there may be a need for movement breaks to help with this.
• Finding ways for teachers to reconnect and reach out to their pupils before expecting them to engage in learning.
• Exploring ways in which they could help pupils to feel comfortable and safe in their classrooms, with their peers and teachers, before the emphasis moves to academic learning.
• Use of a range of informal assessment for learning strategies in order to provide targeted support.
• Being active daily, even for a short period of time.

How will this help me to learn?

What that may look like?

Glebe Primary School’s Recovery Curriculum has been specifically designed to focus on and support the development of key learning skills that are likely to have been impacted in recent months, e.g. listening skills, maintaining their attention, learning behaviours and social communication and interaction. 

Metacognition is the awareness of one’s own thought process and will be used to help children become more aware of what helps them learn best. The Recovery Curriculum will be key to developing students’ confidence, self-esteem and resilience. This will begin with a metacognition week to support transition and reconnection in September.

• Designing specific tasks which help the children to discover their own abilities as a learner, understand which strategies are effective and available within their classroom.
• Use carefully chosen scaffolding questions to facilitate independent learning e.g. How did you know? What did you notice? How did you feel? How did you find the solution?
• Creating an opportunity to share successes and achievements or to reflect on and process some of their experiences. There needs to be a focus not on the end result but on the learning process.
• Praising small achievements and offering reassurance will help to support pupils during this transition, as some may be worried about not having kept up-to-date with schoolwork.
• Frequent verbal feedback from staff and peers and discussions about new learning and progress.
• Addressing common misconceptions and modelling thought processes.
• Setting goals and targets.
• Creating learner profiles.