Our Recovery Curriculum supports the safe and successful return to school
and holds the wellbeing of all in school as the immediate priority.
The Recovery Curriculum is part of a long-term plan to support both children and staff with their return to school. Although staff, parents and the wider community may be worried about how much children have missed and how much they need to catch up on, children will not retain anything if their wellbeing is not prioritised. If a child is not in a good state of mind to learn, then no matter how much information we give them, they will struggle to use and remember it. It is important that the whole school community understands that the academic progress of the child must pause, briefly, until we have assessed and dealt with our children's experiences during the Coronavirus lockdown.
Our Recovery Curriculum identifies six features which focus on supporting our children with a smooth transition when they return to school:
School leaders have completed a course on Recovery Curriculum models and have then conducted their own research to inform a personalised Recovery Curriculum tailored specifically to our children's needs.
To personalise these six features to our pupils, we matched them to five levels of Codnor Primary's Recovery Curriculum. These levels are research-based and have been identified by our whole school staff as the top priorities for supporting a successful return to school for all involved.
Level | Link to Recovery Curriculum | Description |
1 | Emotionally safe, connecting to an adult |
Time to rebuild relationships and develop positive relationships with others Supporting children to rebuild relationships and re-learn how to interact with others, where necessary. This includes sharing; turn taking; greeting and interacting with others positively; playing alongside and with their peers; responding to familiar and new adults; seeking help, support and comfort from adults when they need it; knowing which adults can help, support and keep them safe. |
2 | Emotionally safe, connecting to an adult, coping strategies |
Reflection – time to talk about their experiences Supporting children in understanding that school is a safe place and that they can discuss their experiences of lockdown safely within the school environment. Supporting them to listen to others' experiences with understanding and empathy. Supporting them in verbally explaining their experiences, using a range of different vocabulary. Supporting them in turning negative experiences into more positive ones. |
3 | Emotionally safe, connecting to an adult, coping strategies, cognitively safe |
Managing feelings and behaviour Supporting children to understand their emotions and feelings, and in beginning to process the experiences they have had. For some children, supporting them to re-learn some positive behaviours which they may have forgotten while outside of the school environment. Supporting children to engage with self-regulation strategies and tools which help them to feel safe and calm. Supporting them to understand the world we live in, with tools and strategies to help them process what is different, and what we can do to help. |
4 | Physically safe, emotionally safe, resilience |
Supporting children's physical health and wellbeing Supporting children to re-engage with physical health and wellbeing routines, and learning new routines which will help them to keep safe and enable infection control. This includes hand washing, social distancing, understanding of new school routines, and supporting them with their personal care - and importantly, tolerating differences in these routines (e.g. use of an alternative hygiene room facility or being supported in a different way for eating/drinking). Supporting children to be independent through their own dressing and undressing where appropriate and supporting them to be physically well through active sessions, use of outdoor space and understanding how to look after their own health. |
5 | Resilience, cognitively safe |
Continue to develop metacognition and good learning behaviours Supporting children in the development of the learning behaviours we worked on during the 2019-20 academic year. These learning behaviours have been reorganised to suit our children and their needs, based on their experiences of the lockdown. |
Our children will have had different experiences throughout the lockdown - both positive and negative. Below is a rough plan for how we are supporting them as we get back to normal school business and routines. Different classes and age groups will have different needs, so teachers are free to adapt these plans to suit their children. If there are any specific needs, we will deal with those on an individual basis. Our aim is to transition to a normal way of working as quickly as possible, although we also realise that some children may have issues which might not surface immediately.
First 2 days back at school:
First term (Monday 7th September 2020 – Friday 23rd October 2020):
Continuing onwards: Autumn 2 and beyond
If you are worried about your child's wellbeing in any sense, please do get in touch. We also have many resources in our Safeguarding menu above, and during these times where it is not so easy to talk to your child's teacher, we have an email address for each class:
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