Willowbrook Primary School

Recovery Curriculum

Teaching is a relationship-based profession, that has been clearly demonstrated in the response of the teaching profession, supporting children through online teaching during the crisis, and also caring for the children of key workers by keeping schools open and offering an activities programme. 

With that in mind, we have provided a summary below of both our approach and the thinking behind it. 

We hope that you feel this approach will support your child’s well-being as they begin their re-engagement with learning at school.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like more information.

A Recovery Curriculum: Loss and Life for our Children and Schools Post Pandemic 

Introduction

Willowbrook Primary have put the child’s well-being at the centre of our thinking.  We acknowledge that the children 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.  These losses can trigger anxiety in any child.  Some of you may have experienced this with your own children.  

We know that an anxious child is not in a place to learn effectively.   So with this in mind, the school community has thought about the most effective way to support your child’s ability to learn.  This approach will encompass and support the academic expectations for your child.

What is it?

Professor Barry Carpenter, Professor of Mental Health in Education at Oxford Brookes University has developed the recovery curriculum as a response to the losses that all children will have experienced in different ways during this time.

This curriculum as a response to these losses is a way for us to help children come back into school life, acknowledging the experiences the children have had. We want children to be happy, feel safe and be able to be engaged in their learning.

We have decided that a way to achieve this for the children is to acknowledge the importance of helping them lever back into school life using the following 5 levers. Each of these leavers will be addressed individually within our 6 week action plan. Our Recovery Curriculum is built on the 5 Levers, as a systematic, relationships-based approach to reigniting the flame of learning in each child.

If you want to find out more information please see the link below:

https://www.evidenceforlearning.net/recoverycurriculum/#mentalhealth