We are incredibly proud of all of our pupils across James Cook Learning Trust. The last year has brought about many challenges for the communities across our four schools. Now more than ever we need to ensure that our pupils feel safe, happy and ready to learn. Not only will we support our pupils to achieve academically to the best of their abilities, we will also focus on developing those characteristics needed to thrive in a fast-changing world. Most importantly we will encourage a sense of care, care for oneself and care for others. It is the aim of everyone at James Cook Learning Trust for our pupils to be empowered to move forward, to have the resilience to deal with challenge and the positivity and confidence to embrace opportunity.
There will be five principles which our ‘recovery curriculum’ will be based on, these are set out below.
Relationships
Children have been away from school, from each other and from teachers for a long time. We may need to invest and restore relationships, we cannot presume that this will just happen. It needs to be planned for and so lessen the discomfort some children may feel when they return to school and all that it entails.
Community
We know that for a considerable amount of time, learning has taken place within the community, delivered by parents and carers. Knowing how much children have engaged with the learning that we have planned will be important to allow for a smooth transition back to school.
Transparent Curriculum
We need to be open to our pupils with how we are going to support each and every one of them to catch up.
Metacognition
Children will have been learning in many different ways and in many different environments during lockdown. We need to reskill our pupils to be able to learn within the school environment, giving them the confidence and the understanding of how they learn most effectively.
Space
We will need to give every child the space to be, to rediscover themselves. As teachers we need to be mindful that alongside the expectations to catch up, pupils will need space, time and opportunities to be themselves, we are after all, supporting children.
These five principles are at the heart of the work we do in the autumn term. They are based on the work of Professor Barry Carpenter CBE, Professor of Mental Health in Education at Oxford Brookes University.
