This is part 2 of our discussion of the recovery curriculum with Sarah Jane Critchley. If you haven’t listened to part 1, please listen first….
Sarah-Jane was previously the Programme Manager for over 10 years at the Autism Education Trust. Pupils with autism often struggle with attending school for a number of reasons. Her daughter Beth has autism and also suffers from migraines which meant from Year 3 onwards she missed a lot of school and missed over 50% of her GCSE classes, eventually dropping out of school in year 12.
The recovery curriculum has been discussed quite a lot over the last few months. It is designed to help children return to school and cope with the disruption and the consequences due to the lockdown
In a post-COVID world, many children in our schools will have experienced a number of losses and the schools they are returning to are not the same as the places they left. They have lost routine, structure, friendship, opportunity and freedom. Listening to them and their parents can help their academic as well as emotional recovery
Children will have different reactions to the events of lockdown and their learning experience at home or in school as children of key workers or with EHCPs.
Trauma impacts the developing brain of children’s, healing won’t ‘just happen’ and we need to act now to prevent a lost generation of children.
Acting early will reduce the impact on the child, provide a space for healing and reduce the impact on behaviour and academic performance.
Useful Links
- Recovery Curriculum Think Piece by Professor Barry Carpenter and Matthew Carpenter – https://barrycarpentereducation.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/recovery-curriculum-loss-and-life-for-our-children-and-schools-post-pandemic.pdf
- Tina Rae. A Toolbox of Wellbeing – Helpful strategies & activities for children, teens, their carers & teachers. Hinton House, 2020. http://hintonpublishers.com/isbn_template.php?isbn=978-19-12112-55-5&x=65&y=39
- Happiness Box – Beverley Cockbill – https://www.evidenceforlearning.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Rationale-for-the-Happiness-Box-Bev-Cockbill-Recovery-Curriculum-LearningShared-Ep-7.pdf
- Books Beyond Words – Coping with coronavirus https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/coping-with-coronavirus
- Mental health Journals for 4 stages KS1/2 KS2/3, KS3/4 and KS 4/5 from Butterfly Print UK https://www.butterflyprint.co.uk/product-category/mental-health/mental-health-journals/
How to contact Sarah-Jane:
Twitter: @SarahJaneCritch
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahjanecritchley/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/differentjoy/
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