The Bridge

COVID-19 Recovery Curriculum

As our students return to The Bridge, we want them and parent/carers to be made fully aware of the measures that we have put in place to ensure their wellbeing is at the forefront of everything we do, so they can begin to feel confident and emotionally secure to re-engage in learning.

More than ever before, our mission statement of Hope and a Future will influence our approach to the school’s COVID 19 Recovery Curriculum, implementing a short term programme specifically aimed at loss and life after lockdown for all of our students here at The Bridge.

According to Barry Carpenter Professor of Mental Health in Education “ A Recovery Curriculum is necessary to successfully transition children back to school”.

He states that “Now is the time to return to more humane approaches concerned with the fundamental wellbeing, and secure positive development of the child. Without this there will be no results that have true meaning and deep personal value to the child in terms of their preparation for adulthood”

Here at The Bridge, we wholeheartedly agree with his views and approach, and we have therefore adopted his recommended 5 lever approach to our school’s Recovery Curriculum which will be implemented at the start of the new academic year for a period of 2 weeks.

Lever 1: Relationships – we can’t expect our students to return joyfully, and many of the relationships that were thriving, may need to be invested in and restored. We need to plan for this to happen, not assume that it will. Reach out to greet them, use the relationships we build to cushion the discomfort of returning.

  • The school has planned a number of team building activities across all year groups
  • A whole school Unique Me Activity Day will form part of the Recovery Curriculum
  • Students will attend and work at the LIFE Education Trust Farm – working with animals and growing produce for the Trust Community
  • Student social time has been extended with the emphasis on rebuilding and restoring friendships
  • Workshops dedicated to building emotional resilience will form part of the curriculum

Lever 2: Community – we must recognise that curriculum will have been based in the community for a long period of time. We need to listen to what has happened in this time, understand the needs of our community and engage them in the transitioning of learning back into school.

  • Dedicated lessons exploring students’ feelings and their experiences of home learning. School will explore what worked well and what were the negatives, so students and staff can learn from the experience, and introduce any of the positive experiences to the school’s curriculum
  • Students will have time to explore their feelings post lockdown through specific PSHCE wellbeing lessons
  • Students, staff and parents will re-visit students’ Social Emotional Profile Tracker to re-evaluate the needs of each student, and reassess individual target setting

Lever 3: Transparent Curriculum – all of our students will feel like they have lost time in learning, and we must show them how we are addressing these gaps, consulting and co-constructing with our students to heal this sense of loss.

  • Baseline testing will be woven into the Recovery Curriculum. Staff will assess each student and identify the “new” starting point for each individual.
  • All students will be offered one to one lessons to help support any gaps in their learning
  • Every student will have the opportunity to meet with the school’s Life Coach on a one to one basis

Lever 4: Metacognition – in different environments, students will have been learning in different ways. It is vital that we make the skills for learning in a school environment explicit to our students to reskill and rebuild their confidence as learners.

  • Teaching will be light touch at the outset.
  • Emphasis will be placed on re-learning study skills
  • Lesson time will be reduced to allow for open discussion at the end, to establish and identify any areas of learning students feel they are struggling with.

Lever 5: Space – to be, to rediscover self, and to find their voice on learning in this issue. It is only natural that we all work at an incredible pace to make sure this group of learners are not disadvantaged against their peers, providing opportunity and exploration alongside the intensity of our expectations.

  • The Bridge has planned a number of dedicated workshops which will focus on building resilience and emotional wellbeing
  • Students will have dedicated one- to- one time with staff members, providing reassurance and feedback that any gaps in their knowledge will be addressed, with the specific aim of improving student confidence.

We believe our COVID Recovery Curriculum will provide students with the confidence to trust in the school’s ability to provide a suitable environment so they may be able to             re-engage with learning in a confident and enthusiastic way, within a safe and secure community. By adopting these measures, we feel assured that students who attend The Bridge, will restore hope that they can pursue their future goals in life.

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