LearningShared

In this episode, Vijita Patel considers the strategic implementation of the Recovery Curriculum for her school, Swiss Cottage School, Development & Research Centre in London. She does this from a stance of compassionate leadership, with a clear focus on engagement in learning.

Her rich, expansive and penetrating analysis shows how child need should inform organisational judgements, and that a constant focus should be the emotional well being of the child. A mutually respectful relationship with families as co educators, is vital at this time she says.

About Vijita & Swiss Cottage School, Development & Research Centre

Vijita Patel is the Principal of Swiss Cottage School, Development & Research Centre, a special needs school for children aged 2 to 19 in London. The school is a designated National Teaching School, leading a large alliance of schools, organisations, and higher education partners to drive systemic improvements in the school system for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities.

As a National Leader of Education, Vijita supports Headteachers, Senior and Middle Leaders, SENCOs, and Local Authority teams on leading locality and provision developments as the complexity of need increases with this new generation of children with SEN.

She has contributed to the development of programmes for teacher training and leadership development, and also worked with Post-Graduate students on personalised learning through research on cognitive processing.

Vijita is co-author of the London Leadership Strategy 'SEND Review Guide', developed to place ownership of strategic solutions directly with teachers and school leaders. She is also a Trustee of the Varkey Foundation.

Swiss Cottage School Development and Research Centre is one of eight schools in the country to have six consecutive 'Outstanding' Ofsted Inspections.

For information on the Recovery Curriculum, including the original Think Piece, lecture presentations, resources, reference materials and details of the online communities of practice, visit:

https://www.recoverycurriculum.org

Swiss Cottage School, Development & Research Centre

http://swisscottage.camden.sch.uk

Varkey Foundation

https://www.varkeyfoundation.org

[This is an audio-only episode]

In this episode we're returning to the Recovery Curriculum.

We're joined by Matthew Carpenter and Barry Carpenter OBE, CBE (Professor of Mental Health in Education at Oxford Brookes University), co-authors of the original Recovery Curriculum Think Piece.

In a conversation that was recorded on 1st May 2020, Barry and Matthew reflected on the origins of the Think Piece and Matthew, who is the Principal at Baxter College, a mainstream secondary school, shared his thinking behind the 5 levers and how he and his team have been thinking about how they can be applied to support the recovery process at Baxter College.

Reflecting on each of the 5 levers, Mat talks about the importance of 'nimble leadership' and being responsive to the individual needs of the whole school community in co-constructing the post pandemic curriculum, ensuring transparency throughout the journey.

For information on the Recovery Curriculum, including the original Think Piece, lecture presentations, resources, reference materials and details of the online communities of practice, visit:

https://www.recoverycurriculum.org

[This is an audio-only episode]

Kindness is the theme for Mental health Awareness week (May 2020)

What do we mean by kindness?

This question deserves an answer at this time of crisis. We have witnessed some incredible acts of kindness in our communities and in Society as a whole.

Surely now is the time to re-evaluate what kindness can give to our own sense of well being , as well as in acts of kindness towards others. It is an essential component of the compassion that will be so essential to our school communities in the process of reconnection and recovery

A new report exploring kindness, published by the Mental Health Foundation is timely and will be posted on the Recovery Curriculum website (www.recoverycurriculum.org) to support this special edition episode of the LearningShared podcast that we've recorded for Mental Health Awareness Week (2020).

It features a lecture by Barry Carpenter, OBE, CBE (Professor of Mental Health in Education, Oxford Brookes University) entitled "When will we talk about the mental health of our children?"

The episode is delivered as a lecture with accompanying slides. If you're listening to the audio-only version, we have a link to a video slideshow on the recovery curriculum website (www.recoverycurriculum.org)

Barry Carpenter, OBE, CBE (Professor of Mental Health in Education, Oxford Brookes University) and Matthew Carpenter (Principal at Baxter College, UK) have written a think piece that reflects concerns about the emotional well being of children post the Covid-19 pandemic, and considers what schools might do to aid recovery to a state of positive mental health.

They have been analysing the loss children have suffered during this time, and the potential anxiety and trauma it may be causing, with significant impact on their ability to learn effectively.

Together, they have developed the construct of a Recovery Curriculum, enabling schools to consider the processes they will need to put in place to successfully transition children back to school.

As the word 'construct' suggests, this is a process of building, of co-constructing, a curriculum that is responsive to the needs of children, that harvests their experience and makes sense of it emotionally as well as cognitively."

The Think Piece entitled "A Recovery Curriculum: Loss and Life for our children and schools post pandemic" is available for you to read, download and share at:

http://www.recoverycurriculum.org

In this (inaugural) episode of LearningShared, we're joined by Barry Carpenter. Barry provides an introductory lecture with slides that will delve deeper into some of the ideas, concepts and research behind the Recovery Curriculum Think Piece and begin to think about questions that leaders and practitioners can ask of each other as they prepare to lead the recovery.

In the subsequent episodes, we'll discuss and explore practical approaches with a number of school leaders, practitioners and researchers asking and diving into questions such as:

– How will you identify and understand your students' own sense and experience of loss? (Identifying loss)

– How will you adapt and develop your curriculum for recovery (Responding with recovery)

– What do you see as the key leadership values in leading recovery at your school? (Compassionate leadership)

A video version of this podcast containing the presentation slides is available at

http://www.recoverycurriculum.org