Recovery Curriculum: Supporting compassionate leadership & curriculum development in disrupted times

Thank you to everyone that participated in the webinar on Wednesday 2nd December 2020. Over two hundred school leaders from across the country joined us to discuss and explore with Professor Barry Carpenter, his five levers of Recovery Curriculum, and how peer support and collaboration for teachers and leaders may be more important now than ever before.

Led by SPP Lead Associate, Maggie Farrar and SPP Associate Vanessa Huws Jones, we were also joined by Deputy Headteacher Katie Fielding, from Kingsbury Primary School, Focus-Trust CEO Helen Rowland and Liz Davison, Executive Headteacher of Thornton and Wilsden Primary Academies.

For the last five years now, the Schools Partnership Programme (SPP) has worked with almost 2,000 schools around the country to help them not only to help each other, but to improve each other’s practice. SPP builds the skills in peer review, coaching, non-judgmental enquiry and creating a culture of feedback and support that transform more traditional approaches to school improvement into something school-led and empowering, putting power not only in the hands of school leaders but, in time, middle leaders and staff across the whole school.

Our framework and materials provide the rigour and structure to make collaboration more than “just” peers supporting each other. While at the moment that support is certainly more crucial than ever, it needs to be approached much more intentionally in a socially distanced environment. SPP helps turn collaboration and evidence into action and, ultimately, improve outcomes for children and young people. 

We’re delighted to have connected with Professor Barry Carpenter, co-author with his son and current Headteacher Matthew Carpenter, on the timely and important concept of 'Recovery Curriculum.'

We have developed a set of simple, accessible enquiry questions that cut through the noise and enable school leaders to reflect clearly on how they continually reengage and nurture their school communities this year. Not “catching up” or “bouncing back,” but instead creating the space to acknowledge the loss – and in some cases gains – that school communities have experienced and move forward together. These are available to SPP schools through the members area.

Webinar recording and resources

If you weren't able to join us, or would like to share what you heard, you can watch the full session below.

• Full set of presentation slides from the webinar.
• Resources from Professor Barry Carpenter, including practice examples and other useful resources.
• Focus-Trust's Reconnection and Curriculum Statment from CEO, Helen Rowland.
• The Rainbow Curriculum handbook from Kingsbury Primary School, Lancashire.

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