By Jaya Carrier
I hope everyone has had a great week so far. This week, I was interested in the NFER study from September 2021 that looks at some of the ongoing issues from the lockdowns and the pandemic for school settings. This study is based on in-depth interviews with 50 senior leaders from mainstream primary and secondary schools across the UK.
Objectives: To provide ongoing insights into the challenges of recovery, wellbeing and support for schools following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Summary:
The key findings were:
- Curriculum modification was a typical response to the pandemic. This took different models including; narrow (prioritising literacy and numeracy over other subjects); focused (prioritising core content within subjects); blended (supporting literacy and numeracy through other subjects); and continuous (covering content over a longer period of time).
- Pupil mental health and wellbeing is an immediate and urgent concern for school leaders. School leaders in this study reported that in particular there was an alarming increase in self-harm.
- Pupils were less prepared emotionally and academically for transition between YR6 and YR7
- School leaders identified requiring robustly funded support for pupil wellbeing as the most urgent support needed from government and policy.
How does this impact me and my practice?:
Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
- How have I adapted the curriculum? If I’ve adapted the curriculum, which model of curriculum recovery have I followed?
- How can I support pupil mental health and wellbeing? How might trauma-informed approaches support this further?
- How is the transition going for pupils in my YR7 classes or tutors? What might I need to be mindful of with respect to their ongoing transition from YR6-7?
If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.
Thanks, Jaya
No comments:
Post a Comment