For all of us in the teaching profession, September 2020 has been a return to school we are unlikely to forget for many years. Amongst the struggles, anxieties and restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the UK have reopened to all pupils, and teachers have found themselves at the centre of media and political scrutiny as they attempt to craft and deliver a ‘recovery curriculum’ for learners. There is a balance required between addressing and supporting pupil wellbeing, whilst assessing the impact of four months of school closure on educational attainment. As much as I read about ‘lost time’, ‘regression’ and ‘recovery’, the reality of being back in the classroom has, for me, brought about many different questions: Where are these learners at now? How can I best support them? And perhaps more importantly, do I need to change my expectations of where they should be and how well they will progress? These questions are all pertinent for more able learners, many of whom have worked consistently and independently at home throughout the lockdown.

I find myself thinking… no. Perhaps a ‘recovery curriculum’ is not what these children really need. Instead, do learners need the consistency they have come to expect from their teachers and schooling? A consistency of “keeping standards high for everyone” (Sherrington, p148) will ensure that our expectations of all learners, and particularly our more able learners, are behind all the decisions we make regarding curriculum. I am reminded of a TES article I read in April 2020 headlined ‘Dumb down at your peril!’ As practitioners, we need to ensure that we do not inadvertently add to the time lost by lowering our standards and expectations of learners. If learning really does “require forgetting” (Wiliam, 2016) then the classroom becomes an exciting place for innovation this year as we are able to move learners forward in a new way, ensuring our teaching focus is on moving forward, rather than looking back. (For additional perspectives on this, take a look at NACE’s free “beyond recovery” resource pack.)

Here are five practical ways I’ve been putting this approach into practice:

For many more able learners, the time spent at home will have been a positive experience. The additional time to explore their passions (reading, writing, painting, problem solving) and really delve into areas of interest is something that school often struggles to provide. I believe that our “curriculum is more than the lessons” (Waters, 2020) and so taking the time to talk with more able learners about their experiences during lockdown is vital. This insight allows us to plan tasks where the pupil becomes the expert, e.g. the learner leading a class session, teaching others about their talent, sharing their work (writing, art) or creating a ‘how to’ guide/video which can be used by their peers. (I’ve found this has been particularly successful with classroom mathematics and learners with sporting talent.)

Many more able learners are likely to have high levels of interest in contemporary issues surrounding the pandemic. In my experience, these children (even at age 10 and 11) are beginning to form and question their own opinions, undertaking their own research, watching the news and reading online, and engaging in discussion (often with adults) at home. Harnessing these issues in the classroom provides an opportunity to teach “creative and critical thinking” (one of the 12 pedagogical approaches required in the new Curriculum for Wales 2022 – read more here), and provides an excellent stimulus and authentic context for many cross-curricular skills, e.g. debating, evaluating information sources and identifying bias. 

The new Welsh Curriculum also requires teachers to use a “blend of approaches” in the classroom (12 Pedagogical Principles CfW 2022). For many learners, particularly more able learners, the opportunity to use digital technology as part of their everyday ‘learning diet’ (Waters, 2020) has been exciting and for me, it has been an element of lockdown I am determined to sustain in my classroom. We have, together, explored new software and learnt new skills, with the children often emailing me to say “Miss, I found a much easier way of doing this…” There is always the risk that it can feel intimidating as the teacher to admit that the learners may be ahead of us. However, in my experience, it is an incredibly motivating concept for learners, particularly more able learners, as they are keen to share and model their learning for me and for others. 

Mary Myatt’s words struck such a chord with me – a chord that has resonated all the more since returning to school: “What do most children want? … Harder work!”

With my head swimming with ‘recovery’, ‘catch-up’ and ‘back-filling’, I approached my planning this year with some trepidation. Lesson three of the maths scheme we use at school presented learners with a Chinese counting frame, unlike anything I had ever seen, as a tool to develop place value understanding. My first thought on looking at the lesson was, “Perhaps I will miss that one out!” I convinced myself that I could justify skipping the lesson as we had missed so much and I could give myself and the learners an easy ‘get-out’ of this lesson. However, troubled by that looming TES headline, I reflected on ways I could make the lesson approachable… could the learners potentially reach the ‘hard’ lesson? With some additional planning time, the use of some highly effective concrete manipulatives (Skittles and chocolate buttons) and the shift in my own mindset to embrace the challenge, the children rose to and exceeded my expectations – understanding the lesson, completing the work and craving “some more hard lessons please!”

Finally, the time spent home-learning has provided us with a unique opportunity to engage with parents and carers in a different way. The contact we have had with parents, providing academic and in many cases emotional support, has strengthened our relationships with the home, and for our more able learners this can be such a valuable additional tool. I have been able to recommend reading material from nominee lists for awards, provide challenging maths activities online (such as The Daily Rigour) and work one-to-one as an editor for a learner who wanted to write her own novel at home!

Furthermore, I have gained an additional team of experts in the parents of my class, drawing on their skills, career paths and interests to enhance the curriculum provision in my classroom.

 

• Myatt. M., Curriculum Thinking: A Masterclass, 16.10.19
• Sherrington. T., The Learning Rainforest, 2017
• Waters. M., Seminar: From the big picture to the finer detail, 13.03.20
• Wiliam. D., The nine things every teacher should know, 2016 (summary available here)

• Beyond recovery: free resource pack
• Beyond recovery: 5 key messages
• Recovery, reassurance, remarkable students