School Context:
Woodlands is a very happy school where every child matters. We are committed to family partnership and invested in fostering a life-long love of learning in our children.
Whole School:
The school committed to a full staff training day on the school site for the whole team, subsequent staff meetings and planning time.
Whole-Class:
Explicitly taught weekly as part of the curriculum
Targeted: Used for the whole school and adapted to include the introduction of the new school dog as a transition task for the whole school upon returning post-national lockdown II
Why?
Our pupils are highly capable and intelligent, and we wanted to ensure their primary school development was both holistic and also catered to their social and emotional learning and embedded in our curriculum. Many children, including (but not limited to) those from disadvantaged and/or SEND backgrounds, can demonstrate a lack of resilience, low self-esteem and poor self-regulation skills. They can struggle to reflect on their learning or receive constructive feedback and we felt that in implementing a whole school curriculum foundation based on character, this would give agency, licence and a shared language to all children to be able to do so – not just for their time during primary school, but as a cornerstone for the future.
Outcomes Sought
We decided to introduce the programme across the whole school, from EYFS as the foundation through to Key Stage 2. The RESPECT programme is synonymous with our own school values. We want our staff, as role models, to inspire our children inside and outside of the classroom and the practical element of the RESPECT framework, embedded in our wider curriculum offer, and coupled with the people selected to demonstrate the missions, facilitated them challenging common stereotypes of gender and ethnicity and modelling the characteristics in a tangible way.
How?
Children take part in weekly missions, linked to our existing thematic curriculum. We have found that this joined-up approach has supported the children accessing “sticky” learning. The children cannot wait to take part in the missions. We have also agreed to co-create new missions and future work as our staff really understand the process (having adapted other missions in relation to our school dog) and the value it adds to the lived experience of the children.
Outcome Impacts:
Teachers are confident to deliver the programme and adapt it for future missions which could have a positive influence on other schools and children, also. The online resources supported both staff and parents to continue to deliver this important aspect of our curriculum even during lockdowns and through remote learning.
We’d like to thank Woodlands Primary School for providing information for our case study.
If you’d like to find out more about the Commando Joe’s programme, take a look here. Alternatively, get in touch here:
T: 01942 409654
E: info@commandojoes.co.uk
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