In this episode, Katie Fielding, Deputy Head, Kingsbury Primary Special School, describes their Rainbow Experience curriculum developed at the school.
In a very detailed presentation, Katie tackles pertinent topics such as the transition back to school from Lockdown and uses the 5 Levers and trauma informed practice models to demonstrated how carefully planned, gently phased recovery programmes may be designed for children with Complex Needs.
She always corroborates the innovative ideas for practice with carefully thought out examples of children and their experiences. The child’s need become the justification and rationale for practice innovation.
The Child Passport for Transition truly values what families have been doing with their children and how their insights can aid the transfer and return back to school.
Katie thinks of the needs of Staff too, and what transition for them might look like. Close partnership work with families is key to the planning and implementation of the transition, which includes home visits as a central platform for this work.
As other schools prepare for the transition of children back to school, this is a timely and informative podcast. The idea of designing and building a Rainbow Path, as a constant, experiential memorial is stunning! We need always to provide children with opportunities to recall their experience of this pandemic, which may be over time and via many alternative means of communication. her focus overall is to ensure that school, once more, ”… becomes a happy, happy place.”
In addition to providing the presentation, Katie has generously shared a downloadable copy of the school’s Rainbow Curriculum Handbook, as well as some other resources referred to in the presentation. See below to download and/or link to these.
The title and theme of Katie’s presentation is:
“Our Rainbow Experience …The Kingsbury Way“
The video below contains the audio from LearningShared Episode 13 with visual slides from the presentation.
Rainbow Experience Curriculum Handbook
Katie has generously shared the school’s curriculum handbook. This can be downloaded below:
Rainbow Experience Curriculum Handbook – Kingsbury Primary Special School (WORD Doc)
Below is a copy of the “Learner Passport Back to School” that Katie and the team at Kingsbury have created. These are completed for each learner:
Passport Back to School – Kingsbury Primary Special School (PDF)
Katie’s Acknowledgements/References:
- Evidence for Learning (https://www.evidenceforlearning.net)
- Barry Carpenter & Matthew Carpenter (https://barrycarpentereducation.com)
- Recovery Curriculum Facebook Group: a wonderful group of people who willingly share expertise and resources, as we all want to do the best for our children and young people. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/recoverycurriculum)
- Diane Rochford – The Rochford Review and Engagement Model
- Team ASCL Webinar 6 – Vulnerable Children
- Butterfly Print – Mental Health Documents
- SchudioTV – Inspirational Online Courses for Teachers – Preparing Autistic & SEND Children for going back to school – The Big Transitions for Autistic and SEND Pupils after Lockdown courses
- Isabella Trust: PDA training
- Lynn McCann (https://www.reachoutasc.com)
- Dr Tina Rae: YouTube Coffee Sessions (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcYl81CpnbB7A1ETj5s5o-g)
- Dr Chris Moore: (https://www.epinsight.com)
- Child Bereavement UK
- Pooky Knightsmith – Promoting Emotional Regulation in Autistic children (https://www.pookyknightsmith.com)
- Dean Beadle – My Lockdown experience interview
- Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Project and the Engagement Profile
- Engagement 4 Learning (https://engagement4learning.com/)
- The Rainbow Classroom
- SMILE
- Forest Oak school
- Claire Owens and Churchward school
- The Spiral Playbook – Linda Kaser & Judy Halbert
- Restoreourschools.com
- Nurture Group Principles and Curriculum Guidelines Helping Children to Achieve, nurtureuk. (https://www.nurtureuk.org)
About Katie Fielding
I have been teaching for 23 years. 13 years within a variety of mainstream Primary Schools, teaching throughout the Primary age range. Mainstream Deputy Headteacher and SENCO for 7 years.
With three very young children I made the decision to go part time and that is when my career within Special Education began. I have been teaching at Kingsbury Special School for 10 years. Kingsbury is a school for children aged 2 -11 with generic learning difficulties, however our current cohort is predominately children with complex learning difficulties.
I have been the Deputy Headteacher since 2015. In addition to many other responsibilities I am the Forest School, Behaviour, Curriculum and Assessment Lead.
I have been privileged in having the responsibility for developing a personalised curriculum for all our children, alongside constantly developing, reflecting and improving teaching and learning throughout our School. This has been a fantastic opportunity to develop as a professional team, creating a sense of ownership and increased pedagogy for all.
More info on the Recovery Curriculum
For information on the Recovery Curriculum, including the original Think Piece entitled “A Recovery Curriculum: Loss and Life for our children and schools post pandemic”, lectures, resources, reference materials and details of the online communities of practice, visit:
https://www.recoverycurriculum.org
Join the conversation about The Recovery Curriculum:
Clearly any form of Recovery Curriculum will need to be unique to each and every school, contextualised to the ethos, culture and values of that school, as well as its existing curriculum and crucially reflecting and addressing the needs and aspirations of its unique population of learners.
We have created private groups in LinkedIn and Facebook where colleagues and peers can discuss and share thoughts, ideas, experiences, resources and learning in relation to education and provision post pandemic. The groups are also an opportunity to connect people and help you to build a network that can support you on your own important journey over the coming months.
Facebook Group: Recovery Curriculum
We’ve set up a private facebook group specifically for The Recovery Curriculum at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/recoverycurriculum
or search for “recoverycurriculum” in Facebook.
Facebook: EfL SEND Community Group
Join us at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eflSENDCommunity/
or search for “eflSENDCommunity” in Facebook.
The purpose of the group is to provide a safe, closed space to seek out and share ideas, experience and resources that can help with any and all aspects of SEND provision. It’s also a community for practitioners and schools that use Evidence for Learning and Insights for Learning to share ideas, resources and support each other in using these apps. This is a peer-moderated and supported group.
Linkedin Group: The Recovery Curriculum
The group is called “A Recovery Curriculum for children & schools post-pandemic” and you can find it at:
