Reflection on one school’s approach to Carpenter and Carpenter’s Recovery Curriculum

Chloe Martin, Year 6 Teacher and Curriculum Development Leader, Herbert Thompson School, UK Herbert Thompson Primary School is based in a deprived area of Cardiff, with 56 per cent of pupils in receipt of free school meals and 35 per cent identified as having an additional learning need. Wellbeing is a long-standing priority, and the Thrive approach is embedded across our school. Pre-pandemic, many of our children needed extra support, but the impact of COVID-19 and the first lockdown was devastating, and many more of our families and children experienced loss, trauma and isolation. The pandemic also coincided with a major shift in Welsh education: the creation and implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales (Welsh Government, 2019). Schools are required to design their own curriculum model, with an emphasis on ‘not simply what we teach, but how we teach and crucially, why we teach it’ (Welsh Government, 2020). With this in the forefront of our minds in September 2020, our f