CARE - Compassionate and Restorative Education

CARE - Compassionate and Restorative Education

Gain support for your school's teachers, pupils and communities in a compassionate and restorative educational approach to aid transition, recovery and learning in response to COVID-19.


CDEC has developed the CARE - Compassionate and Restorative Education - programme, which is a new teacher training course and toolkit (available as both whole school and open course training), in response to the challenges schools are facing at the moment as a direct result of COVID-19. We recognise that the effects of COVID-19 for children, families, schools are not short lived. 

The main aim is to support teachers, pupils, schools and communities in a compassionate and restorative educational approach to aid transition, recovery and learning following COVID-19.

It empowers young people to become more compassionate, resilient learners and active citizens of the future.

Why CARE?

  • CARE provides whole-school tailored training to support wellbeing and resilience of staff and pupils in the context of Covid-19.
  • It gives long-term flexible support and training package over one to two terms
  • It provides a CARE Toolkit of practical and creative activities and methodologies for use in the classroom and outdoors
  • CARE prioritises well-being of teachers and school staff
  • CARE strengthens school values and wider school community links. 

Outcomes

For teachers: 

  • To gain practices and skills for personal wellbeing and as a staff team. 

For pupils:

  • To develop personal skills for long term well-being and resilience using 5 ways to well-being. 
  • To improve collaborative learning, team work and friendships – relearning how we work and play together 
  • To understand the importance of community connections – how we give and receive support from our communities
  • To explore connections to the wider world – finding new ways to connect

The programme enhances existing PSHE and RSE curriculum

The programme fits alongside the specialist Wellbeing & Resilience Education programme(WREP) and the Anna Freud Schools LINK programme (which are for individual teachers only)

How can schools fund the programme?

Schools now have Catch-up Premium that could be used to fund this whole school approach.

What methodologies is the course based on?

The course is based on some of the expertise that CDEC is well known for providing training in, including:

  • Philosophy for Children (P4C)
  • storytelling
  • creative practices
  • outdoor learning opportunities
  • community building.

How will this course be delivered?

This course will be delivered face-to-face online through ZOOM either as whole-school training or as an open course for individual teachers.


Whole-school training

We are flexible as to how we will deliver it but we have one suggested model:

  • Half a day (3hrs with break) online initial training for all teachers. This will include a short section on staff well-being, introduction to CARE with underlying principles and progression and the resources toolkit (we think that the CARE approach works really well through a creative project).
  • Two fortnightly twilight catch up online (1hr) to review progress and develop further or specific skills (for instance P4C in the outdoors, mindfulness activities, more ways to use storytelling, or community building). 
  • A one hour on-line session at the end of a term or agreed length of time to review progress and identify any long-term needs.
  • Offer of half a day's Inset training three to four months after the initial session – face to face or online (this training will be decided in the review stage above). 

Over the next year, CDEC will host a series of webinars that will further support this CARE approach, which will focus on:

  • storytelling, P4C, outdoor learning, and so on
  • COVID-19 impact on particularly vulnerable groups of young people (BAME, SEND, ACEs).

Take a look at the current line-up of speakers with an introduction to their topic.

To talk to us about CARE whole-school training and/or book you school's programme, please email us.

What's the cost of whole school training?

CDEC member schools £600 plus renewal membership fee for 2020-2021 (unless already paid)

Non-member schools £850 or reduced cost £650 plus membership fee for 2020-2021

(Membership fees - £40 less than 50 pupils; £75 more than 50 pupils; £100 for secondary schools)


Open course training for primaries

We are also delivering this course to individual teachers from primary schools through an open course, with two options:

Option A - Basic CARE Training Package (£100 per teacher):

  • Two introductory sessions of an hour and a half each
  • Access to the toolkit

Option B - Full CARE Training Package (£200 per teacher):

  • Two introductory sessions of an hour and a half each
  • Access to the toolkit
  • Two further group course online review/training sessions of an hour each
  • Access to webinars on specialist topics to support CARE approach, which will focus on:
    • storytelling, P4C, outdoor learning, and so on
    • COVID-19 impact on particularly vulnerable groups of young people (BAME, SEND, ACEs)

To find out about dates for courses in your school or for open course dates and to book your place, please get in touch - office@cdec.org.uk


CARE course and resources for secondary schools

The course and resources is ideal for secondary schools where PSHE/SMSC/RE isn’t necessarily taught by specialist teachers – all the guidance is there for you. It enables you as a teacher to give young people the opportunity to learn new personal skills for the future; they should be involved as key agents in this process.

Jim Connolly at William Howard gave us this feedback:

'We began using the CARE resources with every student from year 7-13 at William Howard on the first morning back and we will continue engaging with it this week. It has been wonderful and there has been more positive feedback for this project than anything I remember in the last ten years. It has been timely and pertinent to the needs of our community.'

CARE for secondary schools includes six sessions within the CARE Toolkit, access to the Toolkit, a 45-minute face-to-face online training session (date in the new year to be confirmed), and a 20-minute face-to-face session follow-up. This is all at a cost of £40 per teacher.

Please email us to let us know of your interest, stating the secondary open course, and we will share the new dates with you as soon as they are confirmed.

Watch this video to find out more!



What is the CARE Toolkit?

The CARE Toolkit contains a rich variety of activities, outlines of projects to carry out, resources to facilitate discussions (including a unique set of Blobtree images) and advice sheets to help all teachers. There are tools to use with Year 6s who are transitioning to Year 7, others that are specifically for secondary school children, while most can be used with pupils of a wide range of age.

It is split into seven themes which include well-being and mental health, creating spaces to talk, projects to carry out as a class or school, looking at different perspectives, and teacher well-being.