Creative Curricula – Putting Students’ Needs First

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Wellspring Way. It's our very own podcast where we chat to those working in education about their experiences and get to the bottom of what's happening in our schools. Joining me today in front of the mic, it's an education leader who's devoted her career to working with children with complex needs and ensuring that they have access to the highest quality specialist support that they deserve. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, before moving to England in 2005, Mary Ruggles has spent 13 years working in inclusive inner city schools, special schools, and pupil referral units in Leeds. She's now Associate Principal at Springwell Leeds North, and she joins us today to share her thoughts on developing curricula that inspires and engages pupils who might not have always felt that way about school in the past. Mary, welcome to the Wellspring Way.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of curricula and planning that, I'd like to know a little bit about your career and kind of how you got into teaching. Take us right back to the start.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Well, I'll have to be really honest and say that I never aspired to be a teacher. That wasn't part of the plan. I initially um tried to forge a career in medicine. And after my second day of organic chemistry, I decided that really wasn't the path for me. Um and changed my focus. Even with that, I wasn't quite sure teaching was even on the radar at that point. Um and it wasn't till I had left university and was working as a waitress and a football coach that I had an opportunity to start to engage in the education system as a supply teacher and fell in love with it. And I did that at a special school in just outside of Boston that supported young people with complex um speech and language and uh learning disabilities uh focused around language acquisition. Um and it was kind of there that I fell in love with teaching and working with young people and specifically working with young people who found it difficult to access education in a kind of straightforward way. So I worked there as a very, very young teacher and did a master's degree in special education and then moved to England. Found myself working um again on supply when I first moved here. Um and at that point, the supply agencies saw someone who trained in SA uh special education needs and thought, oh, I know the place for you, and asked me if I've ever worked in a PRU. And I hadn't. So that was a really interesting uh first experience into all sorts of culture and societal concern and challenge. Um, and I actually, my first job in England was on the site of where my school is now, which was a very, very dilapidated old middle school servicing young people who had been permanently excluded from a range of schools across Leeds. Uh, and again, I think that helped me fall in love with this slightly different aspect of education.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Um I felt like not the greatest intro to the English education system, though, a building that's fallen down and all the rest of it.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

No, but I think probably a very realistic introduction to the challenges of the English educational system, having now spent nearly 18 years working in it. Um, I think I'd like to, you know, I'd like to think that I probably evolved as an adult and um and a teacher through the work that I did in those early years and those settings in England because of the um complexities of the young people I worked with. I think they taught me a lot about the challenges of life and society and deprivation and challenge. Um, because after I left the PRU, I went to a um an inner city school in the Center of Leeds, and I spent the majority of kind of my early career, um, particularly early career in leadership, working with children who came from all over the world. They there were 74 different languages spoken across the um across the student body. Um if there was a conflict in the world, those children were, you know, the ones that we were supporting. So it was without realizing it, when and without kind of seeking out a career and working with children who experienced trauma or or challenge, I I ended up in that and and realized that I had a real passion for trying to support those young people to access education in a way that they could feel safe, happy, and be able to, you know, be successful in life after after they left after they left us and be cared for. So um, so yeah, I learned a lot really quickly through the children I spoke, uh, children I taught without really kind of intending for that to happen. So my early career um, I think was shaped by the experiences I had when I first moved to England and shaped really by the people I met in those communities, in those school communities, in those wider communities that the schools serviced. Um, I was really inspired by a group of educators who were on their kind of heading towards retirement when I first moved to that mainstream school who had um spent 30 years in that school, invested in that community, and that kind of investment long term um in public service was really inspiring to me. So um I was quite proud to have stayed over 11 years in that school community and feel like I was able to make a difference. Um so yeah, so that's kind of how I ended up with that, and then um the opportunity to be part of Springwell as it evolved from the beginning uh was was again really something that inspired me. I I spent, you know, in the latter part of my um time at the school, my the school I had come from, I spent a lot of time trying to work with leaders across that community to improve the provision for young people with special education needs associated with social mesh social emotional mental health difficulties. Um, and that's a really challenging um challenging area to to look at how do we support our most vulnerable children, our children who are at highest risk of uh exclusion. And um, you know, it's very easy to complain about services not being in place or you know professionals not doing enough or not having that provision. And and it's I think it's important, you can't really complain about something if you're not willing to be part of shaping what potentially could be there. So I saw the opportunity uh of joining Springwell as an opportunity to to build provision that is going to be outstanding and work for the children that I was working with day in, day out that we weren't able to meet the needs of.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

I um because I know when last time I was at Springwell Leeds, um there's a real like camaraderie, I guess is maybe the word, and um the relationships between staff and pupils are really warm, and there's none of you know that you don't get hung up on the silly things is what I, you know, okay, so maybe the trousers aren't exactly the right ones you're supposed to wear today, but that's not going to stop you having a good day's education. And it's it's a really it's a really warm environment, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yeah, and I mean that's that's what we set out to do, you know, everything that we do is underpinned by building strong relationships. Um our students can't learn and be happy unless they have a sense of psychological safety, and relationships are what create that sense of safety. Um, and I think one of the highlights of working in in the special sector is that our key focus can be around a shared sense of moral imperative. So that's that's one of the real takeaways in terms of you know workplace satisfaction, is that you know no matter what, when you come into your workplace, that every single person in that in that setting is there for the same reasons you're there for. Um, and I think in terms of shaping and building culture that can be felt by children, that that's the the key feature, particularly in a setting that needs to be supporting the emotional needs of young people and and help them to feel safe and secure. Um, and it's really nice that all our visitors can sense that, even in you know, fleeting moments that you might be in or experiencing those interactions. You know, if we're doing something successfully, it's that that's the thing that you're glad that is reflective to the to the external visitor.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah, definitely. Um so you mentioned a little bit about kind of culture and that sense of psychological safety, which is obviously incredibly important. But the other side of things is, you know, you're a school as well. You know, you've you these children have got to learn useful schools, they've got to have things that they can go out and live successful lives with. Um and you've been quite creative about how you develop your curriculum to meet the specific needs of your of your pupil intake, haven't you? Can you tell me a little bit about some of the things you've done to um ensure that your lessons do engage and um keep their interest?

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Well, I think you know, we speak often with staff around our curriculum, and our curriculum is multifaceted. You know, we've got, I think we would describe it as, you know, we've got a relational curriculum that works um on all the stuff that we do to create a safe environment for children, to build those relationships, to ensure those children feel safe within our setting and able to reduce the anxiety that's associated with a lot of their needs, that we see that that really that anxiety is what drives a lot of the challenging behavior, the maladaptive behaviors that that meant that they were struggled in in mainstream settings. And then running alongside that is an SEMH curriculum and an academic curriculum. And what we talk about with our curriculum, the principles of our curriculum design is the agility to respond to the needs of our children with the very well-developed and ambitious curriculum that we have. So you can't have one or the other or uh working in isolation. You need to be able to have a really robust and um ambitious curriculum for young people that have a range of abilities and learning needs. So, you know, we've got young people that join us when they're seven who need to learn to read and are emergent readers. And in the same time, we might have young people that join us when they're 11 or 12 who might have gaps in their education through fractured experiences. Um, and then we also have young people who are 15, 16 who need to be able to engage with curriculum that supports them with gaining qualifications to move on to their next steps. So that curriculum needs to be ambitious and it needs to be of very high quality. Um, I'm absolutely, you know, we are a special school, but we are, you know, that means we need to be a really, really good school. And then additionally, all the other factors and features that that makes us special in terms of being able to respond to the additional needs of young people. Um, and we need to have that curriculum design in a way that it is agile, that it can be responsive to varying needs, that it can be responsive to a range of um abilities that might be in a group together. But in the same on the same kind of token, we need a relational and SEMH curriculum that allows us to deal with the needs that are presented on a regular basis, or um, you know, we've got children that join us after being out of education two, three years, we've got children that join us with really fractured experiences of education, and we need to repair that relationship with education, repair that and build those relationships and sense of security. But when we've got that, we need to be agile enough to you know be ready to provide them the diet and the curriculum that we think is ambitious for them to learn and develop as a young person so that they are successful when they move on to post-16 when they leave us. Um and I, you know, I mentioned SEMH curriculum. We need to be able to weave opportunities to explicitly teach our children about how to have safe and healthy social interactions, how to work in a group, how to tolerate um long periods of focused activity on an activity that maybe that's not their peak interest, how to respond to to challenge, how to build resilience of failure or challenge. So those are the um SEMH skills that we need to be really explicit about how we develop and build those for the young people.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

On a more practical level, um, I know one of the things that um you've done is you've adapted the way kind of creative subjects are taught, haven't you? So you've you've changed the the use of a room actually. It's no longer the art, the art studio, is it? It's this fabulous all singing, all dancing, high-tech um multimedia studio. What was the thought process around that and what have the challenges been?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

I think one of the luxurious opportunities of working in a special school is that you can have freedom and flexibility in your curriculum choices and consider how your curriculum is designed to support young people to be successful moving forward. Um, we put a huge emphasis on the arts as an area of the curriculum in general and offer um each of our children a significant amount of their curriculum time through a week in subjects like music, um, DT, arts. Um, and it's really important to us for a variety of reasons. One is that it allows children to express their creativity and engage in a really different subject matter to really pique their interest. Um, and also there's a you know, there's a lot of science behind the therapeutic um nature of the arts and music, specifically around looking at young people who've experienced trauma or have additional needs around emotional regulation. So that's got to feature in our curriculum. We started when we kind of evolved as a school, we started with a very traditional art curriculum, uh, and which was really successful for some children. We also found that some young people found that really difficult to engage with for a variety of reasons in terms of you know fear of failure and you know, messiness, sensory needs, lots of different activities. But you know, we've we've had some wonderful art practitioners and art teachers who've come in and really exposed and built those those skills of resilience for young people and exposed them in with arts in the way that they could really experience it and benefit from traditional art curriculum. However, um, we found that that varied year on year, cohort on cohort, and and when you work with very small cohorts of children, one of the things that can happen is you can have a cohort that comes through that's really keenly interested and talented, and then a cohort that comes through who you struggle with that. And it adds challenges in how successful that curriculum can be for those young people. Um, the other thing that we noticed is that um, you know, we obviously are living in a very evolving world of digital and technology. Um, leads in particular is booming in terms of uh that with Channel 4 and BBC and ITV and lots of different uh industries in the area that that rely on a set of skills that would have exposed them to digital technology. And we decided we had an opportunity to really revise and look at our curriculum offer, and we decided to shift from a traditional art curriculum to um a creative media and digital technology curriculum, and we um had some opportunity to invest into that very heavily, so we invested into building a creative media studio, which has been highlighted in in lots of our different publications and on Twitter, um build a green room um by the equipment and the you know that you would see in those digital studios. And for me, I felt that that was a pathway, pathway for young children young people who were, which was inspiring, but also provided um qualifications that would give them more opportunity to progress into post-16 and potential employment opportunities. And that's been an emerging area of our curriculum over the last two years, but we've seen a lot of success and interest in that, and um kind of our next stages that we're in the works of doing now is really bringing in the wider digital community through careers engagement and looking at employers where those skill sets are used, so that exposes our children to kind of creating a vision for themselves in jobs and roles that they probably didn't know existed behind the scenes when you watch YouTube video or something on TV to allow them to see a pathway for them in the future if this is something that is of high interest.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

I mean, it just makes perfect sense, doesn't it? I mean, you just know from experience of your own children, friends, and things from being tiny, they're so computer literate. They're so they're able to knock out fabulous little videos and all the rest of it from day dot, really. It seems to be that they it's a skill that perhaps when we think about learning to write and and all that, they learn to use multimedia in a in a very, very, very um a very early stage of life now.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

And I think it uh it I think it also allowed us to look at how we deliver art in a different way. Not all curriculum needs to be delivered through uh you know a specific framework, and and we've got a wonderful visiting artist that is that comes and does therapeutic art with our children so that um they're still exposed to um the benefits and and of a more traditional art curriculum alongside the opportunity to experience a digital media curriculum as well.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

And is it main is that kind of one of the main areas where you've done something like that, or are the other elements of the curriculum where you've gone actually, no, that doesn't really that might work in a mainstream setting, but actually it's not that's not right for us. We're gonna do something totally different.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah, I think, I mean, I think at the moment that probably stands out as a really good example of where we've been able to kind of go through the whole process of of trying to really evaluate and understand how a curriculum area um works in our setting and the impact of it, and then see that through to strategic change and the implementation of something new. I think we've got an amazing set of leaders and teachers and practitioners in Springwell across all our three sites that um are really driven by looking at building something that meets the needs of our children long term and and willing to think creatively around those things. Um I think another area that is currently on our focus to develop over time is how does physical education look in a in a special school? What you know, what is that needed? Does a traditional um P curriculum meet the needs of our young people in terms of the benefits of physical exercise and physic on your on your physical well-being and and mental well-being? And does that actually provide um the knowledge and the understanding of that as an area that can benefit your your mental health and well-being in the long term for our children as they grow up and become adults who need to make decisions and utilize opportunities that they have for themselves to support their health and well-being. So I think that's um probably the next focus of us as a group of leaders to really look at and evaluate does our curriculum area really provide those skill sets? Because it's not just about qualifications, is it? It's about, you know, for us, it's about growing young people who can advocate for themselves and support their own needs as they become young people with additional needs or young adults with additional needs and adults with additional needs.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

I mean, you you're obviously at the sharp end of this, but we know, don't we, that um across mainstream settings, more and more children are presenting with challenges. You know, as we come out of COVID, there's there's more and more kids with anxiety, um, cost of living crisis, social deprivation, all those things that make life incredibly challenging for young people. Um I'm guess there's so much mainstream could learn actually from how you guys approach things and maybe looking at curricular in a bit of more with a bit more of a creative approach and thinking about what specifically might work for that that cohort that might not have worked five, ten years ago.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, I think I think a lot of uh I think the vast Majority of professionals who work for us came from mainstream backgrounds. I think that allows us to really think clearly about what other differences are. And actually, you know, there's a lot of things we do at a special school that we can only do because it is a special school, and you've got a unique set of circumstances and provision. And we're we're we're very privileged to have the investment of three purpose-built buildings that enable us to deliver that and implement that curriculum. I do, however, believe that, you know, trauma-informed practice, relational practice is what underpins any of that. And that's, you know, that's about a culture of how we want what we want our young people to experience. Um, I don't think there's a teacher that's ever gone into teaching who hasn't done it because they want to make a difference and support young people. However, the varying demands on you know, mainstream schools in particular create barriers to deliver that sometimes. And I think it's about having people who are ambitious around a group of young people and willing to think creatively and try to reduce the limitations. It's not easy, um, you know, having worked in mainstream in a in a very challenging environment, uh challenging community. It's not easy, it's not cheap to be able to make those creative decisions around curriculum. Um, there's a significant amount of pressure that comes from external factors that schools cannot control. Um, and you know, finance being a very big one. Uh, so I think absolutely there is room to learn. And I think every time we've uh, you know, when we interact with our mainstream colleagues, it is around being really honest and open about the principles of curriculum design and and that shared understanding versus you can just do this in your building because it's not as simple as that bit. So we try to focus on the external work that we do with other leaders and other colleagues about um really the the principles that underpin how and why we design our curriculum in the way that we do that. And I do think there's scope for mainstreams to buy into that. There's just a lot of complex factors that sometimes might challenge that way of thinking.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

Now, it would be absolutely remiss of me to not mention um the gorgeous four-legged friend that I can just see over your shoulder. Um, so tell this is Josie, isn't it? Tell me a little bit about Josie and about the importance of dogs in your schools.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

So Josie is just turned five this week. She joined us and me at Springwell when she was nine weeks old. Um we we had a young person at the time who was really struggling, um, and kind of we decided to explore the idea of animals and animals in in the setting, dogs in particular. And I brought my cock spaniel at the time in and who was wonderful with the children, but barked the house down and uh couldn't settle down. So that gave me, I think that gave me an open door to go looking for a puppy to really have with us at Springwell um and to be able to be socialized and learn and comfortable in our setting. So Josie and I found each other uh about half a year into kind of our first year here, um and joined us when she was nine weeks old, um, and has been with me every day ever since. Uh, and now we have five dogs that are on site regularly as a result because what we realized very quickly when Josie joined us, there wasn't enough Josie to go around for um the needs of our young people and also the impact of having animals in school, particularly with young people who struggle with emotional regulation, was almost like the close thing you could kind of think about is in terms of a magic bullet, you know, watching the um kind of tension release, the anxiety plummet from a young person who um who had been struggling so significantly, but in the presence of a dog could all of a sudden start to communicate with you and and feel safe was was pretty amazing and heartwarming and and you know one of the the more unique experiences in my my career to date. Um so she's been here with us for five years. It's it's really, you know, I think we it's just established in our culture that there are dogs around the building. I think animals bridge that gap between home and and school for a lot of young people. The transition into our building and the environment and the demands required of them in a in a school setting is so significantly different and causes quite a lot of anxiety and distress to some young people. And you know, just to be able to come in and and see a dog when you first come out of your taxi or have five minutes with the dogs or go for a walk. It's a you know, it's a vehicle to support social skills and and regulation. You know, we've got young people who've um been able to reduce their anxiety enough to form good friendships and practice their social skills together when they go on dog walks, during our teen time activities. Um it's I can't now imagine Springwell without without the dogs in them. And I, you know, I know that across the education sector, this is something that's really developed. I went to a leadership conference a few months back and ended up sitting around a table with about four or five other leaders who had dogs in their schools. And I think it's you know, it's got a significant in impact on the well-being of the young people and the well-being of the adults in the building. So I've got a regular group of adults who come down to see the dogs just for a little break, for a little check-in, just for their own regulation and emotional support. So it's pretty magic.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Um, because at Wellspring we talk a lot about um unconditional positive regard, but dogs have got that nailed, haven't they? They are absolutely all about unconditional positive regard. Yeah, absolutely. Um now then the fun bit. Find out a little bit about your your own school days, which might be quite enlightening. Because I'm guessing it's probably very different to any of our school days over in America. Um first of all, school dinners are packed lunches. Oh, packed lunches. Um, school dinners not very good in the States.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

I think less of a culture around it. However, my children have school dinners here. I don't do packed lunches, they know that.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Um maths or English? Maths. Oh very quick answer, straight away, maths. Um carefully planned revision, or were you a last-minute crammer?

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Oh, last minute crammer.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Um, yeah, me too. Um music or drama? Probably neither. Sport. More of a sporty one. Okay. Answers the next one then. I know what the answer to this one is. Um school performance or school sports day? Sports. What was your what was your thing? What sports were you into? Uh football, basketball, softball. So team stuff. Yes. More of the team sports. And um primary or secondary school. What's it called? What's it called over there?

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Elementary school, middle school, and high school. Um, probably high school. I was a you know, I was a secondary school teacher. However, I have to say one of the other highlights of being part of Springwall in this journey has been um becoming ahead of a thrill school and welcoming primary students onto our site. And I think that is um really opened my eyes around the challenges and the development of a young person over time, particularly a young person who's suffered challenge or or have additional needs.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Yeah, I guess that you gosh, that length of relationship that you have with some of those children, if they're coming to you at seven and not leaving until they're 16. Yeah, that's um it's a long time to get to really, really know someone, isn't it? Yeah. You have a lot of tears on the um when some of these leave.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Yeah, I think it's a real privilege as well because of the you know, the trust put in us from families that we're gonna be there till the end with their children. And and I think that's something that um I think our our colleagues really pride themselves on, and and I think our teachers have the really unique experience. It's not often that a you know, someone who's taught a child in year three or four gets to see their educational journey all the way through to leaving. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Um and finally, the the last question that we ask everyone if I gave you a magic wand and you could change anything you wanted to about the education system in this country, um, don't worry about, you know, no, none of those awful financial constraints or practicalities to worry about, none of that stuff. Um, what would you do?

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Oh, I think trust and investment in professionals who are able to make the right decisions for young people based on their experience. I think improving that trust in and value of education and investment would go a long way in terms of allowing us to to do what's needed for young people.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Do you know that's one that comes up regularly actually? That you know, trust the professionals to do their jobs, you know, train them well, recruit them well, put them in the right positions, and then trust them to be the professionals that they are.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

And value it as a as a profession that is incredibly important to society. You know, education, good education helps shape society.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Thanks so much for taking the time out, Mary Wynn. I know you're incredibly busy. Um, that was great. Now, next time we're going to be joined by Professor Lee Health from Trinity Leeds University, who'll be chatting to us about education research. Till then, take care, and we look forward to you joining us next time.