Respect for Wise Owl Trust

Wise Owl Trust have written their very own bespoke curriculum called the RESPECT curriculum, to ensure that children’s academic achievement is not at the expense of a child’s mental health. Instead we prepare our children for life beyond the classroom, by focussing on life skills and character education. Positive mental health, good citizenship and employability are the main drivers behind the development of our curriculum.

We combined research from the Jublilee Centre for Character and Virtues with our educational expertise to write and deliver the RESPECT curriculum enthusing and engaging our children. The Wise Owl Trust RESPECT curriculum is now improving the life chances of thousands of children nationwide as the programme is now being delivered by hundreds of schools across the country.

Lessons have been transformed into Missions, and now no mission is impossible across the Trust or in other lessons nationwide! Resilience is key and is taught to our children across all year groups. Strategies to self-regulate are taught in the face of adversity and mistakes are taught to be lessons rather than disappointments.

The children venture through their missions using cargo nets, barrels and a host of other equipment.

The children embark upon inspirational journeys of explorers such as Ed Stafford, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and many more. Working in teams, the children must use their creativity and problem-solving skills to complete a series of missions, putting their character to the ultimate test.

Will teams work well together?

What behaviour traits have been tested?

(Resilience, Empathy, Self-Awareness, Positivity, Excellence, Communication, Teamwork)

Early Years –
Character;

Introduction into Character traits to build inner strength

Key Stage 1 –
Character and Collaboration;

Learning how your Character can affect others

Key Stage 2 –
Character, Collaboration and Challenge;

Putting Character traits into practice through collaboration and challenge to succeed in an ever evolving society

The basic skills of Maths and English are taught throughout the morning sessions then practically applied in the afternoon missions. Fractions, ratio and proportion are no longer boring and mind-puzzling. Not when you need to apply your knowledge of ratio and proportion to calculate the amount of antidote required to save one of your team mates after being stung by a deadly spider in the Amazon rainforest. Learning your spellings is fun and definitely necessary to battle through some of the challenges in order to send signals to others within your team, guiding them to safety! Missions even spill over into homework, with family members helping children to make Roman shields, mountain ranges, model rainforests, model aeroplanes and much more!

Key Stage One have an exciting programme of topics written to introduce the RESPECT curriculum to children as young as five! After exploring the crime scene left by the Big Bad Wolf, the children must help the 3 Little Pigs to design and build a new, safe home. It is then put to the test! Do the children have the resilience to be put through the test with the ability to self-regulate when facing disappointment? Are the teams able to work together to choose suitable building equipment? In another mission, the children’s problem solving skills are really put to the test when they need to work as a team to transport porridge to help the Three Bears! How will the teams communicate effectively to be successful in this challenge and use their problem solving skills to choose the correct equipment?

Key Stage Two experience the journeys of explorers like Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Ed Stafford, Nancy Wake and Amelia Earhart. Lessons transport the children to a snowy mountain or dangerous ravine. Each mission is carefully designed to apply the character traits of the RESPECT curriculum (Resilience, Empathy, Self-Awareness, Positivity, Excellence, Communication and Teamwork).

In September 2018, we launched our EARLY YEARS RESPECT curriculum! Our respect characters take the children on a series of stories to learn about the different character traits. Learning all about resilience by Romeo Resilience, or the traits of good teamwork by Tanisha Teamwork is fun and exciting for all! In Reception our children learn more about the Character traits by putting their skills into action through missions associated with Nursery Rhymes.

Throughout a child’s school career we track and record their personal achievements in the 7 areas of our values (Resilience, Empathy, Self-Awareness, Positivity, Excellence, Communication and Teamwork). Self-assessment and peer-assessment is crucial to promote a clear understanding of the character traits, their meaning and how personal improvements can be made. It is this enhanced self-awareness and understanding of others that is embraced and enhances emotional intelligence. Children have the opportunity to reflect upon their learning, referencing back to their ‘Mission Brief’, making personal judgements on the character traits they have displayed, what improvements they could make next time and how they felt during their learning. Personal records are documented in ‘Top Secret Mission Books’.

The ethos of the RESPECT curriculum is not limited to the classroom; instead it permeates throughout all academies within the Wise Owl Trust. Staff even have their own ‘Top Secret Mission Books’ and are encouraged to self-reflect. Participation in missions is a must for all staff and team building sessions are on the calendar each year! Some would say that the children are better problem solvers than the adults! Parents are also encouraged to become involved in their children’s learning and a bespoke programme has been written to support our parents also.

“I believe that the new approach to the curriculum will have a huge impact across all classrooms.”

Debbie Frater, Acting Principal

“Children that have previously been disengaged in their learning have been reignited and inspired. Mondays have become Mission Mondays and they are the perfect start to the learning week, not just for the children but also the staff!”

Sophie Murfin, Executive Principal

“Our new RESPECT curriculum is transformational to the life chances of our children, preparing them for future challenges.”

Chris O’Shaughnessy, CEO of Wise Owl Trust

As if that isn’t enough, we have gone one step further! We have started our very own intervention for children with Social and Emotional Difficulties, named Team Up. The outcomes have been life changing for some children both in school and at home, with some children not wanting to leave Team Up! Feedback from parents, carers, children, staff and visitors has been astounding and beyond anything possibly imagined. Working on the RESPECT curriculum in the same way as children in the mainstream academies has meant that reintegration has been an easier process for the children. The comments from the children during their daily ‘compliments’ sessions have been heart-melting for all. Read more about Team Up and their amazing work on the Team Up website.

So what’s next? Wise Owl Trust will continue to innovate and inspire our children by learning through ‘character, collaboration and challenge’ and is already producing new programmes to engage and keep the curriculum relevant.