A whole education balances the knowledge, skills and qualities children and young people need to thrive in life, learning and work. Resilience is often named as one of the key skills they will need in their futures – but there’s also often confusion about what it means, and what schools really can (or can’t) do.
Our Strategic Partner Bounce Forward are experts on resilience, have trained over 11,000 teachers and led national research to evidence the impact of teaching resilience. Below is the first of a two part blog on what resilience really means, and what schools can do to promote it.
Resilience is one of the most popular topics in positive psychology. Many schools now use it to underpin their approach to Health Education, and with good reason: it is a wonderful trait to have and is related to numerous positive outcomes.
What is Resilience?
Resilience is commonly defined as the ability to return to normal after a difficult situation, to bounce back from the big things.
When we face disappointment, defeat, and failure, it is our resilience that helps us keep going and find a way to rise from the ashes. However, resilience is not just about bouncing back from hard times, it is a set of life skills that shows people how to bounce forward in everyday situations, keep things in perspective, and thrive in life.
Resilience is a concept, but it’s also a wide range of practical skills that guide people on how to approach situations as the best version of themselves to achieve the best possible outcome.
In education, if a student is anxious about a test, angry at a classmate, or excited to try alcohol, it is their resilience that will steer them away from impulsive decisions and instead towards thinking about their emotions in a practical, realistic, and mature way.
Resilience is self-awareness, compassion, flexible and realistic thinking, self-regulation, hope and optimism, and human connection. All these elements can be taught, measured and mastered in the classroom and proven to make a real difference in schools.
Watch this video to find out more:
You Have the Power
Although you might read about the many benefits of resilience and think it is some kind of superpower available only to society’s elite, resilience is in us all. Most people demonstrate resilience daily. It is ordinary, not extraordinary.
Resilience isn’t about effortlessly gliding through life’s challenges; it’s much more realistic that. It’s about experiencing all of the negative, difficult, and distressing events that life throws at you and not giving up because you have a strategy or skill that you know will work. We have all been knocked back, defeated, and despondent at some point in our lives; however, we kept going—and here we are today, stronger and more experienced.
How Bounce Forward can help.
There are many benefits of teaching resilience in school and WE Strategic Partner Bounce Forward are the experts, they are passionate about developing teachers’ and students’ resilience skills so they can thrive in school and life beyond. The charity has been researching what works for over 11 years. They translate the findings of what works into practical applications that have been successfully implemented in schools across the country.
Next week in the second part of the blog, Bounce Forward share their top tips for teaching resilience in the classroom. What strategies does your school use to create resilient learners? Tell us on Twitter: @wholeeducation and #wholeeducation.