resilience Archives - 91ֱ�� Support

How to teach resilience in the classroom: 7 primary school activities

Kate Dorrell — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 03:24:11 +0000

Teachers, do you want to teach resilience in the classroom? The good news is, resilience is a developmental process that you can support in class.

Developing a positive sense of self and healthy peer relationships are central to the 91ֱ��. As a member school, you can choose from a range of 91ֱ�� Support activities to support your students develop their resilience.

These activities can be led by your 91ֱ�� Leaders or a classroom teacher. Download further instructions and any relevant resources for these activities in the member’s dashboard under Planning Our Paths.

Activity 1: Explore feelings with emojis

This 30-minute activity invites students to explore how they feel using visuals they understand and enjoy: emojis.

Kids are asked to design their own emoji that reflects how they’re feeling today. They then share their design with the class or group, prompting a discussion about feelings.

Images are a great way for students to develop an awareness of how they feel. It’s a technique that school counsellors sometimes use, as kids often don’t have the emotional language to identify and express how they feel.

There’s also a feelings word search that helps students develop a language to describe different emotions and emotional states.

The activity takes 30 minutes, but you can extend it further by checking in with students twice a day across the week.

Activity 2: Think about your ideal school day

Returning to school after a holiday can be challenging for some students. What would your students’ ideal day look like? This activity invites students to explore this question over 30 to 60 minutes.

This activity helps students consider the positive aspects of their school day: what do they enjoy? Is there something they’re looking forward to at school?

Visualising their day helps students plan, develops optimism, and explores their values.

Students can write or illustrate their response. Follow up with a class discussion, focusing on what students can do to help create their ideal day.

Activity 3: Make plans for the future

Planning for the future is a skill that helps us achieve our goals, and gives us a sense of optimism and possibility. This activity builds on the previous one, asking students to write a letter to themselves for the following term.

Students are provided with questions to prompt their thinking. What would they like to do differently next term? Do they have goals they would like to work towards?

Teachers return the students’ letters at the start of the following term. You can reflect on the letters and how students will achieve their plans.

The initial letter-writing activity should take 40 minutes.

Activity 4: Practise slow breathing with the ‘5 finger’ technique

This is a simple 10-minute activity that you can use any time in the classroom to help students practise slow breathing. Slowing down our breathing is a proven way to calm our bodies, and our minds. This activity is a good reminder for teachers too!

Students place one hand on their heart and the other hand on their stomach. They’re invited to breathe in slowly and deeply as they count to 5 and then breathe out slowly while they count to 5. We recommend repeating this 10 times.

Activity 5: Learn to cope with failure

This 30-minute activity provides students with a scenario where Holly doesn’t make the school netball team. It invites students to discuss Holly’s pessimistic reaction to the event, and develop strategies for a more optimistic response.

This activity helps students identify and challenge destructive thought patterns. This is an important life skill that can serve us as adults too.

Activity 6: Challenge negative thoughts

This 30-minute activity aims to teach kids optimism and gratitude – which contribute to resilience. It lists some scenarios that students might see as negative, such as a rainy day, or returning to school after the holidays. Students are asked to think of some positive things related to each scenario. They learn to scaffold situations: ‘It’s raining today, but that means I get to play chess!’

Activity 7: Explore our connections with others

Human connection is vital to mental health. In fact, it’s one of the most important foundations for our sense of wellbeing.

This activity invites students to consider who they are connected to in their lives. Over one or two weeks, students create a visual representation to record all of the students with whom they have interacted by using a web diagram.

The class is invited to discuss their findings with a list of prompt questions.

Learn how to teach resilience in the classroom with our resource, Planning our Paths

These activities can support you to teach resilience to your students through discussion and practise.

91ֱ�� Support also offers an 8-week peer-led module that explores resilience in more depth: Moving Forward. And, of course, any 91ֱ�� Support module and activity helps support many of the foundations of student wellbeing by building strong relationships, and social and emotional literacy skills. This contributes to a students’ ability to navigate life and bounce back from adversity.

Visit the primary school members’ dashboard to download the activity sheets for Planning Our Paths, and to check out the resilience module, Moving Forward.

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Research: Students’ resilience boosted by a sense of belonging

redpinadmin — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:49:42 +0000

Originally published by

Academic challenges and difficulties are inevitable parts of school – this is how students learn. So researchers have long been interested in the ways students navigate these challenges and how to help them cope better.

Recent research has focused on the concept of “academic buoyancy” or everyday resilience at school. This is about students’ capacity to handle everyday setbacks and challenges. This could include negative feedback on an assessment or facing competing study deadlines and schoolwork demands.

Research has found resilient students tend to have more positive academic outcomes. These include making greater effort with their work, having better study skills and enjoying school more than students who are less resilient.

Research has also shown such as confidence. But we need more understanding about what school-related factors are involved in students’ resilience and what schools can do to build their students’ resilience.

Our surveyed high school students in schools around New South Wales to look at what other factors impact students’ resilience.

Our research

The study was based on responses from 71,861 high school students in 292 NSW government schools who completed the annual “” student survey organised by the state’s Department of Education.

Students’ responses were collected at two points one year apart: once at the beginning of the 2018 school year when students were in Years 7 to 11 and then a year later in 2019 when they were in Years 8 to 12. Schools were in metropolitan, rural and regional areas.

One of our main aims was to find out if students’ perceptions of different types of support in their school would influence their resilience one year later.

This included academic and emotional support from teachers, students’ sense of school belonging and behavioural expectations in the classroom.

We looked at the role of support factors in two ways. First, we looked at how support for individual students was associated with students’ resilience. For example, does a student who perceives greater academic support from their teacher, regardless of the school they are in, report greater resilience one year later?

Second, we investigated the relationship between support at the whole-school level and whole-school resilience.

Our findings

In our study, students’ sense of school belonging stood out as the most notable factor of resilience. In fact, the role of school belonging was important at the individual student level and also at the whole-school level.

That is, when individual students felt a greater sense of belonging to their school, they tended to also report greater resilience one year later.

When a school had a higher proportion of students reporting a sense of belonging, it demonstrated higher school-average resilience one year later.

There was also evidence of a reciprocal relationship between students’ sense of belonging and their resilience — that is, increases in school belonging were associated with greater resilience one year later and vice versa.

Notably, these findings were largely similar across contexts, including schools of different sizes, in different locations, with different gender compositions, with varying levels of academic selectivity, with a range of socioeconomic status and with varying levels of students’ academic ability.

The similarity in the findings across contexts suggests targeting these areas of support could benefit students’ resilience in a wide range of academic settings.

Why is this so?

When faced with everyday academic setbacks and challenge, having a strong sense of school belonging helps to protect students from stress and negativity.

This is because students feel less isolated at times of adversity and have options and opportunities for support from their peers and teachers.

Evidence of the reciprocal relationship among these factors also suggests facilitating a greater sense of belonging could have long-lasting effects on students’ resilience as they positively feed into each other over time.

How can we boost belonging?

Helping students to feel safe and included in their school is one way to promote a greater sense of belonging for students. This could include:

offering a range of extracurricular activities that help students to get involved and feel part of their school community
anti-bullying or wellbeing programs to help students to feel safer and more comfortable in their schools
helping students build and feel confident in their personal identities at school.

Teaching students to be aware of their emotions

There are also strategies for targeting students’ resilience directly. For example, providing students with specific reasoning behind a poor assessment mark and then time (in class or one-on-one) to help them understand and constructively respond to the challenging feedback.

Students might also be taught to be aware of the thoughts, behaviours and emotions they have when they receive a disappointing result and how they can respond constructively. For example, re-framing the event as a learning opportunity or a time to seek out further information from a teacher is one way to focus on self-improvement rather than the disappointing result.

Amid ongoing concerns about and wellbeing, academic resilience is an important attribute that helps students to navigate their school careers.

More resources for teachers can be found in this to everyday resilience published by the NSW Department of Education. The authors also wish to thank Nicole Hare, Samuel Cox, Anaid Flesken and Ian McCarthy at the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, NSW Department of Education, for their assistance with the conduct of this research and co-authorship of the original journal article.

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Resilience programs: how to choose the best one for your school

redpinadmin — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 21:57:36 +0000

Resilience programs can help your students develop the relationships and skills to overcome challenges, cope with stress, and thrive in the face of adversity.

Resilience means students are able to effectively navigate life’s ups and downs. It’s not about avoiding challenges, but being able to manage them well – because life is a series of positive and negative experiences. And we all need the skills to cope well when challenges come our way.

You can foster resilience in your students, as an educator. There are many resilience programs available to support schools to build healthy relationships and develop your students’ social and emotional learning. You can read more about teaching resilience here.

It can be hard to pick the right resilience program for your school, with so many available. Here are some tips to help you select the best program for your students to build their resilience.

Prioritise social and emotional literacy

A resilience program should help develop your students’ social and emotional literacy (SEL). SEL programs teach students how to manage their emotions, set and achieve goals, establish positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

Students can develop the resilience they need to overcome setbacks and thrive in challenging situations by learning these skills. Look for resilience programs, like 91ֱ�� Support, that prioritise SEL and incorporate it into the curriculum.

Look for resilience programs that promote inclusion and engagement

Feeling a sense of belonging is important to being able to manage life’s ups and downs. Students are more likely to persevere through challenges and bounce back from setbacks when they feel connected to their school community and have positive relationships with their peers and teachers. Australian researchers recently showed that a sense of belonging in high school reduces feelings of anxiety in students.

91ֱ�� Support, for example, builds a sense of community and fosters positive relationships across the whole school community.

Engaged students are more likely to be resilient. Look for programs that encourage active participation, collaboration, and hands-on learning. These types of programs can help students develop a sense of ownership and agency over their learning, which can contribute to their resilience.

The best resilience programs promote a growth mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. Students with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges and view them as opportunities for growth.

Look for programs that emphasise the value of effort and perseverance.

Consider running a program that teaches mindfulness and stress management

Stress is a natural part of life. But too much stress can be detrimental to students’ wellbeing and ability to cope with challenges.

is a popular program that teaches students how to manage stress through mindfulness techniques. These include deep breathing, meditation, and yoga. These types of activities can help students develop coping skills that will serve them well throughout their lives.

Check whether your resilience program is evidence-based

Make sure any program you’re considering is backed by research. Some state education departments have wellbeing directories that help you sort through the plethora of wellbeing programs available – and you can search by themes, like resilience.

The 91ֱ�� is included in the NSW Department of Education’s wellbeing directory under two themes – Resilience and Sense of Belonging. It’s also listed in the SA Department of Education wellbeing directory. This means you can trust 91ֱ�� Support is a quality assured resilience program.

Our resilience module – Moving Forward for primary school students and Rethinking Challenges for high school students – is an evidence-based approach to helping students build the resilience they need to thrive during school and beyond. The eight-week module was launched more than 10 years ago and has been run in hundreds of schools since then.

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Teaching resilience to primary school students with 91ֱ�� Support

redpinadmin — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 21:47:31 +0000

Teaching resilience is simple with the help of the 91ֱ��. Primary school students who participate in the program have an opportunity to develop skills to better navigate life’s obstacles.

Today’s kids face a unique set of challenges. With the advent of technology and an abundance of information, they are navigating a landscape vastly different from that of previous generations. But there’s good news: resilience can be nurtured and developed in our youth.

Our resilience module – Moving Forward – is an evidence-based approach to helping students build the resilience they need to thrive during primary school and beyond. The eight-week module was launched more than 10 years ago and has been run in hundreds of schools since then.

Don’t avoid challenges: Support kids to effectively manage them

Resilience has long been a topic of interest and research, but our understanding of it has evolved. Resilience is no longer thought of as merely the absence of adversity. Instead, it’s now recognised as the result of effectively navigating life’s obstacles.

As parents and caregivers, our natural instinct may be to shield our children from challenges, but it’s essential that we equip them to face these challenges head-on while providing the support they need.

Schools play a vital role in teaching resilience

Schools can foster resilience. Yes, a significant portion of a child’s resilience development happens within the family, but schools can provide an environment that encourages and promotes resilience.

91ֱ�� interactions, teacher support, and meaningful participation opportunities, all contribute to the growth of resilient characteristics in students.

The 91ֱ�� teaches resilience in a school setting. The peer groups include students in small groups of students from Foundation/Kindergarten to Year 5, and are led pairs of Year 6 students with teachers supervising. This creates a safe and inclusive environment, empowering students to practise the skills they’re learning. It also nurtures cross-grade peer relationships, helping to create a sense of belonging for students in the playground too.

Moving Forward helps students develop protective factors

Resilience isn’t a one-size-fits-all concept. It’s a developmental process influenced by a myriad of protective factors.

Protective factors act as a buffer against the development of mental health issues or the deterioration of existing ones. They are essentially strengths or positive influences that can enhance a person’s resilience and mental wellbeing.

We can build our protective factors internally – who we are – and externally – our surrounding environment. Strong protective factors help us better deal with stress and adversity. Our Moving Forward module is built on the belief that resilience can be cultivated by recognising protective factors and calling on our ‘toolkit’ when facing challenges.

Students learn how to recognise their own strengths, develop strategies to deal with challenges, and build a support network. As students grow, they become more self-reliant, better at problem-solving, and refine their personal beliefs and attitudes.

Our resilience module encourages students to proactively work through challenges, enabling them to emerge stronger.

Teaching resilience is more than bouncing back from adversity

At 91ֱ�� Support Australia, we base our resilience module, Moving Forward, on the three foundations identified by : “I am, I can, and I have.” These form our resilience toolkit.

The module addresses three questions:

Who I Am? Students learn to recognise their personal qualities and strengths, applying them to various aspects of their lives while reflecting on their attitudes and actions.
What I Can Do? Students identify essential skills that help them manage challenging situations. These include communication, acknowledging achievements, and understanding the transferability of these skills empowers students to face new challenges.
Who I Have? Students are encouraged to seek support when navigating challenging situations, utilising knowledge, skills, and strategies while recognising the need for external support when necessary.

The module emphasises the importance of relationships and the ability to learn from past experiences.

Resilience isn’t a destination; it’s a journey that unfolds over time and through experiences. Moving Forward encourages students to think critically and practise resilient responses collaboratively. By nurturing resilience, we not only provide students with protective factors but also empower them to navigate life’s challenges with confidence and independence.

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