Resilience

Intent:

The Resilience Curriculum forms a cornerstone of our curriculum, and is an integral part of the transformation work done at all our schools within the Rodillian Multi-Academy Trust. Developed originally at Rodillian, the Resilience Curriculum, based on research from Carol Dweck and Matthew Syed, a transformational curriculum was developed.  It has been honed over many years, with an ultimate aim of creating confident, motivated and successful leaners.  Students are taught explicit learning attributes in order for them to be successful academically, skills for learning but equally skills that will equip them for life.  Dweck’s research suggests that more than 60% of students have a fixed mindset by the time they enter Year 7, believing that they have specific strengths and weaknesses and that these cannot be changed.  We aim to remediate this, promoting the belief that with a growth mindset, hard work and perseverance, students can succeed and overcome the obstacles that academic studies, and life in general, can place in their way. Rather than more literacy and numeracy, the imperative is to foster resilience so the significant barrier to success of ‘giving up’ is overcome. The resilience curriculum’s objective is to challenge this robustly and give students the knowledge and strategies to change their mindset and behaviours. Resilience lessons develop self-confidence through presentation skills and team work, mastery of skills, high standards of work, good learning habits through learning about the memory and revision techniques, and self-belief through their understanding of the brain.

Resilience camp develops independence, self-confidence and gives our students new and challenging experiences which they can link to their learning habits and provides them with experiences and skills that less privileged students may not have access to. As this develops into year 8 and 9, within applied resilience students are further challenged to extend their learning into new areas which they have not experienced before and master new knowledge and skills – again building their self-confidence beyond the traditional curriculum. Rugby and netball, for example, facilitate our students competing, and succeeding, on an equal playing field with far more advantaged students. Other resilience options such as cooking, drama, skiing or astronomy also increase their experiences of the world beyond the curriculum and, again may give them confidence and even a social advantage in the future which they otherwise may not have had.

Implementation:

The curriculum focusses on encouraging students to develop in the following seven areas of resilience:

• Academic – The ability to apply and commit yourself to academic challenges.
• Behavioural – The ability to behave in an appropriate manner when in different situations
• Cognitive – The ability to apply yourself, adapt in certain situations and try new approaches to tasks.
• Emotional – The ability to control your emotions, empathise with others and learn from your mistakes.
• Cultural & Spiritual – The ability to show respect in all situations.
• Physical – The ability to take control of your body and push yourself to your limits.
• Endurance – The ability to keep on going even when things get tough.

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