So, why is it so important for children to resilient?

As children journey through childhood they will encounter a range of challenges. Resilient children are able to bounce back from these setbacks. This resilience in children develops when they experience challenges and learn how to deal with these positively.

Children who are resilient can recover from setbacks and get back to living their lives more quickly. When children overcome setbacks and problems, it builds their confidence and helps them feel more capable the next time a problem comes up.

Resilient children are often good at solving problems and learning new skills. This is because they’re more willing to try again even if things don’t go the way they want the first time.

When things don’t go well and children feel anxious, sad, disappointed, afraid or frustrated, resilience helps them understand that these uncomfortable emotions usually don’t last forever. They can experience these emotions and know they’ll be ok before too long.

Resilient children are less likely to avoid problems or deal with them in unhealthy ways, like getting defensive or aggressive or intentionally hurting themselves. Resilient children are also likely to have better physical and mental health than children who struggle to be resilient.

So, how do we help our children to be resilient?

Click on the picture below to see some top tips from our Happiness Champions.

Helping as parents and carers

Key to becoming a resilient individual begins at home. Through strong connections and attachments with family, children develop a positive self-image and a sense of belonging. Alongside this, parents who support and encourage their children to work through these challenges, enable them to be more positive about future issues and challenges they face and their ability to manage and cope with these. For tips on how to help to develop your child's resilience click here for our parent leaflet. 

School relationships and ethos

At Trewirgie relationships are central to our ethos and culture. These strong, warm and empathetic relationships, build a feeling of self-worth and a sense of belonging. Alongside, this we encourage our children to develop the skills, language and confidence to resolve conflicts themselves. The school’s Restorative Justice approach enables children to work towards managing and resolving conflict themselves. Our upper school children are fully trained in this resolution conflict approach. This not only empowers the children but enables them to build their resilience and positivity on dealing and managing challenges and conflict.

School curriculum  

Alongside this, the school’s curriculum has a clear focus on a project based and pioneer approach to learning. This is underpinned by a pedogeological approach with a focus on problem solving, trouble shooting, and innovating. This constant focus enables children to learn to become comfortable to make mistakes in their learning, work through problems, persevere when things go wrong, and draw on the strength and support of others around them.

Vulnerable children

For some of our children who have adverse childhood experiences, where they haven’t come from a place of security or belonging, developing their resilience is much harder. At Trewirgie we have invested significantly in the development of our Wellbeing Team. This team has a wide range of therapeutic skills and expertise and work closely with certain children to build this. This starts from building those strong relationships, a sense of belonging and self-worth. Positive praise and recognition for achievements is central to this.

Supporting your child following a traumatic event 

When a child experiences or witnesses a traumatic event, such as a road traffic collision; an act of violence; a natural disaster; or a serious injury or crime; they may experience a traumatic stress reaction. This is a natural response and, with the right support from loved ones, they will often recover within a few weeks. Our Wellbeing Team are all Trauma and Mental Health trained. Penhaligan Friends have also created a useful leaflet to help you to support your child to process and recover from a traumatic event. To access this click here. 

If you would like to speak to one of the Wellbeing Team, they are around at the beginning and end of each school day, or can be contacted by phoning the school office 01209 215238 or emailing enquiries@tjschool.co.uk