Educational Resilience

Building resilience within education is important because it impacts on students experience of school. This may mean better educational outcomes despite adversity, improved behaviour, increased coping skills and better overall wellbeing. But why are some children more resilient in school than others?

Boyce likens children to two very different types of flowers: orchids and dandelions.

The orchid child shows much greater sensitivity and is highly reactive to the environment they find themselves in. The dandelion children are typically more independent, less sensitive to their surroundings and show greater resilience. Listen to Boyce unpick this further in his TED talk below and consider the implication this insight has on educational resilience.

The Resilience Framework (adapted from Hart, Blincow and Thomas, 2007) is a way of working with children and young people that offers a framework for finding the best ways of helping young people to get through when life is particularly tough. You can view a copy of the Resilience Framework here.

This resilience approach gives you an idea of how schools can approach developing resilience within the classroom. It not only incorporates theory but uses this evidence to deliver practical ideas of working with children and young people.

The framework identifies five areas of a young person’s life that need to be addressed in order to promote resilience. These are:

• Basics
• Belonging
• Learning
• Coping
• Core self