Resilience Assembly

Are you emotionally, physically and mentally resilient? This is a question I ask students in an assembly.

Are you resilient? How can you develop your ability to deal with stress and adversity? This post offers an assembly resource linked to the theme, resilience; one of our school values. Why not tell everyone?

A Lasting Impression:

In the assembly, I take time with our students to explore the meaning of resilience. I offer them definitions, school expectations and strategies for students to self-regulate their own stress and adversity. I also provide the students with a self-fulfilling problem.

@headguruteacher and I once worked at the same school several years ago. As part of our whole-staff CPD programme, we both attended a training that has clearly stuck with both of us and had a lasting impression. So much so, we have both now delivered the same content to our students in assemblies.

In the assembly, we ask the audience the following question;

Staff and students, when asked in my assembly would typically say it is not possible to place a straw through a potato. I asked for a show of hands …

Sherrington explains our first thoughts in more detail:

… [we] first encountered the idea as part of an INSET day at a previous school.  In groups, we were all given a straw and a potato with the question “Is it possible to get the straw through the potato?” We proceeded to debate and discuss it; at first we were not allowed to handle the items.  Then, after our initial deliberations, we tried out various drilling methods … all to no avail. In my group we concluded that it could not be done.  Then the instructor told us how he’d given the same task to some year 10 students with the instruction ‘Get that straw through the potato’. One boy picked it up and ‘bosh’ … plunged it straight through at the first attempt. We felt suitably pathetic.

Resilience:

One of our school values is Resilience.

In the assembly, I ask the students to think more carefully about what the word ‘resilience’ actually means in their school lives. It is a re-visit from an assembly I delivered in March 2015; If Not Now, When?

Student Types?

I also ask students about their self-perception. The following cartoons are designed by Helen Wiltshire, a deputy headteacher and art teacher; ex-colleague of Sherrington. The original artwork can be found here in @headguruteacher‘s blog,  Sixth Former Caricatures … for assembly. Thank you Helen for the fabulous artwork! They made my students laugh and think …

10 Resilience Phrases:

I also offer 10 phrases to teach students about resilience; courtesy of Kidspot.

Image: Shutterstock

1. “Come on, laugh it off!”
2. “Don’t let this spoil everything.”
3. “Let’s take a break!”
4. “Who have you spoken to about this?”
5. “I know it looks bad now but you will get through this.”
6. “What can you learn from this so it doesn’t happen next time?”
7. “Don’t worry – relax and see what happens!”
8. “This isn’t the end of the world.”
9. “You could be right. But have you thought about … ”
10. “What can we do about this?”

Want this poster? Click here.

Download:

You can download the presentation below:

If you want to know the answer to the straw and the potato, you can do so here.

By the time this blog and my assembly resource is shared across the UK, I half expect every student to be lancing potatoes before the revision season begins.

Enjoy! TT.