Resilience is one of the important skills that experts and experienced educators have identified as essential for successful living. This is one of the key characteristics that we are wanting to grow and nurture in the lives of all our students. Growing resilience extends into every aspect of life and can be expressed in sport, in playground relationships between friends and peers, but this also extends into the classroom and in particular, to learning.
All of us can find learning ‘new things’ difficult at times and when we experience ‘failure’ it takes a lot of courage not to give up or to find easier options. However, having a go and persisting when things are difficult is exactly what we need to do if we are to build resilience. Thomas Hassall Anglican College deliberately plans wellbeing programs that build resilience. These programs include experiences like our camp program that progress through challenges of increasing difficulty. In Year 7, we start with a camp that has a variety of team-focused activities designed to build student relationships and teamwork. By Year 9, we have adventure-style camps which introduce an opportunity to take part in the world respected Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. In the next holidays a small group of students will take on the Kokoda Challenge and this is a life-changing opportunity for each of the participants. Students coming through these courses have faced very real difficulties that will develop invaluable life skills for living in an increasingly complex world.
Developing resilience naturally translates into the classroom where there is a constant challenge in terms of learning new skills and increasingly difficult concepts. The greatest threat to developing resilience is giving into ‘fear’. Fear that I will fail, fear that I have to struggle, fear that I might be embarrassed or fear that I will be rejected. When we give into fear we do not build the capacity to find success in our learning. What we would love to see is courageous learners - students who are prepared to take risks even if it might mean failing along the way. The difference between failure and success is often 'not giving up'.
I want to encourage parents to partner with the College in building resilience in our children. At Thomas Hassall we acknowledge that all children will face difficulty in their life (of varying magnitude and duration) and that it is critical for students to courageously cope with, and adapt to, change and difficulty.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer” Albert Einstein
“Stand firm and you will win life” Luke 21:19