Alia Bojilova - The road less travelled to resilience

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REFLECTION:

I was lucky enough to listen to Alia Bojilova as part of the Pastoral Care team. I found her presentation interesting and thought-provoking. I have listened to several speakers in the past about the role of the brain in our response to stress but what I found interesting in Alia's presentation was the distinction that stress is what an individual perceives as stressful. This distinction isn't made by many psychologists but I think it is particularly important to keep in mind when thinking about children. As adults it is very easy for us to dismiss stresses and worries of children as we have already forgotten how it felt to have these worries. 

I thought the image of 'gardening' resilience is a powerful one to use with children. This is a very simple way of demonstrating the resilience takes time to build and develop. I will use this with my girls next term as we start to look at transitioning to year 4. 

The four key pillars to resilience would also be great to develop further into a school based resource to use across the age groups. 
1. Clarity of Purpose 
all about they why - this links nicely to reading I have done in the past following Simon Sinek's work. Children as well as adults need to understand the purpose behind what they are doing. 
2. Mindful Attention
We have been doing lots of mindfulness this year so I feel this aspect is strong in our Pastoral Care programme. I would like to expand this by introducing the idea of focusing on the positive you want to create not negative you think may happen.
3. Curiosity 
I haven't really used 'what if' scenarios much with my Y3 class as I feel it tends to backfire and they worry more! This is something I would like to investigate further. 
4. Belonging and a Sense of Control  
I think this is a really important one to keep in the forefront of our minds. As teachers we have a huge amount of control over our classrooms. How can we increase the feeling of control for our students? Not just SRL based learning control but emotional control as well?


NOTES:

Bouncibility 

Role of stress 
Brains haven’t caught up with modern life fff response is still naturally ingrained 

Stress is what you perceive as stressful - different for each person 

Stressed brain has access to less active brain space 

Victor Frankl 

Is stress an opportunity or a threat? Do we grow or distress 

Resilience is like gardening - need to plant and nurture. Can’t pick the fruit the same day as planting. Need the right environment conditions and support to thrive 

Myth of exponential tolerance 

Brain like familiar but thrives on the road less travelled - growth/fixed 

Clarity of purpose - how healthy is our forest of reasons? Must understand the why. Ambiguity is greatest source of stress . 
Purpose needs to be important for individual - can’t force ideas. 

Mindful attention 
Mind where your mind goes 
Capacity to attend to the right here right now for survival 
Focus on things you can influence 
Predict prepare pre empt 
Focus on positive you want to create not negative you think may happen 

Curiosity - turn stress/anxiety into meaningful action 
Curiosity sustains resilience 
What if scenarios are good for resilience 

Belonging and sense of control
Belong and make better 
Perceived social support 
Being trusted - anxious if don’t feel trusted less likely to step forward 
Sense of control - boot story do you allow those around you to have control 

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