Wealden Times | WT261 | February 2024 | Education Supplement inside

The Priceless Education Supplement sponsored by
True Grit
The Granville School talk us through their positive approach to developing resilience
istockphoto.com/ olnik_y
As a predominantly girls’ school
(we only have boys in our Preschool),
resilience is high on our
list of skills to develop in our pupils.
Although we’d like to think that our
pupils’ future lives would be a level
playing field in an equitable society, the
reality is that this is not yet the case.
Our mission is to foster confidence,
self-belief, emotional intelligence and an
ability to withstand adversity. Much of
modern life is fast-paced, challenging and
competitive. There will be joy, there will
be disappointment. We prepare our pupils
for this. It is widely known that resilience
is a key factor in being successful but
some children develop this more naturally
than others. We found that simply
encouraging a child to be resilient was not
enough and we wanted a way to explicitly
teach these skills as we would teach long
division or how to use apostrophes.
Two years ago, we introduced the
Positive Education programme to our
school, with every class now having
weekly lessons timetabled and all staff
trained in delivering the curriculum.
Positive Education combines traditional
education principles with researchbacked
ways of increasing happiness and
wellbeing. It is about empowering each
individual to explore their own strengths
to lead richer and fuller lives.
Our aim is for every child to flourish,
not just academically but socially and
emotionally. Research shows that for this
to happen, there are six domains that
need to be nurtured. These are positive
relationships, positive emotions, positive
health, positive engagement, positive
accomplishment, and positive purpose.
Alongside these six domains is the
focus on character strengths. Pupils are
encouraged to spot character strengths
both in themselves and in their peers to
“We can do
anything if we put
our mind to it”
make the most of their strengths and
build awareness of weaknesses. This
teaches pupils to acknowledge all feelings,
even negative ones, and learn how to deal
with them so they can confidently face
challenges and deal with less pleasant
emotions such as jealousy or anger.
Activities might include researching
people from history who failed at first
but persisted. Our pupils might take
on challenges that require grit and
determination and share their experiences
and the skills they used to succeed. Music
is used with inspiring lyrics and reflection
time is built into lessons to give students
the chance to think about the skills of
resilience they can use in various scenarios.
In addition to this ‘resilience
curriculum’, our girls have a myriad of
opportunities to practise and hone their
skills. Competitive sport is available
for all of our girls and is highly valued
here. Everything from boxing to water
confidence, Jujitsu to football is available.
This ‘sport for all’ approach fosters
resilience as well as supporting good
mental health.
Drama is a core part of our wider
curriculum from the age of three. Girls
take LAMDA exams, perform in a
professional theatre and take part in a
number of seasonal productions. This
builds confidence and teamwork skills
and also tests resilience. Throughout the
school, girls are endowed with leadership
opportunities. Our School Council meets
weekly with the headmistress to share
pupils’ voices with school leaders. Our
Year 6 prefects walk the school dog and
help with Pre-school playground duties.
They even compose songs for their
younger counterparts to be performed at
our Spring Festival.
Our motto, ‘Believe, Inspire, Achieve’
reminds us that we can do anything if we
put our mind to it and our curriculum
teaches us how to cope when we
encounter difficulties. With a growth
mindset, resilience and ambition, the
sky is the limit for our pupils and they
repeatedly demonstrate this.
granvilleschool.org
75
priceless-magazines.com