Today our class went to see The Bully Returns.

This is a great time to take the opportunity to speak with your child about resilience and how they overcome obstacles in different situations such as at school, home, during sport etc.

During ‘The Bully is Back’ the principles of resilience are introduced to the children through the dramatisation of Alex’s return to the school.  Poppy had been bullied by Alex in ’Return of the bully’ but this time she attempts to make friends and discovers all about Alex’s home life and how that has contributed to the bullying.  Poppy asks sansei for help and he teaches her all about resilience.  Sensei and Poppy decide to help Alex discover his resilience in times of adversity so that he doesn’t have to be a bully.

The play The Bully is Back has sourced inspiration from the work of Edith H. Grotheberg Ph. D of The International Resilience project and her guide for parents and teachers ‘A Guide to Promoting Resilience in children: Strengthening the Human Spirit’

Three sources of resilience

To overcome adversities, children draw from three sources of resilience features labelled: I HAVE, I AM, I CAN. What they draw from each of the three sources may be described as follows:

I HAVE

•      People around me I trust and who love me, no matter what.
•  People who set limits for me so I know when to stop before there is danger or trouble.
•  People who show me how to do things right by the way they do things.
•  People who help me when I am sick, in danger or need to learn

I AM

•  A person people can like and love
•  Glad to do nice things for others and show my concern.
•  Respectful of myself and others.
•  Willing to be responsible for what I do.
•  Sure things will be all right.

I CAN

•  Talk to others about things that frighten me or bother me.
•  Find ways to solve problems that I face
•  Control myself when I feel like doing something not right or dangerous.
•  Figure out when it is a good time to talk to someone or take action.
•  Find someone to help me when I need it.

A resilient child does not need all these features to be resilient, but one is not enough. A child may be loved (I HAVE), but if he or she has no inner strength (I AM) or social, interpersonal skills (I CAN), there can be no resilience. A child may have a great deal of self-esteem (I AM), but if he or she does not know how to communicate with others or solve problems (I CAN), and has no one to help him or her (I HAVE), the child is not resilient. A child may be very verbal and speak well (I CAN), but if he or she has no empathy (I AM) or does not learn from role models (I HAVE), there is no resilience. Resilience results from a combination of these features.

Children need to become resilient to overcome the many adversities they face in life including bullying at school and at home.

Resilience is one of the schools expert learner qualities and we will continue to build on our knowledge and understanding of resilience throughout the year.

 

Kind regards,

Stephanie