{"id":3671,"date":"2016-03-24T12:36:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T12:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fa\/CurriculumSupport\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2016-05-09T08:58:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T08:58:01","slug":"building-resilience-at-st-francis-xavier-school-the-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fa\/CurriculumSupport\/2016\/03\/24\/building-resilience-at-st-francis-xavier-school-the-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Building resilience at St Francis-Xavier School – the journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1749802_l\"<\/a>On Thursday 17th March 2016, Helen Quinn, primary 7 teacher, met with Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer, to describe\u00a0how\u00a0she and her colleagues at St Francis-Xavier RC PS have developed their pupils’ resilience.<\/p>\n

The journey began in 2012 with a partnership between the school and Dr Sally Paul of the\u00a0University of Strathclyde, who was then a\u00a0social worker with Strathcarron Hospice. Members of staff wanted to ensure that they were supporting pupils who had been bereaved.\u00a0\u00a0Some felt they coped by avoiding potentially emotional or upsetting conversations while others were keen to demonstrate their understanding, but\u00a0they lacked confidence in what they should and shouldn’t do and say. With Sally’s support, Helen and other members of staff, began a whole school\u00a0action research\u00a0project which continues to grow and develop in a very positive way.<\/p>\n

The process included:<\/p>\n

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  1. \u00a0academic reading<\/li>\n
  2. consultation with parents,<\/li>\n
  3. staff collaboration to create learning resources (click here<\/a> to see the progressive package used throughout the school)<\/li>\n
  4. whole school\u00a0use of the package<\/li>\n
  5. on going\u00a0review and development<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    During this process, the scope of the learning resource widened to include resilience generally, rather than specifically for supporting pupils with their ability to cope with bereavement. However, pupils showed a keen interest in learning about the “nitty, gritty” and practicalities of death – the physiological changes, causes, legal procedures and different religious customs and rituals past and present. Staff responded to this interest by creating another learning resource specific to primary 6 and 7 pupils. Click here<\/a> to view this resource. Pupils voluntarily did much more than required for a homework task as part of this unit, and parents shared\u00a0positive feelings about the value of this work, and said how worthwhile the whole project had been for their children.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_2248\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Staff would probably say that they are\u00a0 still travelling this journey with their pupils and parents.\u00a0It has become a collaborative\u00a0“action research” project which has had the following impact:<\/p>\n

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