The Academic Resilience Approach (ARA)ARA developed by Angie Hart and Lisa Williams, adopted by YoungMinds, is different to other resilience ‘programmes’ in that it is not concerned simply with supporting pupils to acquire skills to make them more resilient in the face of adversity nor is it a structured, prescriptive programme.  The ‘system-wide’ focus of ARA aims to build resilience into the very structures that support pupils helping them “to beat the odds but also to change the odds.” (Hart and Gagnon)ARA ensures that everyone:

1. Understands which approaches to building resilience have a good evidence base

2. Have the tools and capacity to evaluate whether those approaches will meet their specific needs and context

3. Initiate changes to practice that directly benefit young people

Monitor changeWhole school

communityCreate baseline for measuring change

School Development Plan

Audit - How are we doing?What can we improve?

----use data----prepare for targeted support

----Evidence base----What works

Identify who is at risk if you do not ‘step up’ your

support

Understand academic resilience and what it would look like in your school

SLT FeedbackThis is conducted as a semi-structured interview between Young Minds and members of the SLT; whoever you deem to be relevant and important to this work. The interview will explore:

needs across the whole school community,

how vulnerability is assessed and shared across the school population,

the resilient practices already in place,

barriers and challenges across the system,

initial priorities.

The aim of this interview is to identify key themes and areas of focus that you will then take forward into your whole school action plan. It also builds SLT buy in around this work.

Whole Staff FeedbackWe want every member of the school staff to have the chance to contribute to this work through reflections and ideas. The whole staff survey asks a series of questions aiming to identify:

What works – what are the school already doing really well? How do they know it has impact?

Where might there be areas where the school could do more?

What ideas are there?

This is handed out and completed in groups (typically after the staff INSET where motivation should be fresh). These are then collated by you to feed into the whole school action plan.

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Identifying vulnerability You will be supported to carry these out with members of the SLT in order to identify how pupil vulnerability is monitored and shared in the school. School data programmes are used to create vulnerability indices and a pyramid of need, which can enable all staff to 'look out' for children and families and support them appropriately.

Pupil Voice Focus GroupThe focus groups involve 6-10 children (ideally NOT the children who will be your resilience Champions). The needs assessment of the children and young people is carried out with a scenario about a vulnerable child and how s/he would cope in the school. This information and feedback then feeds into your whole school action plan.

Whole School Action Plan

Plan

Staff TrainingTraining is tailor made for each school to best meet the needs of your staff. Topics for introductory INSETs or additional training may include:

Introduction to Mental Health – theory, research and terminology

Academic Resilience – how to support children in the classroom and beyond

Vulnerability Indices and Pyramid of Need

System Change Staff Wellbeing Supporting

Parents and

Do

Resilience Champions

Resilience Champions is a programme run for6-8 students in your school who you identify as a focus area through the staff, SLT and student feedback. Young Minds provide you with a programme of session plans. You may choose to run this yourself as the lead in your school, or this may be an opportunity you give to an LSA or another member of staff.

Engage with parentsYoung Minds will provide you with a resource pack to share with parents. All you need to do is send it out and record how many parents it has gone to.

Communities of Practice (CoPs)A CoP is developed in each school or across clusters of schools. Other members of the local community and services are invited to participate, including school nurses, police, CAMHS, YOS, other HS providers, local authority. Each CoP decides upon its own outcomes and products. YoungMinds facilitates these, enabling members to identify and share best practice, deepen their understanding of resilience, analyse the processes by which schools can build more resilient systems and staff groups.

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