Resilience Revolution - Community of Practice

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Community of Practice

COPs are:-

‘Groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly’

Etienne and Beverly Wenger‐Trayner (2015) Communities of practice a brief introduction. Wenger Traynor

Right at the beginning of the Resilience Revolution the Blackpool Schools Community of Practice decided on their shared interest; ‘ A commitment to improve practice to ensure that schools can work effectively themselves and with other agencies to raise the resilience of all children and their families in Blackpool’

What happened at the Community of Practice 23rd January 2019?

Vicky Cadwallader, the amazing Resilience Champion from Norbreck Primary, spoke about the impact of the Resilience Revolution in her school. She wanted to share their learning journey and the Resilience Revolutions impact on the school and pupils.

So what was the impact?

· Staff are using the Pyramid of Need system with their pupils to identify need and put support in place for students who would otherwise be missed

· Bounce Forward, a 10 week programme on resilience by Lancashire Mind, successfully introduced the language of the Resilience Framework and resilient moves that pupils can make to build their resilience

· A successful and engaging parent meeting was held to talk about the Resilience Revolution. This then spread the word across the parent community at Norbreck, helping parents understand and engage with the language and ideas their children were bringing home

· The pupil Resilience Committee has had influence through the pupil audit process and co-production groups. Directly informing action plans for change across the school, how fantastic for pupils to be this involved in the running of their school!

· The Resilience Committees supported a successful Innovation Fund bid to Headstart and the Lottery, for a quiet space where life skills could be developed called ‘The Retreat’, and……………….Rory the school therapy dog. The pupil committee felt strong responsibility of not wanting to let the school down, along with nervous excitement. Lots of opportunities to build resilience!

· The school noted that they have experienced a culture shift where people talk more openly about resilience and mental health, along with families now being more involved in the Resilience Revolution

· Vicky said the whole experience has created a good ideas arena where a performance target for staff includes embedding the framework! Good work Norbreck

Nick Webster the brilliant Resilience Champion for St Cuthbert’s came to share their Innovation Fund journey and how they have been building resilience through outdoor spaces.

So what has been the impact?

· The pupil Resilience Committee helped map all areas of the Resilience Framework against a new outdoor space, ownership and responsibility has been held by pupils, very empowering for them!

· Lunchtime staff collated observational data around the amount of difficulties children were experiencing at playtimes due to lack of stimulating activities / equipment to engage the children, this very importantly fed in to the decision making

· The school committee visited other outdoor spaces as researchers. They recorded their ideas. Responsibility and planning were key skills developed here, well done guys!

· A voting system around decision making for staff and parents took place, creating joint ownership

· As a result of all this great work the school has planned and developed a new climbing frame, a wildlife area, and an outdoor story chair/staging area for resilience role plays! Wow!

· The pupil committee are currently co-producing the rules for using the climbing frame a break times, as I’m sure you will agree this is of paramount importance

Claire Walsh HeadStart Academic Resilience Approach Facilitator came to discuss how we need to record all the great practice going on in our schools AND understanding the difference between ‘beating the odds and changing the odds’

So what did Claire help everyone to understand?

· What is ‘beating the odds and changing the odds’ and why is it important to know the difference

· For instance an example of beating the odds would be; a young person is late to school again because they could not afford the bus fair and has had to walk. Beating the odds would be to give that person bus fare. Changing the odds would be looking at why public transport is not affordable for families across Blackpool and campaigning for change!

· Another example could be working with individual young people in a school to help them manage their anxieties and worries about SATs – this is beating the odds. A changing the odds approach could be, what if you looked at making all children less worried about SATs? Or looking at schools structures and systems that may impact and increase anxiety and staff anxieties being passed on to pupils, what could the SLT at this school do to change the odds for many?

· There is also ‘supercharged’ changing the odds. A local businessman may offer support at their gym for a young person who was facing tough times. This would be beating the odds for one young person, however… if they then opened this offer of free access to any young person facing disadvantaged and/or difficult circumstances this becomes changing the odds! Then if this business owner is working alongside the business community to ask businesses what changes they can make to help young people facing tough times – that’s supercharged!

· One final example……. Having food in your desk to give to a young person who hasn’t eaten before school. This is beating the odds strategy, whereas changing the odds asks up to think about starting a breakfast club for all children at school, supercharged would ask why, and do something about, the systems that mean local families can’t afford breakfast.

Kim Skinner Headstart Academic Resilience Approach Facilitator came to discuss the writing of a school wide framework, designed to aid the organisation of a school through a resilience lens!

So what’s being developed?

· A new resilience framework for schools is being co-produced, so discussion and ideas are crucial

· Blackpool schools were asked if they wanted the framework to be a mixed economy which blends resilient moves and resilience based outcomes, a need for flexibility was fed back as the economy of choice

· The group also discussed what they thought was missing from the previously co-produced draft, many new ideas were added in here, most of which will be added to the final framework, watch this space…

· We went on to look what should be removed and how schools might use the framework. This was true co-production in action, we can’t wait to share the final piece of work!

Our next Community of Practice is Thursday 4th July 1.30pm – 3.30pm @ the Grange – let us know if you want to come along!

To find out more about any of the fantastic work above, please contact kerry.burrow@blackpool.gov.uk

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