How to build resilience in Year 7 and 8

On Wednesday 17 May, Year 7 and 8 took part in Croydon High’s first ever Resilience Day. Resilience has been identified as a key area of development for these year groups and a core area of focus over this last half term. Both year groups were off timetable for the day and partook in a variety of sessions aimed at developing and building their overall resilience, particularly when dealing with friendships and conflict. The pupils took part in team games, orienteering, overcoming obstacles in history and even had the opportunity to act out different scenarios in the drama workshop ‘Whats App Wars!’ In true Croydon High fashion, the day would not have been complete without a healthy dose of competition, with students tasked with working in their Houses together and completing their resilience passports over the course of the day.

The day was a huge success and we hope it will be impactful for all involved. Although all Houses rose to the occasion it was Garrett who emerged victorious much to the delight of Mr Flower, Head of House!

Below are some of the reflections from the students themselves – 

On Wednesday Year 7 and 8 had a day themed about resilience. The definition of resilience: the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. We completed a variety of activities in our Houses to learn about why resilience is important.
Sophia, Year 8

For one of our activities we did drama! We learnt about WhatsApp Wars and how to deal with conflict online. We were told to create 6 freeze frames about how the characters must have been feeling during a certain Whatsapp War. We then acted out our pieces and we moved forward to resolving and avoiding the conflict. This helped us understand resilience and how it could help us with what to do if we are ever involved in a Whatsapp War ourselves. We had only 5 minutes for each of these tasks and had to perform them to everyone in our House. Ms Krause and Ms Sigush then decided which one was the winner.
Maha, Year 7

Another thing we did on resilience day was History! We were tasked by our History teacher to make a poster on how our House leaders achieved the place and how they managed to get through it. Most of this included lots of glitter and paper scraps and I’m sure the cleaners weren’t very happy! Overall, all of the posters on Marie Curie, Mary Seacole, Mary Ann Evans (or George Eliot) and Elizabeth Garett were beautiful and made up for all the mess we made! During this session I learnt all about my House and even the small things I didn’t know really widened my mind and really made me more confident as a person.
Mariyah, Year 8

For PE, we had a competitive but fun orienteering task. We were split into groups of three with people we don’t usually talk to, which was a good opportunity to speak to others in different years or different forms. Our groups were running up and down the field looking for numbers scattered around. Everyone competed and it was great fun!
Emma, Year 8

We all had a chance to show off our beautiful artsy skills. There were pools of glitter, buckets of newspaper and bins full of felt. Art was amazing and it really gave every Year 7 and 8 student the chance to collaborate and to have resilience with the time given. It was the best opportunity to make new friends and have fun. Evans created a whole book about resilience, Secole created their dragon mascot, Curie created an acrostic poem for resilience and Garrett made posters for each letter of the word resilience. Being in Evans, I personally think Evans ruled the art competition. During this task, I really shared my opinions and I think other people got stronger at that too.
Mal, Year 7

We later did a workshop where we looked at what resilience is. We started by each writing our own definition of what we thought resilience meant – everyone competed.
Emily, Year 8

We ended off our day with an assembly to share our experiences, and what we learnt about resilience. We started off with a debrief from each of our House spokespeople. In Curie we had Livia and Anaya, in Evans we had Lula, Anna, Lovleen and Nadia, for Garrett Jessie and Zoey, and then finally for Seacole was Flo K and Amariah. All of us spoke about how we overcame issues, and how we became a Year 7 and 8 community, in front of the Head Girls and the House Captains.
Liv, Year 8

Quotes from students for Year 7:

What does resilience mean to you?

I think that resilience means that you have that perseverance and to try and try again.
Bonnie

I think it means just to keep going and not give up and even when you face hard times and difficulties, don’t let that stop you.
Emelia 

What was your favourite part of the day?

I really enjoyed that there were no lessons, and the Play Doh during the workshop with Ms Krause was super fun. Plus I got to draw a dragon with my friends!
Alessia

It was super fun making a poster, and then carrying it down the stairs with my friends to the Junior School Holt Hall!    Eleanor

Ms Caroline Krause
Head of PSHE