'Too soft' pupils will get toughened up to help them cope with failure

[Elaine Kirk]

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Story from the

Evening Standard

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Schoolchildren will be given lessons in resilience because they have gone "soft" and don't know how to cope with failure.

Teachers across the capital are getting training to help pupils cope with austerity Britain and personal setbacks.

The move was welcomed by headteachers who said teenagers had been overprotected and now face unprecedented difficulties.

"Bounce back" experts will train teachers from 60 schools in resilience skills, 15 have so far signed up. Chris Jones, Founding Director of the Young Foundation's Resilience project, which is running the teacher training, said pupils need to learn about failure now more than ever: "In the past we probably had a harder life in some respects. We didn't take things for granted."

Dr Helen Wright, head of St Mary's Calne school in Wiltshire, said teenagers were leaving school unable to fend for themselves: "There is a danger that we wrap our children in cotton wool, we have become less tolerant of risk-taking." She added that schools were banning the type of activities that increase pupils' resilience - such as playing with conkers or in the snow.
She said: "If these silly rules persist, we will be bringing up a generation of fearful children."

....more....

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I am not sure this scheme is transparent , it seems to be cloaked.
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The move was welcomed by headteachers who said teenagers had been overprotected and now face unprecedented difficulties.

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experts will train teachers from 60 schools in resilience skills, 15 have so far signed up

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So maybe not so popular.
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The Young Foundation will hold teacher training days this month costing £195

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So a days training will furnish teachers with the skills to -
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The resilience training course lasts for eight hours and costs £195.

It is based on positive psychology and cognitive behavioural therapy, the most widely applied treatment for emotional problems.

Teachers will instill resilience in pupils aged five to 15 by encouraging optimistic thinking and managing emotions.

Teachers will show pupils how to make and keep friends, to set goals and to value honesty and respect.

They will learn not to be happy with failure but to accept it and learn from their mistakes.

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8hrs training to start practising cognitive behavioural therapyis a red flag , cognitive behavioural therapy is controversial and is known to have adverse consequences in non neuro typical children, how is a teacher who attended an 8hr workshop going to know when their coaching is having an adverse effect? .
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I think I will go have a look at the YoungFoundation
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I would be interested to read comment from anybody with knowledge of cognitive behaviour therapy.
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[llondel]

So what happened to the previous government's policy that everyone must be a winner?

[mirky]

£195 to bully children into a one-size-fits-all mould??? Looks like a bargain :/

[Elaine Kirk]

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This comes hot on the heels of the
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Nine yr olds to be taught Nursery Rhyme based exercises

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Methinks there is a pot of taxpayers cash being made available that these outfits are funded from if they come up with schemes.

[Elaine Kirk]

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Oh fancy that - just spotted a DfE tweet
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It leads you to a doc by
Better Outcomes New Delivery which is tagged as 'A consortium led by Young Minds
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Best Practice Exchange

Purpose
The purpose of these Exchanges is to:
Update participants on what is happening to emotional and mental health support
services for children and young people across the country, including new ways of
commissioning and providing early intervention services.
Share examples of best practice in relation to improving children and young people's
mental health and well being, including what was learnt from the Targeted Mental Health in
Schools Programme (TAMHS) how it can be applied across different settings and contexts.
Promote and share case studies in which schools and partners have improved emotional
health and wellbeing of children and young people
Identify practical, cost effective ways for developing and delivering future support.
Demonstrate ways in which the Voluntary and Community Sectors can begin to build
capacity and improve health and learning outcomes for children and young people in local
settings including schools
Facilitate learning and partnership working. Elicit feedback that will build upon the
emerging evidence and provide baseline themes and categories for further “best practice”
investigation within the BOND project.

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So how big is the money pot they are swarming round?
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[sapna]

There's a much cheaper and easier way for teachers to show children the value of honesty and respect.

[s836apg]

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." ,

Westward Ho, Samuel Beckett 1983.

Over the past 5 years I have failed at quite a number of projects and ideas.
Probably about 5 or 6 big, disappointing failures. But business is better than ever; despite that; because of that.

Do they teach that stuff at school?
Can most schoolteachers recognise that? Are they allowed to fail? Obviously and openly?

R

[Polly]

It takes a lot longer than an 8 hour session to learn about any type of psychological therapy, trying to administer one after a mere 8 hours is very irresponsible IMHO These therapies are not to be messed with, they can seriously mess with a child's head if they aren't careful - or even if they are!

Why is it that almost every rent seeker is able to teach an * hour session of psychological claptrap and gain a pile of taxpayer's cash whilst sending teachers back with half-baked ideas to administer/deliver/inflict on their unsuspecting pupils?
surely the fact that the last 20-odd years of claptrap hasn't worked would be a signal that SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE? When the Donkey is dead there's no point in kicking it harder, it won't work!

Teachers will show pupils how to make and keep friends, to set goals and to value honesty and respect.

Ahh bless! Are they giving out huge quantities of Playdoh to make the friends out of? As if teachers are going to have extra hours in the day for all this malarky on top of everything else they are supposed to be doing
And as for honesty and respect, why should pupils learn about honesty and respect? there's precious little of it in Parliament, the Banks or the Utilities. Have these people never heard of Leading By Example?

[Diane]

Polly, you always say such a lot of important and true things with such style.

Thank you.

Diane

[Sheila Struthers]

Australian article on a similar theme:

Expert to help kids be happy