The foundation stone
Teaching students Years 5-8 to strive with resilience and grit.
The Foundation Stone programme is for student’s years 5-8 created to introduce the importance of resilience and grit through age-appropriate and relatable scenarios, e.g. overcoming the feeling of failure from an exam. Demonstrating the importance of being confident, driven and setting goals.
We believe that these skills are crucial to reinforce at this stage in a student’s life as this is when they develop individual interests, personal beliefs and new levels of emotional awareness.
Resilience and grit assist character progression by being a key attributes in multiple areas of life. This can be seen through the encouragement of motivation and social skills which COVID19 disrupted, growth of self-esteem to act independently as well as promoting positive mindsets such as setting achievable goals, becoming more open to help and innovative thinking.
The Origin
What is The Foundation Stone?
Working with Wychavon District Council, Worcestershire County Council and local junior/middle schools, Milford Research and Consultancy Ltd has developed a school engagement framework, which enables businesses to support student development and confidence at an early age. It was also noted that there are many transition points in a school student’s journey in the education system. this programme targets transition points from junior and middle to high school and supporting Key Stage 2 and 3 (ages 9/10 to 13/14).
The qualities developed in The Foundation Stone
What Is Resilience and Grit?
To be resilient means to be robust and adaptable in the face of adversity: to be able to resist being affected by difficulties, and when we cannot help being affected, having the ability to ‘bounce back’ quickly (Beale & Konstantinou, 2023). Resilient individuals, families and communities are more able to deal with difficulties and adversities than those with less resilience (Public Health England, 2014). This general concept of resilience is also known as psychological resilience.
Academic resilience is a student’s ability to effectively deal with and adapt to academic challenges and adversity in educational settings and their capacity to overcome chronic or acute adversities in such settings that would constitute major obstacles to academic success (Martin & Marsh, 2009). Studies illustrate that developing academic resilience can improve students’ life chances by increasing academic achievement and supporting their wellbeing. Academic resilience is a notable indicator of enjoyment of school, class participation and general self-esteem (Martin & Marsh, 2006)
Grit – Setbacks, challenges and pressures are part of the ordinary course of life (Martin & Marsh, 2009). These are everyday difficulties experienced by the many which can impact our emotional and physical health. For example, all students make transitions between different Key Stages; some change schools during an academic year; many will receive grades (predicted or actual) below expectations; and some must adjust their plans following academic performance.
Location and how to get involved
Piloting the Programme
Bengeworth CE Academy was one of the first schools used to pilot the programme to ensure its suitability for a regional rollout. Alongside testing the impact on the students resilience and their building of grit; the programme will be tested to ensure that it dove-tails into existing schemes, for example, the Power-Up! Mentor programme, Confidence+ programme and the BOSS programme all of which are already in the region (listed alongside).
If you believe you or a school you know would like to be involved, please contact us for more information. Help us grow children’s self belief today!
