Can we STEER pupils on the road to resilience?
I have always wanted to focus on the idea of resilience rather than purely on anxiety and mental health. This is why I was so interested in attending a course on AS Tracking and the idea that we can monitor pupils mental and emotional wellbeing, pick up on signals, set up sign posts and help pupils before any kind of mental health issue ever actually manifests. The ideas of what the course is saying is nothing new; it resolves around good pastoral care, pupils working with their tutors and Houseparents and good, clear, SMART action plans. The difference is that it offers early warning signs and the really helpful data is on pupils that often slip through the net until too late - the hyper vigilant pupil. Those pupils that care so much about everything that they overwork their hypocampus part of their brain, leading to burn out and ultimately an increased risk of mental health issues. The largest growth of mental health issues are in affluent teenage girls (those that are hyper vigi...