Bounce Back Resilience Programme

Implementation in Perth and Kinross schools

Midpoint report - August 2009

Perth and Kinross Council, through the Educational Psychology service, are currently supporting a major initiativein a large number of primary schools.

The aims of the initiative are to introduce a whole school approach to resilience using the Bounce Back programme, and to research the impact of Bounce Back on the resilience of pupils and staff. Members of the Educational Psychology team are providing training, ongoing support to schools and researching the impact of the programme. This report contains an update on the initiative, feedback from the mid evaluation and plans for future progress.

Background

Bounce Back in the context of national outcomes and local objectives

The Bounce Back Resilience Programme reflects many of the current priorities ofthe Scottish Government, for example:

“Our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed”

“We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others”

(Scottish Government National Outcomes)

The Bounce Back programme can also contribute to achieving the key objectives of Perth and Kinross Council Education and Children’s Services: to keep individuals safe and protected,to improve health and wellbeing, to develop the range and quality of learning experiences for all, raise standards ofperformance andachievement, develop active andresponsible citizens and to develop caring andconfident communities.

Bounce back in the context ofCurriculum for Excellence

The Curriculum for Excellence outlines four purposes for education: the creation of successful learners, effective contributors, responsible citizens and confident individuals. Underlying these four ‘capacities’ are a number of psychological qualities, including self-awareness, motivation and resilience. The recently published experiences and outcomes for Health and Wellbeing specifically mentions resilience as a quality that pupil’s learning environments are expected to help them develop, as well as emphasising the importance of a range of personal coping skills in fostering mental and emotional wellbeing. The Bounce Back programme can help schools meet many of these requirements and due to its cross-curricular approach fits very well with the spirit of the new curriculum.

Research on emotional well-being and resilience

There is now sound research evidence that can provide guidance on developing young people’s emotional wellbeing, resilience, confidence and self-responsibility in a robust way. An overview of research studies on resilience identifies both a child’s social environment and their internal assets (personal coping skills) as being important protective factors. Just as risks are cumulative, so are protective factors; the more are present in children’s lives, the more likely they are to display resilience.

After families, schools have been identified as the most important environments for promoting resilience. School connectedness (the feeling of belonging to a school that accepts, protects and cares about you) is associated with many positive outcomes for young people including remaining at school longer; higher grades and classroom test scores, as well as decreased risk of substance use, school absenteeism and early sexual initiation(McNeely, 2003).It is particularly important for those children who are not connected to resilient families (Rutter, 1984; Werner and Smith, 1988).School connectedness can be fostered by encouraging shared values, especiallythose of cooperation, inclusion and effective resolution of conflict, developing a culture of safety and care where no student feels threatened, giving pupils opportunities to contribute and take initiativeand placing a strong emphasis on the development of positive relationships between staff and pupils and among pupils (Whitlock, 2003).

Some of the personal coping skills that have been found to contribute to resilient attitudes and behaviour include helpful (optimistic) thinking, (Seligman, 1995), social skills and a sense of personalcompetence(Resnick et al, 1997) and having a sense of purpose and hope for the future(Bernard, 1991).

The Bounce Back Resilience Programme

The key aims of the Bounce Back programme (Noble and McGrath, 2003) are to help create positive, supportive and resilient classrooms and schools and to provide resources to enable staff to help their pupils develop resilient attitudes and behaviour.

The Bounce Back Resiliency Programme is a whole school programme aimed at helping children and young people to cope with life’s challenges. Bounce Back is a programme which originated in Australia and is widely used in Australian schools. It is based on sound psychological and educational theory and has been positively evaluated in Australia. It is a comprehensive programme that is designed to be carried out throughout primary school up to S2 with key concepts being revisited at different ages. Bounce Back is not limited to PSD but includes many cross-curricular links and emphasises active and cooperative learning. Pupils learn the life skills of resilience while pursuing many other aspects of the curriculum.

Objectives

The key stated objectives of the Bounce Back initiative in Perth and Kinross are:

  • To evaluate a pilot project which will implement the Bounce Back programme over two years in order to demonstrate the benefits for the pupils, teaching staff and Perth and Kinross Council. This will include adaptation of the Australian materials for Scotland.
  • To offer training and on-going support to all schools in Perth and Kinross who are interested in implementing this programme as part of their school development plan.
  • To carry out research into the effectiveness of the programme in these schools.
  • To coordinate the further development of the Bounce Back programme in Perth and Kinross with a view to creating a sustainable project in the long term, including the development of a support network.
  • To consider offering training in the Bounce Back programme to other Local Authorities.

Progress to date

Engagement of schools

A number of introductory presentations were provided for Headteachers and Depute headteachers during May 2008 at development days. Following this all primary schools were offered training and ongoing support with Bounce Back for those schools who wished to take the programme forward as part of their school development plan and who were willing to participate in the research programme. Headteachers of interested schools were invited to a meeting in August 2008 where they could ask questions and decide whether to proceed. Seventeen schools elected to be part of this first phase (including one pilot school which had already had training and started using the programme the previous year).

Research

Connectedness questionnaires

All pupils in Primary 3-6 in the participating schools completed classroom connectedness questionnairesbefore the programme started (Student’s Perceptions of Classroom Connectedness, McGrath and Noble, 2003).

Personal resilience questionnaires

Pupils in the primary 5 classes of all the schools also completed a questionnaire about their own resilience and coping skills (Protective Resilient Attitudes and Skills Evaluation, McGrath and Noble, 2003).

It is anticipated that teaching resilience to children may have a positive impact on adult resilience and wellbeing.To help evaluate this, teaching staff completed questionnaires about their own resilience(Resilience- My profile, adapted from Morris and Casey, 2006). The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing scale (WEMWBS) was also used, as recommended by the Scottish Government to assess programmes for mental wellbeing in adults. All the above questionnaires will be repeated in May or June 2010, once the programme has been in use over 1-2 years in all the schools.

N.B. all participants were given the option of not completing the questionnaires and parents were given the option of withdrawing their child from the research if they wished.

Focus Groups

Three focus groups were set up with randomly selected pupils from three participating schools. Each group of pupils participated in discussion around five questions relating to real life challenges. The session aimed to elicit their thoughts and actions in relation to each scenario. The scenarios will then be revisited with the same pupils in 2010 to see whether an increase in resilient responsesis evident.

Ongoing data collection

In addition to the above measures, the researchers are collecting data about the impact of the programme in an ongoing way, through link meetings with staff and network meetings with Bounce Back representatives from school.

Staff training

All teaching staff and many of the support staff in the participating schools received training before starting to use the programme. The training included information about resilience and the role schools have to play in enhancing it in children, an overview of the Bounce Back programme and opportunities to experience some of the cooperative learning activities used in Bounce Back and to think about how they may be used with their own classes. The training took place as a twilight session or as a half day on an In-service day. Evaluations of this training were very positive, with over 90% of participants rating themselves as satisfied or very satisfied with the delivery of the course aims and over 95% as satisfied or very satisfied with the presenter’s input.

Ongoing support to schools

Each of the seventeen schools participating in this first phase of the Bounce Back programme has an ongoing link with an Educational Psychologistwho offers ongoing support in the programme to staff, through termly link meetings with all staff, and being available for telephone and email contact, and helping out with Bounce Back activities, particularly contributing to information sessions or Bounce Back workshops for parents. Two Bounce Back networks have been established, one in Perth and one in Blairgowrie, at which representatives from each of the Bounce Back schools have the opportunity to meet, share ideas and resources relating to the programme.

Midpoint evaluation in pilot school

The first school in Perth and Kinross to introduce Bounce Back was halfway through the programme by January 2009 and pupils and staff at this school participated in a midpoint evaluation of the programme. This involved the researchers talking to all the staff about their experiences of the programme, and to two groups of pupilsfrom P2-P4 and P5-P7, with two pupils from each class being selected at random.

Pupils in both age groups were able to remember the coping strategies associated with each letter of the acronym and gave many examples of how they were applying these in their everyday life (see below). They had enjoyed many of the Bounce Back activities and particularly the variety ofactivities and opportunities for active and cooperative learning that the programme provided.

Future plans

2009/10 Bounce Back training

Due to a high level of demand, training in Bounce Back is being offered to a further 26 Primary schools on Inset days in session 2009-2010. These schools will not participate in the research programme. This will take the total number of Perth and Kinross Primary schools trained in Bounce Back by February 2010 to 60%.

Secondary school interest

Several secondary schools have also expressed interest in using ideas and resources from Bounce Back in the early years of secondary education. Training is being offered to a group of interested teachers from one school early in 2010 who will then take forward a pilot cross-departmental project to introduce Bounce Back in S1 and S2.

Optimistic thinking training

Further training on optimistic thinking (Unit 5 of Bounce Back) is being offered to participating schools and several schools have opted for this training next session.

Educational Psychology Annual Conference

There will be a national presentation on the implementation of Bounce Back inPerth and Kinross at the Annual Conference for Educational Psychologists in October 2009.

Bounce Back Conference

Initial plans are underway to organise a conference in May 2010 to showcase good practice from Bounce Back schools in Perth and Kinross. This conference will also be open to interested professionals from other authorities.

Post evaluation research questionnaires

In the summer term of 2010, pupils and staff will complete a repeat set of questionnaires on classroom connectedness (P4-P7) and personal resilience (staff and P6), and wellbeing (staff). Those pupils who previously took part in focus groups will be asked to do so again. There will also be evaluations of Bounce Back by some of the staff and pupils who have been using the programme. The final research report will be written in summer 2010.

Sarah Axford, Kirsty Blyth and Rita Schepens

References

Bernard, B (1991)Fostering resiliency in kids:Protective factors in the family, school and community. Western Centre for Drug-freeSchools and Communities. San Francisco, CA

McGrath,H and Noble,T (2003) Bounce Back. A Classroom Resiliency Programme Pearson Longman

McNeely C (2003)Connections to school as an indicator of positive development Paper presented at the Indicators of Positive Development Conference, Washington, DC

Morris, E and Casey, J (2006)Developing Emotionally Literate Staff Paul Chapman Publishing

Rutter, M (1984)Resilient Children. Why some disadvantaged children overcome their environments, and how we can help.Psychology TodayMarch, 57-65

Seligman, M (1995) The Optimistic Child. Random House, New York

University of Warwick and University of Edinburgh, (2006)Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) © NHS Health Scotland

Werner, E and Smith, R (1988)Vulnerable but Invincible: A Longitudinal study of Resilient Children and Youth.Adams, Bannister and Cox

Web Sources

Scottish Government National Outcomes. From

Perth and Kinross Council ECS Objectives From