St Bernard’s Lower Primary school recently completed  its ‘Resilience Through Sport’ sessions.

A statement from the Government follows below:

Every year, St Bernard’s Lower Primary school holds a series of sessions on building resilience to  ensure that this crucial mindset remains part of the school’s core culture. This is done through the  school’s annual resilience through sport basketball tournament which this year took place on  Thursday 25th November and was the culmination of six weeks’ work, specifically on understanding  and building resilience through PE and PSHE sessions. The basketball sessions have involved  teachers, led by acting SENCo Shaireen Nixon, working together with Coach Brian from the  Gibraltar Amateur Basketball Association. 

During sporting activities, children naturally experience success and disappointment which help  them begin to confront challenges and build team spirit. The feelings and emotions that emerge are  used to explore resilience within a ‘circle-time’ at the end of each PE session. These idea-generating  discussions are complemented with stories during class time where book characters demonstrate  resilience and the children are encouraged to reflect on how they can all handle problems and think  about possible solutions. 

The school motto is ‘Be Resilient’ as the whole staff feel very strongly that a resilient mindset and a  ‘can-do’ attitude results in helping individuals cope with stress in a positive way. COVID-19 has  pushed families to the limit, so having clear steps to follow when things get hard helps people both  young and old feel more in control of their situation and helps us deal with change and loss more  effectively. 

St Bernard’s resilience steps are: 

1. Identify the problem 
2. Think about solutions 
3. Keep trying and never give up! 

Parents are encouraged to use the same sort of language which can help children build resilience  and enable them to grow into strong, confident individuals who are able to face difficulties and  succeed.