Resilience Alphabet helps city’s children and young people build inner strength to cope with change

15 June 2020

An innovative support mechanism to help Aberdeen’s school pupils cope with change and build inner strength has proved to be a big hit with younger children and has now being adapted to help 13-16-year-olds.

The Resilience Alphabet, launched on 13 May, was written in collaboration between Gael Ross, Quality Improvement Manager in Aberdeen City Council’s Education Services team and Martha Simpson of Harvey McMillan Associates, and supported by the Council’s Educational Psychology Service and Education Scotland.

In just four weeks the webpage has had over 11,327 views and almost 6000 downloads.

The Resilience Alphabet, which is available on the Education Scotland website, includes ideas and activities to help children build inner strength and wellbeing. For each letter in the alphabet there is a definition of a feeling or activity associated with resilience, with positive messaging and suggestions on things to make, do or write.

The new resource for 13-16-year-olds, created by the same team, is called The Journey: Adventures in Resilience. The Journey charts the heroic journey of fictional teenager Jo and helps young people work through and express their feelings and thoughts about change by following Jo’s Journey. A useful resource for parents and teachers, it includes activities and links to useful resources at each stage of change. 

With COVID-19 presenting many challenges including multiple levels of change, and a need for young people to transition in many areas of life the tool aims to help with those transitions, by offering thinking space and ideas for exploring and navigating change at each stage.

This resource is also on the Education Scotland Website and on the Aberdeen City Parent Hub.

Councillor John Wheeler, Education Operational Delivery said: “These are challenging times for all of us and for children and young people who are already going through change in their lives it can be additionally difficult to cope.

“The resilience tools designed by Gael and partners are a fantastic means of helping young people through these difficult times and building the skills required to bounce back. My congratulations to everyone involved on a great resource which I’m sure will be equally well-received by parents and teachers, not only in Aberdeen, but across Scotland, looking to support pupils through change.”

The Resilience Alphabet can be found at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/scotland-learns/health-and-wellbeing-activities/resilience-alphabet/

The Journey: Adventures in Resilience can be accessed at:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/scotland-learns/health-and-wellbeing-activities/the-journey-adventures-in-resilience/