Resiliency is one of the biggest protective factors for mental health and wellbeing.  However, it’s hard to really know what resiliency is in a practical sense.  It is interesting to know that resilience is not always just the idea of “getting on with it” during tough times or being okay in the face of adversity.  Rather, resilience is our ability to acknowledge, during challenging times, that things are hard and that this is making us feel distressed at times.  It’s about acknowledging the fact that we are struggling during hardship, facing our vulnerabilities rather than avoiding these feelings, and then giving those thoughts and feelings space whilst continuing to then, as we say, “get on with it”.  Basically, resilience is not the absence of struggle during adversity, but rather it is the acknowledgement and acceptance of our own struggle /distress during adversity. 

At St Columban’s College, we aim to teach and foster children’s resiliency though, first and foremost, modelling it in our teachers and wider staff.  We also build children up to be able to acknowledge their own challenging thoughts and feelings in a validating and safe environment, whilst then equally showing them healthy ways to cope and manage these.  Students also have the ability to engage in peer support programs like StC Shed, which allow students to feel comfortable in their vulnerability around their peers and teachers, not only teaching them comfortability with feelings, but also compassion for others experiences (which ultimately also validates the human experience for them).