If you’re not working in a school or don’t have a school to share this with, delete this, with my apologies for bothering you. However, most of you are connected to a school in one way or another…
Would you like me to come to your school and spend the afternoon with a whole year group of Y7, Y8, Y9 or Y10? Or a combination of two year groups as long as not more than 100 or so students?
Well, act fast because I have been rash enough to write this post and might regret it. (I have a personality trait – call it strength or weakness, as I can’t decide – which means I tend to act on an idea without thinking. It’s the only extrovert element of my make-up.)
After many years, I recently decided to stop (almost) doing workshops and visiting schools, except for the occasional training day and online parent/staff talks. Trouble is, as soon as I make a decision like that, I get a lovely invitation and the word “yes” mysteriously comes out of my keyboard. Not only that, there’s a brand-new resilience workshop I’ve recently created from scratch and I would love to share it more widely than with the lucky school I created it for. Creating a new workshop always takes many days, so it feels as though I should try to use it again.
That workshop was booked months ago, before I decided to (almost) hang up my workshopping hat. It was postponed when my father died last autumn. And then some other dreadful stuff happened and I wasn’t sure I could pick myself up. But resilience isn’t about not feeling dreadful when awful stuff happens – it’s about how you get back up afterwards. That’s what I can do. If I can’t be resilient, who can? And after the last three years which have tested me to the limit – even without Covid – I have a lot to share about resilience.
So, I started preparing this brand-new workshop. And I love the material in it so much that I don’t only want to do it once!
Here’s my offer – and it’s only for 2022, because after that I really am (probably) stopping school visits.
The YOU CAN BE RESILIENT workshop
Content:
- Understanding resilience- what is it and what isn’t it, what it gives us
- Validating negative feelings – everyone feels bad sometimes; reactions to negative events
- Knowing yourself – so you can be your own first responder; knowing your trigger points and your physical and mental reactions
- Assessing your anxiety state now using biofeedback; checking and correcting your breathing
- Strategies for dealing with “bad things” and growing from them – the triage approach (This is unique to my work)
- Practical application – how you would help a friend
- Table of Wellbeing – refilling your well of wellbeing for future physical and mental strength (also unique to my work)
- Introducing the 12-sided dice activity (also unique to my work)
- Q&A; what we have learnt; students receive a postcard (unique to me!) with tips to put by their bed
- Students leave feeling positive, empowered, reassured and excited about their ability to grow resilience
Details:
- Two hours and 15 minutes with a very short break
- If you choose a morning slot, earliest start time would be 10.00 as I need to travel there
- Needs to be not more than 2.5 hours travelling each way from me (I’m in NE Northants, 20 miles from Peterborough) – so this includes London, Nottingham, York (just), Birmingham, Leicester, Cambridge
- Some teachers would be required to work with groups on activities – I suggest usually one teacher per 20 students but this is up to you. Some participants need more support than others and you know your students.
- Cost – £560, no VAT, PLUS 30p per student (to cover the postcard and the small testing strip which we use for a biofeedback activity); plus travel costs agreed in advance.
Interested? Want to know more?
Contact me through the Speaking Page. Think ahead – I’m taking bookings for Sept, though I do have one or two before then. Always worth starting a conversation even if you’re not sure yet.