Suggestion….Play ‘River’ by Emile Sande as the children enter assembly

“A boat is safe in the harbour, but that’s not what boats are for.” Be Resilient “A boat is safe in the harbour, but that’s not what boats are for.” (William Shedd)

Be Resilient In this unit we will cover: Everyone goes through ups and downs in their life   We can learn to be more resilient Resilient people cope better with difficulties To understand how to navigate our river, we need to understand that….

Everyone goes through ups and downs in their lives The first of these learning points is….. Everyone goes through ups and downs in their lives. Our lives, experiences, upbringing and families are all different but it would be fair to say…everyone has ups and downs!

The River of Life Sometimes we can describe the ups and downs of life as being like a river. The river of life takes everyone on a different journey, each one full of expeditions and adventures. You may want to explain the river concept further… It begins from a tiny pool in the mountains (just like a baby) The young river begins to flows quickly with lots of energy (imagine a tiny toddler off to discover the world) In the middle age of a river’s journey, it gets wider and slows down. It divides into branches (the river has grown up and has built up lots of knowledge and experiences) As it becomes an old river, it slows down and reaches the end of it’s journey

Sometimes we will find ourselves in calm waters When the river is calm, it is easy to enjoy the journey. When this happens in life, we feel like everything in our lives is going smoothly. You may want to expand on what we mean by life going smoothly

Sometimes we will find ourselves in difficult waters When the river hits rocks, rapids and obstacles, it becomes much more difficult to keep going. When this happens in life, we can find it much more difficult to cope with the ups and downs of life. Explain the rocks, rapids and obstacles in life e.g. falling out with a friend, moving house, family break ups, bereavement, being bullied...any number of unforeseen circumstances. It may be helpful to describe the surge of wild water is like being tossed about and not being able to put our feet down to steady ourselves (like being on the rapids at a waterpark!)

We can’t control what life throws at us Everyone will enjoy times in the calm waters Sometimes we will all find ourselves in difficult waters Do you know? This is a normal part of life Sometime things happen which leave us feeling up…. Discuss the pictures Sometimes other things happen which leave us feeling down…. Discuss the pictures

We are learning how to navigate the river of life I am resilient Hi, my name is Skipper Skipper is the captain of his boat sailing along the river of life. Just like you, Skipper experiences a range of ups and downs everyday. He is learning how to navigate his boat around the obstacles and has even got better at coping when his boat gets into difficulties. Introduce ‘Skipper’ – skipper is another name for captain! Skipper is resilient Skipper is going help us all to be more resilient

We can learn to be more resilient We all have different things that we use that can help to make us more resilient…. Some of the things are things that we can do automatically – others are things we need to learn

Skipper wasn’t born with an ability to navigate his way through choppy waters He had to learn the skills he needed as he grew up. Each time he met a new challenge, he developed ways to cope. He now has a range of coping strategies. The ability to deal with challenges that life throws at us is not something that we're either born with or we aren't. One of the most exciting findings from recent research is that coping strategies, like many other life skills, can be learned, practiced and honed - often with wide reaching effects on the quality of our lives

We can all learn ways to cope better with the river of life Together we are going to learn about the things that Skipper uses to help him to navigate the river of life Do you know? These things will help you the next time you hit a difficult patch of water The good news is….

Skipper has found that these ten things help him to cope with the river of life These are tools that we can add to our boat, which we can used when we are in challenging times. Even if you are not going through any particular challenges at the moment, everyone of us can benefit from stocking up on more tools and techniques for coping. We can bank them until later when we will need them. Over time we will visit each of these tools separately and learn more about them and how we can use them to help us.