1. Graeme Blench A vision of persistence:
Vice Principal, East Durham College
A vision of persistence:
Developing resilience in staff, sustaining professionalism in changing times

2. My learning intentions
What is meant by resilience?
What theoretical bases can be drawn upon for developing resilience in adults?
What practical strategies can we use as leaders?

3. Equality and Diversity announcement

4. All the nearby pit heaps are now either parks or golf courses.
Hurt me or mine and ‘l’ll kick your face in’
I cry very easily.
I do all the ironing and cooking.
I love the words clartes, plodge, titchy and skinchy vex.

5. Why is it important to develop resilience in teaching staff?
Briefly list some current challenges.

6. Area based review
Short notice inspections
The need for all staff to develop maths and English
Student behaviour
‘Volatile’ funding climate
Peer pressure to conform
P.A.R.D & M.E accountability measures
Changes to apprenticeship funding
The need to develop ‘work readiness’
The need to embed E & D, British Values, Prevent etc. into the vocational curriculum
The rise of mental health issues
Life, life, life, life, life, life, life

9. Why should we develop resilience in teachers?

10. But let us pause and consider:
What are the chances of you being you, now, in this place?

11. Is the development of develop resilience difficult to inculcate?
1 in 7 cardiac patients make the changes which will save them in 12 months

12. Eley et al 2013

13. What does resilience look like ?

14. What does resilience look like ?

15. What is the source of our feelings of resilience?

16. If resilience is our reaction and feeling toward adversity, what is the source of the feelings?
100 billion cells, each with
connections

17. Our brain is both unreliable but also VERY predictable
The past is a place of reference not residence; memories are deeply unreliable.

21. As leaders, what practical strategies can we use to develop resilience ?

22. Again, what practical strategies can we use to develop resilience ?

23. Develop happiness in individuals and teams- pleasure and purpose over time.
Affirmation & recognition of effort and achievement
There is ‘designed-in’ success- resources are available
Choice is promoted
Emotional needs are recognised
Sense of belonging- to team, to institution

24. 2. Develop growth mindsets- change is possible.
In performance reviews emphasise and acknowledge effort.
Allow reflection of ‘failure’ to be a safe experience
Destroy the myth of talent and focus instead upon skill development
Deploy the power of the word ‘yet’

25. 3. Sharply focus upon:
Autonomy- individual, team. Allow decisions from the trenches!
Mastery- are teachers’ skills incrementally developed throughout their careers? How?
Purpose- how purposeful are the everyday actions of teams? How purposeful is the CPD offer? Is it really bespoke?

26. 4. Use the ‘as if’ theory
Common sense tells us that the chain of causation runs like this;
You feel happy, you smile. You feel afraid, you run away.
Alternatively;
You smile, you feel happy. You run away, you feel afraid.
Systematically promote, through solutions- focused coaching the concept of action informing feelings
You cannot talk yourself out of a problem you have behaved yourself into. You can behave yourself out of that problem.

27. 4. Focus upon: Failure as a learning opportunity
Emphasis upon the purposefulness of work
Develop a sense of passion- how passionate are you as a leader?
Planned outcomes in performance review are individualised
Regular feedback on performance
CPD is linked explicitly to aspiration
Share explicitly how job roles fit
into a larger picture
Regular ‘challenge exceeding skill
level practice

29. Thank you very much for staying.