College students get resilience training

When Upile Mtitimila got an E in his AS-level law exam, there was every possibility he might have been so de-motivated that he "rusted out": that is, he could have given up and become disengaged from his studies. Yet the poorer-than-expected grade led to him redoubling his efforts, and when he took the exam a second time, he got an A. He is planning to study history at university when he finishes upper sixth at the end of the academic year.

But not every student has Upile's natural ability to bounce back, especially in an increasingly competitive age. Now his sixth-form college, Winstanley College in Orrell, Lancashire, has introduced resilience training based on a model developed in industry. It aims to help sixth-formers - and their tutors -cope with the transition from secondary school to university, via the pressures of A-levels.

Winstanley is a high-achieving, selective college. It is oversubscribed and has a retention rate of 98%. As getting a place at university becomes more and more competitive, the college has given some thought to how to make sure its students have that edge to succeed while avoiding burn-out. "All our students are very able and high-achieving," says Jo Bailey, the principal. "They have high expectations and there is the potential for hot-housing. We are constantly taking the temperature to ensure it is healthy and manageable."

Bailey says that sometimes students at secondary school are spoonfed by their teachers and can find the transition to A-level, when they have to work independently and use their own initiative, quite difficult. "It is a learning curve, and because we cannot remove the pressure, they have to develop coping strategies."

It was Fran Pridham, assistant principal and head of student support, who introduced the idea of resilience training to the college. "We want to support and challenge students simultaneously," she says. Students are under more pressure than ever. "We've refined A-levels to the nth degree, and there are endless exams in January and June, plus the pressure to get into a good university."

The approach in use comes from Robertson Cooper, a "business psychology" company that was originally spun out from Manchester University. Personal tutors at the college have been trained to use a pressure performance curve to identify issues among individual students. On one side of the chart is performance, with pressure along the bottom. Those with a lack of engagement or motivation are said to be at risk of "rust-out". In the middle is well-being, where performance is good and pressure manageable. At the other end of the scale is burn-out, where stressed students' resilience suffers and their performance decreases.

The college runs a "stress-busters" course involving relaxation and meditation techniques. There are coaching sessions in cognitive behaviour therapy; how students can change negative situations by altering their behaviour. All the college's personal tutors have themselves gone through a process of self-evaluation.

Mel Chadwick, the deputy principal, says the transition from secondary school to sixth form is a huge cultural shift for teenagers, and there is a lot of pressure in year 11 - both academic and cultural. "We are giving 16- and 17-year-olds the techniques to deal with things when they don't go to plan," she says.

Gordon Tinline, director of Robertson Cooper, says it makes sense to start introducing students of this age to the idea of developing resilience. The company has done this sort of training in the NHS, universities, government departments and financial services. With Winstanley College, it adapted the materials to make them accessible to 16- to 18-year-olds.

One technique involves looking at celebrities and pop stars who bounce back. "We wanted to take students through the notion of resilience and get them thinking about who they may see as a role model," Tinline says.

Should other colleges be offering this sort of support? Yes, says Tinline. "There is no reason why a resilience-building approach can't be adopted by a wide range of colleges. Students with all levels of academic achievement will face a range of pressures - for example, finding work in a tough economic climate - and need to be psychologically equipped to cope with setbacks."

Laura May is another student, like Upile, who is good at bouncing back from any situation. She enjoyed making the transition from secondary school to sixth form and likes the way students are treated at Winstanley. "I didn't find it that difficult, to be honest," she says of the transition. "I feel like we are being treated as adults, and are not bombarded with rules.

"I remember getting my GCSE results [at school] and all I could think was: 'Have I got in?' It was my one goal. Now I'm here, I take everything with a pinch of salt."