Our Lady's Abingdon - Staying Afloat with Academic Buoyancy

Staying Afloat with Academic Buoyancy

Staying Afloat with Academic Buoyancy


As the end of the academic year approaches and we reflect on the most unusual of terms, it is worth reminding ourselves about the skill sets, some new, some just a bit rusty, that remote learning has prompted us all to use. Independence and resilience are two that spring to mind.

However, resilience is a term that is often used incorrectly. Resilience and grit (perseverance and passion for long-terms goals) refer to the ability to thrive and develop in the face of adversity. This week our connectED and PSHCE pupils were tasked with drawing a poster for International Women in Engineering Day.

With women representing only 12% of the UK’s engineering workforce, the ability to be resilient and demonstrate grit must feature quite high in their skillset. One such example was Margaret Partridge, a remarkable woman who, in the absence of employment opportunities for women in the engineering sector after World War One, set up and ran a successful electrical engineering business of her own and used it as a platform to support women engineers in their careers.

I have included a poster this week from a student who pointed out the value of Ada Lovelace’s mathematical skills to the world of engineering. I particularly like the quote, which is full of self belief, a character trait that lies at the heart of resilience.

Whilst resilience is important when working towards longer term goals, there is a different type of resilience, an academic-centred subset of resilience that helps us to understand that success is incremental and that learning takes time and effort. Researchers state that a more accurate term for this resilience is Academic Buoyancy.

Academic buoyancy is the ability to successfully deal with academic setbacks and challenges that are ‘typical of the ordinary course of school life. These might include dealing with patches of poor performance, typical stress levels and daily pressures, threats to confidence and dips in motivation
and engagement. Nothing then, that we have not encountered during remote learning!

In a book published this week entitled Becoming Buoyant, Author Marc Smith, builds upon previous research by the University of Oxford, when he suggests the idea of The 5C’s in enabling students to develop their academic buoyancy. The 5C’s refer to Composure, Confidence, Co-ordination, Commitment and Control.

Composure is concerned with managing every day anxieties by removing the fear of failure concept, the idea of failing forward that I referred to in an earlier blog.

Confidence refers to students believing in themselves in specific situations and developing a Power of Yet attitude; I am unable to do this yet.

Co-ordination is in reference to managing workloads in a coordinated way and avoiding procrastination, a concept we all find difficult at times.

Commitment refers to persistence with academic studies, an area which can be more easily achieved by having a broadened mindset underpinned by positive thoughts.

Control is about ownership of learning, where the focus is on the student’s individual improvement and development.

The author also hints at a highly important 6th C, that of Community. The OLA community, families and the wider environment all serve to support the development of the other strands.

If students can learn to become more buoyant in their everyday school activities and in their academic studies, they will become more resilient individuals in later life.

Being thrust into the remote learning experience has meant that we have all developed our own degrees of academic buoyancy. In many ways this concept is merely putting a label on the coping strategies that we have all used during this difficult time. However, the idea of becoming more buoyant in our everyday encounters, whether at home, in our work or at school, is an important one and is more than just a tag. We do not yet know what the start of the next academic year will bring, so looking to develop The 6 C’s further will be more important than ever.

I began this blog with a focus on women’s resilience, so it is fitting that I finish it with some quotes from a UN article on this very topic.

I would like to wish all families a restful weekend and don’t forget to check-out the latest W.OR.L.D Awards for our pupils below. Congratulations everyone!

W.O.R.L.D Awards