Self-Care & Resilience

A trusted adult is someone whose job or role is to help keep a child safe (parent, teacher, school counsellor, named family adult).+1 more

Asking for help is a normal part of taking care of myself, not something that happens only when something is wrong.

The teacher or mentor notices the student naming a specific trusted adult they could go to for help, and carrying out a simple self-care routine with supportive reminders, on most occasions when it is needed.

Early warning signs the body gives before someone is fully overwhelmed include tiredness, headache, irritability, tight chest or tummy, and losing interest in things that normally feel enjoyable.+1 more

My body signals before my mind catches up, and responding early is more effective than responding late.

The teacher or mentor notices the student naming a bodily early-warning sign in themselves — fatigue, irritability, a specific tension pattern — and selecting a practised self-care response before activation escalates, across multiple occasions.

Trusted people and services available to students at this school include the school counsellor, the school nurse, named teachers, parents or family adults, and external services appropriate to the jurisdiction.+1 more

Self-care has to work in the actual conditions of my life, and knowing who to turn to is as important as knowing what to do for myself.

The teacher or mentor notices the student articulating — spontaneously or on brief prompt — a self-care plan with context-specific strategies for both home and school, and naming two or more trusted people or services they could turn to for support, across multiple occasions.

relational repair and offering perspective-aware support

Self-care practices are most valuable precisely when they are hardest to do, and helping others maintain theirs strengthens rather than depletes my own.

The teacher or mentor notices the student sustaining their key self-care routines through genuinely stressful periods (assessment window, social friction, demanding project) without adult scaffolding, AND, on at least one observed occasion, offering a peer a specific non-directive form of support.

structural and social determinants of what self-care is realistically available

Sustainable resilience is grounded in a realistic view of my own limits — knowing when to extend myself and when to rest is as important as the ability to persevere.

The teacher or mentor notices the student sustaining self-care through extended pressure periods without prompting, seeking help when their own strategies are insufficient (neither too early nor too late), and participating in peer-group self-care norms in a way that registers as authentic rather than performative, across more than one context.

metacognitive self-direction as personal framework

Resilience is not a trait I either have or lack — it is a system I have built, which I can describe, maintain, and continue to develop in adult life.

The teacher or mentor notices the student articulating — in a Reflection 360 conversation or spontaneous reflection — their personal resilience framework: non-negotiable self-care commitments, early-warning signals, recovery protocols, and how this framework has developed across their years at school, unprompted and with specificity.