Building resilience without damaging self-esteem can be a difficult task. By providing opportunities for our children to fail, we might forget how the stress of failure can affect self-esteem.

Exercise

We all know that we could do with extra opportunities for physical exercise, so take it up alongside your children. It will counteract any effects of stress that might arise when building resilience in our children.

Relaxation

Easier said than done? Well, if time is a pressure, as I’m sure that it is in your classroom, then simply introduce meditation after unstructured times. Examples of meditation for children online are plentiful - and the ones that talk you through it will allow you to join in alongside your pupils. What could be easier than that? As well as providing an opportunity to combat stress, it is also a nice way to transition from breaktimes and lunchtimes.

Animal therapy

Surely it’s time that we looked into this more. In my experience, chickens work well for combating the stressors of school life and you might have even read about the Varndean Goats recently (bit.ly/VarndeanGoats). Not a fan of goats or chickens? Then try reading to dogs. A whole host of people volunteer their time - and dogs - to go into schools and provide opportunities for children to read to their animals (bit.ly/SchoolDog).

Atmosphere

As a teacher, your management team sets the atmosphere for you to work in and you set the atmosphere for your children to work in. The more positive you are when building resilience and the more you build an atmosphere in which mistakes don’t stress the children, the more they will trust you to support them when they make mistakes.

Relationships

If children trust you not to judge them when they make mistakes, they will trust you to build their resilience. I appreciate that putting your children under stress doesn’t sound like a very nice concept, but it is part of daily life. We need to support our children to build the resilience that they need to become well-rounded and fulfil their potential.

Tracey Lawrence is assistant headteacher and specialist leader of education in social, emotional and mental health at Danemill Primary School in Leicester