Ipswich headteacher Ruth Coleman wins £20,000 from Let teachers SHINE for pioneering resilience project

A pioneering project to develop young children’s personal, social and emotional resilience has secured an Ipswich headteacher £20,000.

The Highfield Resilience Tracker, designed by Ruth Coleman, headteacher for Highfield Nursery School, has been given an award by Let Teachers SHINE.

The funding will enable the scheme to be rolled out to 66 nurseries that feed into 22 Co-op Academy primary schools in Greater Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Merseyside.

Originally developed before Covid-19, Ruth and her team recognised the increased need for the resilience tracker due to post-pandemic struggles with communication and self-control.

It gave staff a way to monitor, support, and provide early interventions to help children catch up.

Ruth believes early intervention would bring long-term benefits for children.

She said: “The goal is to start building resilience before children even start reception. The earlier you do this work with families and children, the bigger dividends it pays out.

“If we can get them to a higher starting point at reception, we know we’ve set them on the right foot in their education.

“We know that the pandemic has undoubtedly had an impact on children’s prime areas of learning.

“A higher proportion of children joining nursery or reception are below age-related expectations.”

“Early years staff report that areas of learning and development most affected have been personal, social and emotional.”

The tracker sees each child’s development recorded by their teacher on an Excel sheet, which allows staff to monitor and respond to children’s perception of themselves over time.

Teachers are taught simple, effective techniques to support parents and help them build their child’s resilience at home.

Ruth hoped working alongside families would create strong relationships with caregivers during the child’s early years.

Support from parents and practitioners made a difference in how children grow and succeed, Ruth said.

Regarding winning the award and the £20,000, Ruth added: “I was absolutely thrilled. It’s amazing to be able to make a difference to those communities.

“Over two years our project will work with 22 schools and 66 pre-schools – that’s an enormous number of children who can be positively impacted.”

“It’s really encouraging to see something I’ve developed being recognised in this way by SHINE, and it motivates me to continue refining and expanding the project.”

SHINE has run the contest since 2012.

Ruth is one of several winners sharing a pot of £175,000.