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The ‘Building stress Resilience in Early Adolescents’ Lives’ (BReal) project aimed to create evidence-based resources to improve young people’s resilience, and enable them to develop skills to cope with everyday challenges.

BReal logo

A joint public-engagement project between the Department of Psychiatry, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience and the Department of Experimental Psychology, ‘BReal’, has released a lesson plan pack for secondary schools, ahead of its formal end in December. The Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association accredited project began in July 2020, and was led by Associate Professor Jacinta O’Shea from the Department of Psychiatry.

Evidence suggests adolescence is a critical stage for brain development and learning to control stress. During this time, connections are strengthening between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, which help control responses to stress. The BReal project sought to support students and teachers in making these connections healthy and strong to help coping with stress.

Associate Professor Jacinta O’Shea said:

Early adolescence is a key time for brain development. It’s a period in which students experience a lot of change, which can be exciting but also stressful.  The lessons aim to educate students about how their brains work and help them develop skills to cope with everyday challenges, like learning from mistakes and dealing with stress. The content is grounded in evidence-based research from neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry." 

The lesson plan pack has been made available to download for free, and has been awarded the PHSE’s Quality Mark for educational resources. Aimed at key stage three students, each lesson plan is accompanied by teacher guidance slides and student activities.

BReal was funded by a public engagement grant from Wellcome via the University of Oxford's Enriching Engagement scheme.