Resilient Decisions
Resilient Decisions — Because Good Decisions Start With a Healthy Mind Adolescence is the moment young people start shaping their own lives. This curriculum helps them do it well. Resilient Decisions is a five-lesson Year 10 curriculum that brings the full arc of Healthy Minds learning to bear on one of the most critical skills of adult life — making good decisions. At a time when young people are growing in independence and beginning to navigate genuinely complex choices, it equips them with the self-awareness, communication skills and psychological fitness to think clearly and act wisely. Pupils explore how to handle ambiguity and complexity, how to assess risk and opportunity, and how to communicate assertively when decisions are hard. Crucially, the curriculum doesn't shy away from the real decisions young people face — including in romantic relationships — treating them as capable, thoughtful individuals who deserve honest, respectful education. A healthy mind is the foundation of sound decision-making. By Year 10, pupils have built a substantial toolkit of resilience skills — this curriculum shows them how those skills apply directly to the choices in front of them, now and in the future. Whatever start they've had in life, they have something to offer and the capacity to choose well. Fully representative and adaptable, so every pupil sees themselves in the material. Part of the Bounce Forward Healthy Minds suite — evidence-based, developmental, and built for real life.
Lessons
5 lessons in this module.
Ambiguity, Complexity and Independent Thinking
The opening lesson of the Resilient Decisions series introduces students to decision-making in the context of ambiguity — situations where there is no clearly "right" answer. Through a drawing activity with a surprise marking scheme, personal dilemmas in pairs, and group dilemma discussions, students experience first-hand the discomfort of uncertainty and begin exploring how resilience skills can help them navigate it. The lesson closes with a breathing exercise using Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" to illustrate that all choices carry uncertainty.
Assessing Risk and Opportunity
This lesson applies the ABC model directly to risk and opportunity scenarios, showing how Gremlin Beliefs can lead to poor decisions in both directions — giving in to peer pressure on risk, or backing away from genuine opportunity. Students learn the "Hot Seat" technique for disputing Gremlin Beliefs in the moment, and explore how peer influence — positive and negative — shapes real-life decision-making.
Assertive Communication and Decision Making
This lesson returns to the assertive communication technique and extends it into the context of decision-making and negotiation. A morally complex friendship dilemma is explored through "Conscience Alley" — a physical drama activity where the class line up as pros and cons while one student walks between them as the protagonist. Students then practise assertive communication, negotiation, and empathy in small-group role plays, learning to communicate difficult decisions effectively even when others disagree.
Decision Making in Romantic Relationships
This lesson applies the resilience skills to decisions specifically within romantic relationships, including sex and relationship safety. A Yes/No/Not Sure team debate on nine morally complex statements opens the conversation, before the ABC model is used to show how Beliefs drive decisions in potentially unsafe relationship situations. Students explore the beliefs that might lead someone toward or away from having sex, and the lesson closes with clear information on the forms of relationship abuse and where to seek help.
Reviewing How We Make Decisions
The final lesson of the Resilient Decisions series consolidates everything students have learned through a creative group challenge: designing and pitching a "Decision Making App" for teenagers. This playful, competitive activity requires each group to draw on the full range of resilience skills covered across the series and articulate them in a two-minute pitch to the class. The lesson closes by summarising the five core benefits of resilience for decision-making.