Girls’ resilience in the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential Program
Girls’ resilience in the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential Program
This report explores responses from one cohort of Year 9 students who attended the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley residential program in Term 3, 2024. It focuses on the measure of resilience through quantitative and qualitative data and investigates the results of one specific cohort. This report identifies growth in resilience in this cohort following the Vision Valley Residential Program in three measures (Approach to Challenges, Self Efficacy and Relationship Building) with the strongest growth in students’ ability to face challenges.
VICTORIA ADAMOVICH AND DR SARAH LOCH
Girls’ resilience in the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential Program
INTRODUCTION
We are interested in understanding how the outdoor education residential program at the College’s outdoor campus, Vision Valley, can contribute to students’ resilience. This is significant in the educational and wellbeing goals of Pymble Ladies’ College because resilience is an important character trait that helps individuals buffer the effects of adversity (Aspelmeier, Budbill & Whittington, 2015). A major focus of research on resilience identifies the psychological characteristics (e.g. emotional stability, selfefficacy, confidence) and situational characteristics (e.g. social support, positive relationships) shared by resilient individuals (Ahern, 2006; Cooper et al., 2004; Hjemdal et al., 2011). The analysis of our students’ resilience data is important for staff of the Vision Valley campus and the Upper School (Year 9 to 10) as we can increase our understanding
of ways the residential program contributes to building the important trait of resilience in girls.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Does students’ sense of resilience increase after a residential program?
2. What do students understand by ‘resilience’ and what factors of the residential program contribute to building resilience?
HOW DID WE CONDUCT THE RESEARCH?
To measure the sense of resilience of students on the Vision Valley residential program (VVRP), we use the Adolescent Girls’ Resilience Scale (AGRS) (Whittington & Aspelmeier, 2018). The AGRS was one of the instruments specifically selected when we commenced research into the VVRP with researchers from the School of Education at Western Sydney University. This research is
available here. The 34-item AGRS questionnaire is designed to assess the impact of outdoor education on young women. It is comprised of three subscales: Approach to Challenges; Self-Efficacy and Relationship Building. Each cohort of students attending the VVRP (from 2022 to 2024) has been surveyed with the same instruments piloted in 2022. Pleasingly, we have noted consistent increases in the AGRS scores when comparing pre- and post-program surveys from 2022, 2023 and for the Term 1 and Term 2 cohorts in 2024.
For the 2024 Term 3 post-program data collection, a change was made to the survey with the addition of three open-text questions. This allowed for qualitative responses from the students to help us explore how students understand the notion of resilience. In these questions, students were invited to reflect on what factors of the program they
Table 1: Summary of Residential Program at Vision Valley Term 1-4, 2024
Open-text box (qualitative student responses on resilience sub-scales)
would attribute to an increased sense of resilience, specifically on their approach to challenges, self-efficacy and skills in relationship building.
WHO ARE THE PARTICIPANTS?
The data in this report comes from students in the Term 3 2024 VVRP cohort only. This girls-only cohort had 67 attendees, with 56 girls consenting to participate in the research and completing both the pre- and post-program questionnaires. Table 1 provides information about the four programs run in 2024. The questionnaires were administered on iPads on arrival and before departure at Vision Valley, overseen by Vision Valley staff.
WHAT IS THE VISION VALLEY RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM?
Commencing in 2022, the Vision Valley Residential Program (VVRP) has taken over three hundred Year 9 girls from Pymble Ladies’ College
through a four-week, full time, residential program rich in outdoor education opportunities. Students in this year group (14-16 years) spend the month in the beautiful outdoor setting of Vision Valley, Arcadia, New South Wales, which is located forty-five minutes from the College’s main campus on the north shore of Sydney. The VVRP is the cornerstone of the College’s K-10 outdoor education continuum. Boys’ schools partner with the College on a number of programs making some of the cohorts co-educational.
During the VVRP, Year 9 students experience a range of activities including communal living, experiential outdoor learning, and physically challenging expeditions. The program is also a rare opportunity for a digital detox as no phones or laptops are used during the four weeks. This helps students focus on developing new skills, as well as confidence and
connectedness, during a formative period of adolescence. In 2024, the VVRP became compulsory for all Year 9 students at Pymble Ladies’ College, with the option to select which term to attend to accommodate family, curricular and co-curricular commitments.
WHAT RESEARCH TOOLS DID WE USE?
The cohort in Terms 3 and 4 2024 had an extra set of open-ended questions (outlined below) included in the post-program questionnaire. This allowed students to identify elements of the program they believed contributed to their sense of resilience. These questions were added following reflective input from the Vision Valley and Upper School teams. The components of the questionnaire are as follows:
1) Sense of Belonging measure From the Programme for
Girls’ resilience in the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential Program
International Student Assessment (PISA) 6-item scale (ACER, 2018). A research report on this measure completed by the Pymble Institute is available here
2) Sense of Academic Buoyancy measure
These questions use the 4-item, psychometrically validated, Academic Buoyancy Scale (Martin & Marsh, 2008a).
3) Adolescent Girls Resilience Scale
This 34-item instrument (Whittington & Aspelmeier, 2018) measures a student’s capacity for relationship building, self-efficacy beliefs and approach to challenges. This key instrument is explained in more detail in Table 2.
The Approach to Challenges subscale reflects the degree to which girls
view challenge positively; respond positively to stressful situations; feel brave and courageous; show persistence, and are flexible when problem solving.
The Self-Efficacy subscale reflects the degree to which girls believe that they are capable and have the ability and motivation to complete tasks and reach goals.
The Relationship Building subscale reflects the degree to which girls form positive relationships with others, successfully negotiate conflicts in relationships, and feel comfortable with and supported by other girls.
In the questionnaire, the resilience statements are distributed randomly and students rate their agreement or
disagreement with each statement on a five-point Likert scale from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’ with higher scores mostly indicating greater overall resilience. An exception is for four items in the Relationship Building subscale which are ‘reversed items’, meaning they are phrased in the negative and a lower score indicates greater resilience.
When the full student questionnaire was developed for the pilot research in 2022, the program was an allgirls, single sex program. As a girls’ school, the use of the term ‘girls’ in the Relationship Building subscale was unremarkable. However, with the inclusion of boys’ schools as partners in the VVRP, the meaning behind some of these items in the context of the program is shifting
Table 2: Statements from the AGRS grouped by subscale
Approach to Challenges subscale
1. I am courageous.
2. I can think of more than one way to solve a problem.
3. I don’t give up, even when things are hard.
4. I deal with stress in a positive way.
5. I do not give up easily.
6. I am not afraid of making mistakes.
7. I am brave even when I am afraid.
8. I am comfortable facing life’s challenges.
9. I stay calm in stressful situations.
10. I keep my cool when things don’t go as I planned.
1. I am confident in my ability to get things done.
2. I know how to get what I need.
3. I live up to my potential.
4. I am motivated to set and accomplish goals for myself.
5. I make good decisions.
6. When I make a plan I follow through with it.
7. I can speak up for what I need and want.
8. I perform well at many things.
9. I am good at the things I do.
10. I am good at figuring things out.
11. I can make things happen.
12. I am good at solving problems.
1. It is okay to have conflicts with friends.
2. I don’t have many friends who are girls. (reversed item)
3. I enjoy spending time with other girls.
4. I can easily make friends.
5. I don’t get along with other girls. (reversed item)
6. I tell my friends when I think they are being unfair.
7. Other girls are supportive of me.
8. I have experienced a community of other girls.
9. I can trust other girls.
10. Girls generally do not like me. (reversed item)
11. It is hard to make friends with other girls. (reversed item)
12. I get along with other girls.
and may require adjusted wording in the future. For example, the genderneutral terms, ‘friends’ and ‘others’, in the Relationship Building questions are descriptive and inclusive, which we believe reflects the authors’ (Whittington & Aspelmeier, 2018) intent. The question, ‘I tell my friends when I think they are being unfair’, is an example. The term, ‘girls’, is used in some questions the same subscale and may direct students to think of only female-identifying peers, for example, in the question, ‘I enjoy spending time with other girls’. This is a matter the authors of the AGRS may not have considered when writing the questions. In our view, the questions work effectively with the gender-neutral terms and these better reflect contemporary notions of gender, as well as allowing for researching girls-only and co-educational contexts. For this report, we have kept the questions unchanged, but note that students completing the questionnaire may have interpreted them in different ways. For future usage of the AGRS, we aim to explore this issue.
4) The open-ended comment questions were added at the end of the survey and correspond to the sub-scales. The key purpose was to prompt students for examples
of when and why they experienced resilience and self efficacy or used their relationship skills. The questions were designed by the Pymble Institute researchers in consultation with leaders of Vision Valley. It was felt the questions could be answered briefly but they also allowed for more extensive reflection if the respondents’ desired.
Below are the open-ended questions:
i. Approaches to challenge: Can you give an example of when and why you felt courageous or dealt with stress or showed resilience?
ii. Self efficacy: Can you give an example of when and why you felt capable of completing tasks?
iii. Relationship building: Can you give an example of when and why you used skills in building relationships and managing conflicts with other girls?
HOW WERE THE RESULTS ANALYSED?
The quantitative results were analysed under the three subscales of the Adolescent Girls Resilience Scale, outlined above. The 5-point scale was reduced to 2-points to indicate students broadly “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” across each item. For the four reverse statements under the Relationship Building subscale,
such as “I don’t have many friends who are girls”, analysis was done with the number of “strongly disagree” and “disagree” to statements. The percentage change in agreement to the statements were analysed for each statement and aggregated for each subscale.
In total, 67 girls participated in the Term 3 2024 VVRP. Fifty six students consented to taking the pre-program survey and 63 students consented to taking the post-program survey. In order to analyse the change in behaviour of the same students preand post- program, we used unique student IDs to separate the responses of the same 56 students. The qualitative responses were analysed by gaining an initial understanding of the main ideas conveyed in students’ written responses. A coding phase followed where responses were clustered to reflect core themes. Once clustering was complete, closer reading was conducted to interpret students’ comments and to identify implications in relation to the research questions.
Quantitative Results:
As with other programs in 2022, 2023, and 2024 Term 1 and Term 2, the post-program surveys saw an increase in scores in all three areas
Table 3: Percentage change by subscale reported by Term 3 participants
Total
Girls’ resilience in the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential Program
of the AGRS (Approach to Challenge, Self-Efficacy and Relationship Building). Table 3 shows this data for Term 3, 2024, with the Approach to Challenges subscale recording the biggest gain from pre- to postprogram.
Table 4 lists the top two statements under each subscale which had the largest percentage change. By examining the statements with the biggest increases, areas where resilience increases can be identified. These suggest strategies the Vision Valley team can use in the residential program. For example, in response to the students who do not agree with the statement, ‘I keep my cool when things don’t go as I planned’, educators can focus on strategies for helping students stay calm. Likewise, for students
who need help persisting during challenging activities (‘I do not give up easily’), steps can be built in that reward students’ tenacity. Similarly, to improve relationship-building the VVRP, educators can intentionally create more opportunities for students to share experiences, leading to making new friends.
Qualitative Results: Analysis of open-ended comment boxes
The open-ended text boxes were included in the post-program questionnaire to enable greater understanding of the quantitative data in the subscales. All fifty-six students provided responses to the open-ended questions. The answers ranged from one-word answers to a paragraph. The timing of the data collection (at the end of the program before they left Vision Valley) was
valuable as experiences were still fresh in students’ minds.
Question 1: Approach to Challenge
Students were asked the open question, ‘Can you give an example of when and why you felt courageous or dealt with stress or showed resilience?’ Three themes emerged which are explored below.
Theme 1: Importance of activities that build resilience
The most frequently mentioned factor regarding building resilience was doing expeditions (‘expeds)’. Outdoor expeditions, including hiking and camping away from the Vision Valley site, are an integral part of the residential program. Students begin with short trips of a couple of nights and lead up to the final fiveday expedition which represents a
Table 4: Top two statements under each subscale with the largest percentage change, as reported by Term 3 2024 participants
Approach to Challenges
culmination of skills built throughout the four weeks of the VVRP. Student comments illustrate their experiences with these activities;
“I’ve shown courage and learnt to deal with stress through the 2 expeditions, especially the great north walk. I faced many challenges and setbacks throughout, an example of such would be on the GNW (Great North Walk) exped when it started pouring with rain, I persevered and pushed through the cold, wet, weather and completed the hike.”
Others mentioned the solo experience activity, introduced to the VVRP in 2024. Students spend twenty-four hours alone in a location with their own tent, food supplies and other essential items. The actual camp sites are not far from one another and adult supervision is close by, but students have the experience of feeling alone which tests their ability to set up camp, prepare meals, sleep and be alone for this ‘solo’ time.
“When I was on solo and I didn’t have a pole for my tent so I found a stick long enough and thick enough to fit in the pole socket and thick enough to keep my tent up.”
Also highly mentioned was the general category at Vision Valley. Some comments were:
“In the valley activities when I was scared but I did it confidently.” These comments speak to how important the deliberate curation of activities is in building resilience. Intentionally designed learning experiences can give students the chance to place themselves in challenges that allow them to work on being resilient. Much has been
written in the outdoor education literature about resilience-building as an interactive experience with social supports, especially from teachers or parents (Herrman et al., 2011). An aspect to consider is how challenge, with moderated choice and safety assessment (Williams & Wainwright, 2020) contributes to developing resilience outcomes in the outdoor learning environment.
Theme 2: A positive mindset for resilience
Interestingly, many students mentioned having a positive mindset as a strategy to deal with stress. This appeared to be a visible trait of courage and resilience.
“I felt courageous when i was walking through exped in the rain and it was 15km while dealing with leeches. I made sure to get through it and think of the positives.”
“I felt courageous at the end of the second expedition. It was really difficult for me to not shower 5 days straight on scorching days and just walking super long distances in the rain. I felt this trait because I got through it all and remained positive for majority of the time.”
“During the hikes, everybody was feeling very negative and i was too. But i pushed through and encouraged others to stay positive and do the same.”
Understanding positivity as a strategy to help students push through difficult challenges can help VVRP staff in coaching and guiding girls. In recent years, the Positive Psychology movement (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) has reported on ways a positive outlook is linked to better health outcomes,
good friendships and psychological resiliency (Alessandri et al., 2012a, Alessandri et al., 2012b, Caprara et al., 2010a, Caprara et al., 2010b). Some (e.g. Hobfoll, 1989) have theorised that positivity is the key resource in buffering the negative effects of stressors and unexpected life events on a person’s later adjustment and wellbeing, and student responses testify to the association between positivity and resilience.
Theme 3: Facets of courage
Students commented on the various elements of courage by writing about managing difficult physical challenges in outdoor activities, but also about their courage in working with other people, assuming leadership and making new friends.
“I felt courageous when I helped other girls during expeds, this is because I feel a sense of accomplishment when I help others,”
“Exped gave me the opportunity of stepping outside my comfort zone in order to figure out effective ways of managing stress – I’ve tried meeting new people and talking to friends going through similar challenges.”
“I have felt courageous making friends.”
“I was courageous when hiking as I didn’t stop or wuss out. I was resilient as I stayed in my valley group which I didn’t have any friends in and started talking to people.”
Question 2: Self-Efficacy
Students were asked the open question, ‘Can you give an example of when and why you felt capable of completing tasks?’ Three themes were identified which relate to challenging and new activities, the
Girls’ resilience in the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential Program
impact of the solo experience and developing a sense of community.
Theme 1: Challenging and new activities
Students identified that their sense of self-efficacy increased due to accomplishing challenging or new activities such as hikes, setting up tents, or running every morning (known as the VV3- the 3km Vision Valley run). This highlights the experiential nature of outdoor education in the deliberate and careful planning of experiences which provide authentic challenges for students. In addition, the supportive, safe space of the VVRP gives students a chance to learn coping skills as they try these new activities. Many girls also mentioned that the simple act of doing chores in a communal setting made them feel capable.
“I felt capable in the vv3 run when i
was able to achieve my goals.”
“I felt capable of completing tasks after the last hike, when I wanted to quit, I still kept on going. I felt capable because if I can do such a hard hike/task, then surely I can do something else.”
“I felt capable of completing my chores here even though i rarely do them at home.”
Theme 2: The 24-hour solo experience
The second most commonly mentioned activity was the overnight, solo experience. The very nature of the solo is to allow students to experience a full day and night of being alone as they set up camp and occupy themselves for twentyfour hours. This time provides young people with the rare chance to practice being still, present and
mindful in a world full of technology and distractions. In the VVRP, students are gradually introduced to the solo experience by doing shorter solos of a few hours, then building up to the twenty-four hour experience.
The student comments emphasise that the experience achieves its purpose in improving self-reliance and independence.
“I felt capable after completing solo, knowing i can be independent.”
“I felt capable of completing tasks when i was on solo and was tasked with the task to set up my own tent and set up my own space to live in for a day. I felt capable because of the expeditions i had previously done and all the time i had spent around people recently so i felt confident in my ability to be alone.”
“I felt capable in doing my solo as I am an independent person and can take care of myself.”
Theme 3: Importance of community
The third theme was the sense of community, including the ways that supportive teachers and peers help students believe in their own capacities. This theme confirms the importance of a structured residential program, where the students live away from families and take on challenges, but do so within a supportive environment.
“I felt capable of completing tasks when I had my peers and instructors around me to feed advice and just be supportive.”
“I felt capable as I watched others complete the task and knowing that I can do if I tried.”
Research highlights how, for girls, resilience is enhanced through the positive social trust with other girls (Jordan, 2012; Pipher, 1995; Whittington & Nixon Mack, 2010).
Question 3: Relationship Building
Students were asked the open question, ‘Can you give an example of when and why you used skills in building relationships and managing conflicts with other girls?’ Themes in this area include communal living and relationship building.
Theme 1: Communal living
Living at close quarters with other girls is an important part of the VVRP experience and responses highlighted living together in the Vision Valley lodge as an environment that built communication skills and allowed the girls to make new friends.
“I made a bunch of new friends at the lodge.”
“I didn’t really know more than half of the girls in my lodge yet we’ve gotten really close within 4 weeks. We slowly opened up to each other knowing that we’d be living like family together for 4 weeks straight and here we are, BESTIESS!”
“I used my skills in managing conflicts on the very first day when we were deciding whose bed was whose and whose space was who’s by working out a solution so everyone was happy.”
The challenge of living and learning with other girls helped students develop skills in emotional regulation, which is a tenet of resilience. It is recognised that, ‘programmes that provide a supportive, trust-building learning environment with other girls enable them to develop the skills to cope with obstacles and emotional stressors’, (Whittington et al., 2016).
Theme
2: Strategies for relationship building
Students reflected on the strategies they used to manage conflict, including with their teachers’ help:
“When some girls were slacking with their chores I asked my overnight staff member to have a lodge chat and we were able to improve things in the lodge.”
Others sought the advice of friends with managing relationships:
“I didn’t make a big deal out of small things, i also asked my other friends for advice which helped me.”
“During conflicts with other girls, ive talked to other girls to gain advice on what i should do next, and the
same goes for them when they are fighting with their friends. This level of support towards each other has helped to form new friendships and deeper bonds.”
Many students tried to resolve conflict by talking it out and communicating:
“In the lodge sometimes you would have disagreements with each other but you just talk through it and give each other some space.”
“When my friend was being rude to me ‘as a joke’ I felt very comfortable and confident to call her out and tell her to cut it out”.
Some students managed themselves and their emotions by controlling their temper or speaking up for themselves:
“I used skills in building relationships and managing conflicts with other girls in expeds and in lodges, I tried my best to control my temper during heated arguments between me and my friends as I believe arguments help build stronger friendships.”
CONCLUSION
From analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data of the AGRS and open-ended questions with the Term 3, 2024, cohort of the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential program, we conclude that the residential program contributed to students’ resilience as measured in the AGRS subscales of approach to challenge, self-efficacy and relationship building. The biggest gains were found in students’ ability to face challenges with an overall 17% increase in girls agreeing to statements in this subscale.
Girls’ resilience in the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley Residential Program
The addition of the open-ended response box provided valuable qualitative insights to this topic and helped expand on the nuances of resilience as reported by the students. Their answers point to the importance they attributed to having a positive mindset and seeing courage as a ‘sister trait’ to resilience. Students explained that courage was needed, not only when taking on physical challenges, but also when facing relationship challenges, including making new friends and leading a group.
In the area of self-efficacy, the most prevailing theme was the importance of intentionally designed activities
in the outdoor education and residential environment. Taking on tasks that were challenging, such as expeditions, the twenty-four hour solo experience, the daily morning runs and simply doing chores every day lead to a sense of accomplishment. Fulfilling the requirements of tasks like these gave students the feeling of being capable with self-belief in their abilities.
The structure of the residential program meant students experienced the support of teachers and peers as they took on a range of challenges in a safe environment. Students explained how living in the Vision Valley lodges helped them
build relationships and learn to manage conflicts with each other. By using the quantitative measure of the AGRS, and more closely analysing its thirty-four statements, it is evident that students report more agreement with the resilience statements after the VVRP. By adding three qualitative, open-ended questions, the findings have provided the Vision Valley and Upper School teams with important feedback on how the program builds student resilience and how further learning experiences can be designed to amplify opportunities for resilience, courage and an appetite for challenge.
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