The Bounce programme teaches young people skills to manage beliefs, thinking styles, emotions, and cognitive processes in order to increase happiness, confidence, and resilience. It uses explanations, exercises, and tasks to guide students in developing stronger psychological strengths. Schools implementing the program report higher student attainment, well-being, performance, and development of self-efficacy and resilience. Case studies describe positive behavioral and engagement outcomes for students participating in the 6-10 week program.

1. Bounce. The Thrive Programme in Education
Through a combination of coaching and personal work, Bounce empowers
young people with the psychological skills, insights and resources they need to
thrive. In a short period of time they learn the fundamentals of how to manage
beliefs, thinking styles, emotions and cognitive processes in order to be happy,
confident and resilient and get the most out of life
WHAT IS IT?
Through a series of simple explanations, exercises and actions, students are guided
through an exciting journey where they begin to grow psychologically stronger and fitter
every day. The programme can be tailored to students’ particular needs whether
behavioural, therapeutic or educational.
The student learns about applied positive psychology, how to recognise and change any
limiting beliefs they hold. They create a sense of personal power – a power to change
their response to events and experiences in their lives.
The student gradually builds a strong sense of self-efficacy and self-belief.
They learn how to create high, stable self-esteem, how to resist social pressures and
overcome social anxiety.
1
IMPACT. AT A GLANCE
Higher attainment
Happier students.
Proven way of helping
students (and staff)
with their emotional
well-being
Increases
performance.
Academics and
attendances. Develops
students’ self-efficacy
and resilience
Student Manual
Guides pupils through
the course, including
independent tasks for
consolidation at home.
EMOTIONAL
CONTROL
FEELING BETTER, WITH SKILLS
TO MANAGE LIFE IN GENERAL,
THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND
1
SELF-ESTEEM
HIGHER SELF-ESTEEM AND
LOWER SOCIAL ANXIETY HELPS
CHILDREN TO RESIST PEER
PRESSURE AND TO FEEL MORE
CONFIDENT IN THEMSELVES
2
LOCUS OF CONTROL
IMPROVED PARTICIPATION IN
SCHOOL .HIGHER SELF-
EFFICACY, FEELS MORE
POWERFUL AND MORE IN
CONTROL. SIGNIFICANT
IMPROVEMENT IN RESILIANCE
3
b unce Learning to manage beliefs,
thinking styles, emotions and
cognitive processes in order
to be happy and confident.
Helping young people to
thrive, to grow, develop and
flourish regardless of
environment.

2. WHAT”S THE IMPACT ?
1. INTERVENTION. SCHOOL A. EAST ENGLAND.
6 week programme. 13/14 year old students with behavioural,
motivational and self-esteem issues.
Six girls with emotional and behavioural issues completed Bounce. Used as an intervention, the girls had
weekly discussion-based sessions and they received ongoing support from their Tutors, who had been trained
to mentor each student through Bounce. Using the Bounce manual, the girls also completed homework tasks
in order to integrate and consolidate their learning. The programme culminated in an outward-bound day trip
at Go Ape, designed to celebrate the students’ success, providing physical and psychological challenges to
further develop and process their new skills. Two months after completing the programme, the girls did a
series of follow-up sessions to ensure that their progress was maintained.
2
BOUNCE. THE THRIVE PROGRAMME IN SCHOOLS
WHAT ARE THE SUPPORT MATERIALS?
RESULTS
Over the course of the programme, pupils made good overall progress towards attendance, behaviour and
achievement targets making measurable reductions in total points awarded for negative behaviour.
In week 1 of the programme, three of the students
received over 7 negative points each. By the final week
of the programme the pupils only received 4 behaviour
points between them.
Changes in the students’ sense of control were
recorded. A higher score on a sense of control scale
indicated a greater sense of powerlessness. At the start
of the programme all students scored between 18 and
24 . After five weeks all scored between 6 and 11,
indicating that they felt much more powerful and
capable.
• Student manual that guides pupils
through the course, including
independent tasks for consolidation
at home.
• Teacher training (3 day course, or in-
house)
• Online lesson plans and resources
• Props to support delivery of Bounce
• Dedicated support from Bounce
trainer
• Assistance with tracking and
feedback
• Display materials to consolidate
learning of how the Thrive
Programme related to the students’
lives and specific concerns

3. WHAT”S THE IMPACT ?
2. WHOLE CLASS. SCHOOL B. EAST ENGLAND
10 week programme. Year 8 pupils with
behavioural, motivational and self-
esteem issues.
A standard Bounce whole class programme with
17 pupils. Each week of the programme
comprised two interactive 1-hour group
sessions with all students. Students also
received individual sessions over the 10 week
period. School staff undertook in-house Bounce
training to enable continuous reinforcement of
the programme principles outside session and
within the context of daily school life.
In this programme, the adapted Bounce student
manual was used, appropriate for the lower
reading levels of the pupils. Pupils were given
this book at the end of the 10 weeks to
encourage them to recap the programme and
implement the principles over the summer
holiday.
In addition to standard Bounce tracking, the
school also implemented detailed tracking of
trends on student effort and behaviour, pre,
during and post programme.
3
RESULTS
The school provided data relating to the students progress over the course of the programme.
Chart 1 documents the average weekly rate at which students received negative behaviour points, as
recorded by a teacher, before and after starting the programme.
Chart 2 shows the incidence of positive lesson reports awarded to students on completion of every lesson.
The points were documented over the course of 29 weeks prior to the start of the programme and during the
10 weeks after starting the programme. All students increased their prior percentage of green reports over
the ten weeks of the Bounce programme .
BOUNCE. THE THRIVE PROGRAMME IN SCHOOLS
1. NEGATIVE BEHAVIOUR
EFFORT & POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR
weekly aggregate pre course weekly aggregate post course
weekly aggregate wk 1 weekly aggregate wk 10

4. 4
Abouserie, R. (1994). Sources and Levels of Stress in Relation to
Locus of Control and Self Esteem in University Students.
Educational Psychology, 14(3), 323–330.
Allen, C. E. L. (2012). An Investigation into Senior School Students’
Resilience in Response to Academic Failure (Unpublished MPhil
Thesis). University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Borman, G. D., & Overman, L. T. (2004). Academic resilience in
mathematics among poor and minority students. The Elementary
School Journal, 104(3), 177–195.
Diener, C. I., & Dweck, C. S. (1978). An analysis of learned
helplessness: Continuous changes in performance, strategy, and
achievement cognitions following failure. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 36(5), 451–462.
Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation,
Personality, and Development. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Dweck, C. S., & Reppucci, N. D. (1973). Learned helplessness and
reinforcement responsibility in children. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 25(1), 109.
Finn, J. D., & Rock, D. A. (1997). Academic success among
students at risk for school failure. Journal of Applied Psychology,
82(2), 221.
Floyd, C. (1996). Achieving despite the odds: a study of resilience
among a group of africa american high school seniors. Journal of
Negro Education, 181–189.
Gale, C. R., Batty, G. D., & Deary, I. J. (2008). Locus of control at
age 10 years and health outcomes and behaviors at age 30 years:
the 1970 British Cohort Study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(4),
397–403.
Hong, Y., Chiu, C., Dweck, C. S., Lin, D. M. ., & Wan, W. (1999).
Implicit theories, attributions, and coping: A meaning system
approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(3), 588.
Jackson, S., & Martin, P. Y. (1998). Surviving the care system:
Education and resilience. Journal of Adolescence, 21(5), 569–583.
Kelly, R. C., & Allen, C. E. L. (2013). Exploring The Efficacy of The
“Thrive Programme” with Emetophobic Clients. Cambridge, UK:
The Thrive Programme.
Rouse, K. A. G. (2001). Resilient students’ goals and motivation.
Journal of Adolescence, 24(4), 461–472.
RESULTS
The school conducted conducted post course
progress interviews with the students.
“ It’s helped me to get more confident. I’m not
being bullied.”
"The enthusiasm in the group has been good. I
have learnt about self-esteem and self-
confidence. I can stand up for myself now."
“Thanks to the Thrive group I will be able to
achieve more later in life in friendships and
other achievements.”
“Thrive has helped me to know which way to
feel. It’s made me feel good about myself.
“This really helped with my self-esteem cuz you
told me things that I never knew.”
REFERENCES
BOUNCE. THE THRIVE PROGRAMME IN SCHOOLS
WHAT”S THE IMPACT?
3. INTERVENTION. SCHOOL C. SCOTLAND. YEAR GROUPS.
Five week programme. 3 x year groups.
Behavioural and self-esteem issues.
Group 1 included six 15-16 year old girls. Group 2
was composed of seven 11-12 year old boys and
girls. Group 2 was made up of of seven 12-13 year
old boys and girls.
Every week, each group of students took part in a 2hr
group session and all students again also received
individual sessions. As part of the standard Bounce
evaluation, changes in the students’ sense of control
were recorded - higher scores scale indicating a
sense of powerlessness. Over five weeks the student
average 20 reduced to 9 indicating that they felt a
greater sense of power and capability.
HOW DO I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BOUNCE AND THE THRIVE PROGRAMME?
Contact: Rob Kelly
Thrive Programme Director
rob@thriveprogramme.org
www.thriveprogramme.org
Contact: Andrew Farquharson
Thrive in Education Consultant
andrew@thriveinscotland.co.uk.