Cranford Review 2019

The MYRIAD Project
Cranford Community College is one of 85 schools
across the country taking part in the research project
named MYRIAD (My resilience in adolescence)
project at the University of Oxford. MYRIAD is exploring
how we can prepare young people to improve resilience
and manage their emotional health and at the heart of
this is understanding the great changes that occur in
adolescence. Learning skills that build resilience has the
potential to help adolescents navigate challenges during
their time at school and builds a platform to serve them
throughout their lives.
Teenage Brain Workshop
The MYRIAD programme is a 4 year trial running until
summer 2020. So far around 25,000 young people and
more than 500 teachers have answered questionnaires as
part of the research.
Researchers visited the school on the 4th April 2019 to
run an interactive workshop with Year 9 pupils about
adolescence and the brain.
Working directly with researchers, pupils investigated how
their brains are different from those of children and adults
and had a go at cognitive experiments researchers use to
study the brain. Amongst other topics, pupils explored
their risk taking, their focus and attention and their ability
to delay rewards. They also modelled their own brains and
had the opportunity to meet the researchers, ask questions
and find out more about what they do.
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We were so pleased with how well students engaged in
the workshop and enjoyed the day. You have given our
team a wonderful experience of what a friendly, caring
environment a school can be. You can be very proud of
them all. A huge thank you must also go to Ms Yousaf
for hosting us, and to all of your staff who supported us
during the workshop.
We would like to pass on our thanks to all the staff and
pupils at Cranford Community College on behalf of the
MYRIAD project at the University of Oxford.
Eleanor-Rose Corney (Research Assistant on
the MYRIAD Project)