“Wellbeing cannot be a bolt-on. Staff need clarity, shared language and tools that build systemic resilience,” says Educational Psychologist Dr Esther Borrett, founder of RESTA & Brimstone Psychology based in Ipswich, Suffolk. “RESTA was built to embed resilience into the fabric of a school.”
Today, more than 40 practitioners across the UK are trained in RESTA, and three RESO-trained organisations use the system at the organisational level. Its appeal lies in its simplicity and practicality. RESTA offers education providers a consistent structure that supports staff and students, strengthens communication, and enables resilience to grow through everyday interactions.
The framework’s foundations were shaped by Dr Borrett’s experience as both a teacher and an educational psychologist. She saw staff managing intense emotional demands, students without a shared language to understand their feelings, and leaders stretched between safeguarding, staffing and shrinking budgets. Despite their best efforts, many schools lacked a coherent system for building systemic resilience. RESTA was created to fill that gap.
Grounded in professional doctorate research, the framework fits naturally into school routines. It creates an environment where systemic resilience becomes part of the culture, something strengthened daily rather than delivered through isolated interventions.
RESTA’s development has been supported by early partners, including Suffolk New College, The Innov8 Workshop and P.L.O.T, whose willingness to innovate helped refine the framework long before national recognition.
For Dr Esther Borrett, the award signifies a wider movement in education: schools seeking consistent, preventative approaches that build systemic resilience for both staff and students.
For more details on how we build systemic resilience in education & organisations, please email: support@restasupport.co.uk
