“Conflicts in the playground are fewer. The children form friendships much easier and we have had lots of positive feedback from parents,” says a UK teacher who has seen the programme’s impact.
Skills for life teaches children how to cope with everyday difficulties, how to communicate with and get on with other people and build self-awareness and emotional resilience.
A crucial time
“We have been delighted to work with schools in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland and Newcastle and Gateshead in the North East over the past four years,” says Wendy Tabuteau, Chief Executive at Partnership for Children.
“Thanks to funding from Kavli Trust, 69 schools delivered our Skills for Life programmes to support children’s mental health and social wellbeing.”
Tabuteau adds that the funding gave schools access to the programmes at a crucial time when they were dealing with the impact of the pandemic and the effect this was having on children’s mental health.
Reaching children around the world
Skills for Life includes the evidence-based programmes Zippy’s Friends (for 5-7 year-olds) and Apple’s Friends (for 7-9 year-olds). These programmes are proven to improve children’s coping and social skills – both important predictors of good mental health – and have already reached over 2.6 million children across the world.
In 2019 and 2020 the programmes were expanded with the components Passport, for 9-10 year-olds, and SPARK Resilience, for 10-12 year-olds.
Over 146,000 children participated in Skills for Life programs during the 2022/23 academic year, gaining skills for greater wellbeing.
Teachers in Dumfries and Galloway and the North East regions attended Partnership for Children’s online training courses, received programme resource packs and ongoing support to enable them to run Zippy’s Friends, Apple’s Friends, Passport and SPARK Resilience across their schools.
“The impact of the work in schools in Scotland was evaluated annually and the learning from the evaluations will be reflected in our future work,” says Wendy Tabuteau.
“We look forward to continuing to support these schools and organisations over the coming years as they embed and expand the programmes as part of a Whole School Approach to children’s wellbeing.”
New Guide: Supporting young children’s self-regulation skills
Over the last year, Co-CEO of Partnership for Children, Hannah Baker, has worked in partnership with Anna Freud, a world-leading mental health charity for children and families, to develop a guide to how to effectively support young children’s self-regulation skills.
The guide explains the science behind self-regulation within the context of key developmental milestones for children: how to develop strategies and techniques for promoting self-regulation and the vital role that adult-led play can have in modelling and guiding self-regulatory skills.
Wendy Tabuteau, Chief Executive at Partnership for Children
Background
- Partnership for Children is a UK registered charity that helps children to be mentally and emotionally healthy – just as exercise, good food and sleep help them to be physically healthy.
- The charity has developed a range of well-evidenced programmes to help young children across the entire primary school age range to learn how to deal with difficulties, so that they will be better able to cope with problems and crises now and as teenagers and adults.
- The Skills for Life programmes are now running in a wide variety of countries and cultures across the globe.
Read more:
Visit Partnership for Children’s website
Mental health promotion programmes to primary schools in the UK