Skills for Life Programmes in Dumfries and Galloway– coping skills and resilience at forefront of post-lockdown recovery curriculum for our region’s primary school children.
Partnership for Children are delighted to have successfully launched their Skills for Life programmes in Dumfries and Galloway at a time when the stresses and pressure of lockdown, and the anxiety around COVID19 means that our region’s children may need them most.
The four programmes aim to help teachers to support primary school aged children build self-awareness and emotional resilience.
Throughout the interactive classroom-based sessions, children work together and learn skills and techniques to cope with difficulties, communicate their feelings and get on with other people.
Partnership for Children is a registered charity and their social and emotional wellbeing programmes currently run very successfully in over 30 countries around the world and have already reached nearly 2 million children. This will be the first time that the programmes have been robustly rolled out and tested in Scotland and the 20 local teachers are excited that Dumfries and Galloway’s children will be the first in Scotland to benefit.
125 teachers across 20 schools undertake training
In June 2020, 125 teachers and learning support staff from 20 primary schools across the region attended online training courses and received programme resource packs. This is all thanks to funding from the Kavli Trust – Kavli owns the Castle McLellan pâté factory in Kirkcudbright, and the Trust is a generous supporter of good causes in the UK and abroad.
Over 1500 children in Dumfries and Galloway will be taking part in the programme this coming academic year and participating schools are thrilled that the Kavli Trust will be funding the work in the region until 2023, meaning that the programmes, training and all resources come free.
This funding has allowed schools in Dumfries and Galloway to access these Skills for Life mental health promotion programmes at a crucial time.
“In speaking to schools across Dumfries and Galloway, it has become very apparent that teachers are keen to place mental health and wellbeing, and not least work around resilience and coping skills, at the forefront of the recovery curriculum when children go back to school in August. Staff recognise the increased anxiety that children are likely to have faced as a result of lockdown and Covid-19, and the fears that they may experience in coming back to school and are extremely grateful for the opportunity to have access to easy to use, evidence based programmes to help them support children to express their feelings and navigate these uncertainties together.” – Grace Cardozo, Dumfries and Galloway Skills for Life Coordinator.
“I think it’s a very worthwhile programme and training and can definitely see the advantages of implementing it throughout the school. Children will learn skills and strategies to support their mental health that they can use not just during their childhood but as they move through their teenage years and into an adult.” – Learning Assistant
Skills for Life schools in Dumfries and Galloway will begin implementation of Zippy’s Friends (P1-P3), Apple’s Friends (P4-5) and Passport (P6-7) when their classes return in August. Primary 7 children will also be among the first to participate in the newest programme Spark, as part of a 10-week transition programme early in 2021.
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