Emotional Wellbeing Resources for Primary School Teachers

Programmes for promoting emotional wellbeing

Zippy's Friends (1 day)

Zippy’s Friends is a 24 session programme for teaching social and emotional skills designed for 5-7 year olds. The Zippy’s Friends resource pack contains session plans and activities, covering topics such as; feelings, communication, relationships, conflict resolution and more. It teaches them how to cope with everyday difficulties, to identify and talk about their feelings and explore ways of dealing with them. The programme has been evaluated in Ireland and Internationally and is ideal for your SPHE class.

Training is available from the HSE and is approved for substitution cover through the DES.

Dates for Zippy’s Friends Training 21/22 will follow shortly

Fun Friends, Friends for Life and My Friends Youth are school-based anxiety prevention and resilience-building programmes. 

Friends programmes help students to develop resilience by teaching them effective strategies to cope with, problem solve and manage all kinds of emotional distress, including worry, stress, change and anxiety. The programme can be run by teachers as a whole class programme, or as a small group intervention.

Many NEPS psychologists deliver training to teachers to deliver the programmes in schools. For further information about programmes that may be running in your locality, contact your school’s NEPS psychologist.

The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Programme (TCM) is a classroom-based prevention and early-intervention programme designed to reduce conduct problems and promote children’s pro-social behaviour.

The programme focuses on strengthening classroom management strategies using evidence-based practices. For further information about programmes in your locality, contact your school’s NEPS psychologist.

Wellbeing Toolkits from the Department of Education

The Toolkits comprise of a combination of NEPS-developed materials and information collated from other acknowledged sources.

They promote natural resilience for all and recovery for those with additional educational needs.

The Toolkits include information on psychological theories and models to guide the interaction with children and young people. They also include references to additional resources which will support this work.

Referral pathways for HSE Mental Health Services

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) has set out a standard procedure for how children and young people are referred to CAMHS.