Free Resilience Programme (FRIENDS) for Year 5 pupils delivered by Salus

Salus has been awarded funding, through the Education Endowment Fund, to deliver the FRIENDS programme to classes of year 5 pupils for a limited number of schools in Kent.

Who are Salus?

Salus has a long history of delivering award winning, high quality services and evidence based training programmes to improve the lives of children.

These innovative services, delivered by our talented team, have been evidenced to improve the resilience, educational attainment, emotional health and wellbeing and long term outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Our staff are also committed to enhancing the knowledge, skills and confidence of children, young people, parents, carers, school staff and other professionals through our diverse range of training programmes.

All of our services are robustly evaluated using a nationally recognised framework.

For more information, please see www.salusgroup.org.uk

What is 'FRIENDS'?

Originating in Australia, FRIENDS is cited by the DfE and recognised by the World Health Organisation for over 12 years of comprehensive research.

FRIENDS is a strengths based programme that, through intensive, structured intervention, offers a range of opportunities to improve the resilience of children. Using behavioural, physiological and cognitive strategies, the programme teaches children practical skills to identify and manage their feelings and how to face and overcome their problems and challenges.

Research demonstrates that the programme improves participants' social skills, ability to focus, confidence, and the ability to relax and regulate emotions.

Developing the social and emotional capabilities of children is evidenced to support achievement of life outcomes including educational attainment, employment and health (Young Foundation, 2012).

What can my school expect?

Schools that participate will either receive the full programme of support or act as a 'control' school for the purpose of researching the impact. This will be randomly allocated.

Each school receiving the full programme will have support from an accredited practitioner, highly experienced in managing both interventions to improve wellbeing and whole class support.

The practitioner will deliver the initial programme, one session per week, for ten weeks to whole year 5 classes (one per school). They will then undertake two follow up sessions to reinforce learning and ensure skills are becoming embedded.

During this period, the practitioner will be available to offer more focused intervention to a small number of year 5 pupils who require additional support.

The initial programme will need to be delivered between March and July 2016. The exact timings of the programme will be as flexible as possible to accommodate the needs of the school and their pupils.

Schools participating in the programme but asked to act as a control group will be allocated £1000 to fund an intervention of their choice following completion of this programme.

How would the programme be evaluated?

The impact of the programme will be researched by the University of Manchester. Subject to ethical approval, they will examine the impact of the FRIENDS programme on the academic attainment and emotional health of children in primary schools.

The details are is still being finalised but schools will be required to collect data about the children prior to the period of support and following this. This is likely to be:

• Pupil surveys
• Staff surveys
• Parent surveys

The data needed to initiate the programme will need to be collected from all schools in term three. Schools will need to commit to the data gathering requirements prior to engaging in the programme.

Detailed guidance and support will be offered to schools to ensure that this can be done as efficiently as possible.

What do I need to do next?

At this stage, all interested schools are asked to express an interest using the email address below. Support will be allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis.

Further information will be made available once ethical approval has been received from the University of Manchester.

If you would like to discuss this further please contact Beth Keir or Sally Williamson on 07725 595760 or 01303 817470. If you would like to register a request to participate in the programme please email beth.keir@salusgroup.org.uk