Latest news

In our last newsletter in Summer 2017 we asked for your feedback on running Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends. We received feedback from over 70 schools. Such feedback is invaluable and helps us to develop and improve the programme, so many thanks to all those who took the time to complete the survey. All schools were entered into a prize draw.

In our fast-paced lives technology certainly offers many benefits. In terms of communication we can have chats with many people at the same time on social media platforms. We can be always up to speed and in the know. Is this 21st Century Communication part of evolution? Is there a side effect? Should we be concerned?

The Todd Ouida Children's Foundation is proud to have introduced Zippy's Friends to the United States, with the enthusiastic support of Dr. Gerard Costa, now director of the Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health at Montclair State University.

We recently visited a very successful Zippy’s Friends session in a school in Croydon, south London – all the more impressive because it was Module 5, session 2, where the class discusses death. Many teachers are apprehensive about this, particularly because children may voice all sorts of ideas about what happens after death.

The original impetus for Zippy’s Friends came from the suicide prevention movement, with the aim of enabling children to find positive coping skills so that they wouldn’t feel the need to resort to desperate measures such as self-harm or suicide.

Here’s something to fill those spare hours(!) over the summer… Download our new Zippy knitting pattern and make your very own Zippy!

The attack at the concert in Manchester and the attack in London has, understandably, caused a lot of fear and anxiety amongst children and parents. 

School transitions can be an unsettling time for both teachers and pupils and may bring up difficult feelings. To help your new class or current class with the transition to a new year group and teacher, try these Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends ideas at the end or beginning of term:

Ever since Zippy’s Friends was first trialled over 17 years ago, teachers have asked, ‘What’s next?’ After many years and stages of development, Apple’s Friends has been launched as the follow-up programme to Zippy. However, children don’t have to have done Zippy to do Apple – it can be run as a programme by itself.

Zippy’s Friends is now extremely successful and well known in Lithuania, with some 35% of all six to seven year-olds taking part in the programme. But ten years ago, this wasn’t the case at all, and times were tough for our NGO, Vaiko Labui.

When our partners send us their annual reports, we need to have accurate statistics on school, teacher and children numbers. But the bit we enjoy reading most are the stories which tell us, more than numbers, what Zippy and Apple can do for children. Here are a few of the most recent success stories from around the world.

While the main Zippy’s Friends folder has everything you need to teach the programme, don’t forget there are lots of great ideas for extending and enhancing activities in the Inclusion Supplement. These activities have been specially designed to ensure children in your class with special educational needs (SEN) can get the most out of the programme but can be beneficial for the whole class.

Lucy Stevens is the SENCO of Berry Hill Primary School in Gloucestershire. She has been running Apple’s Friends with a Year 3 class since November 2016. Read our interview with her.

Bullying is not only horrible to experience, but research shows it can have long-term detrimental effects on mental health.

Involving families in Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends is a great way to help children to use their new skills outside the classroom.

The first modules of Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends focus on feelings. For young children, learning about feelings is a key skill that will help them to manage their emotions and ask for help when needed.

There are lots of things you can do to set the tone before your first Zippy class. Many schools add an extra session (session 0) to introduce the characters, the rules and show that Zippy classes will be different from other lessons.

Parents have told us they really notice a difference in their children when they take part in Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends. These stories from our international partners show what a positive impact our programmes can have for families:

Partnership for Children celebrate the enrolment of our one millionth child into Zippy’s Friends. 

MindEd is a new e-learning resource about mental health.  Dr Raphael Kelvin, who leads the MindEd consortium, explains how it can help adults who work with children and young people.

Zippy’s Friends helps young children to develop coping and social skills.  But what about its impact on teachers?