Skills for Life programmes encourage vulnerable children to seek help

Dave Prodrick works as a Family Liaison Officer at St Barnabas Primary School in Kent and has been delivering Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends for a number of years. He has seen first-hand the impact if has had on his pupils.

‘The Apple’s Friends programme has been a great follow on from Zippy’s Friends, consolidating the learning from the previous year.

I love how delivering it leads to two-way dialogue with the children and how, if given the opportunity, they ‘get’ it. They are great programmes to teach that engenders great interaction from the children. 

At the start of term there were some issues between children, especially during lunch and play times, we successfully unpicked some of this during the sessions.

I would recommend Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends to other schools because it will enable your children to discover themselves and how they relate to others as well as building their confidence and resilience.

Some parents have spoken to me about their child’s increase in confidence and willingness to ask them questions, they’ve shown more maturity both behaviourally and emotionally. 

Across both programmes we have many vulnerable children who are some of the most attuned children when it comes to participating. Once trust has been built those vulnerable children not only access the material but also seek outside help.’