News - October 2003
Zippy's Friends launched in UK
Zippy's Friends, a school-based programme that helps young children to develop coping skills, is being launched this month in the UK. This follows the start of classes in India in August and increases the number of countries running the programme to four.A pilot programme, involving four primary schools and about 200 children, will be run in the port city of Southampton on the south coast of England. Teachers were trained last month and classes are now starting.
Programme Manager Caroline Egar said the teacher training course went well.
'Although English teachers are inundated with new courses on a daily basis, these Southampton teachers seemed to be genuinely enthusiastic about Zippy's Friends. Most of them work in schools where the children come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and they thought that the programme would really help their pupils.'
The effects of the pilot will be evaluated by a team from the University of Southampton, using checklists for teachers, parents and children that have been developed locally. A control group of 200 children from three other local schools has already been recruited.
In addition to Southampton, Zippy's Friends will also be starting soon in Spelthorne, south-west of London. A group of 20 primary schools has decided to go ahead and teachers will be trained next month. More than 500 children are expected to enrol in the programme.
Caroline expects other English education authorities to follow suit.
She explained: 'English primary schools now have to include Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education in their curriculum, and Zippy's Friends is a ready-made programme for this. Hard-pressed teachers welcome the fact that they don't have to spend time coming up with ideas for the PSHCE slot because everything is ready to use.'
Although the Southampton training was primarily for local teachers, it was an international affair. Caroline's co-trainers were Jeppe Kristen Toft from Denmark and Ieva Petraviciute from Lithuania, and three trainees joined the course from Brazil, to prepare for launching Zippy's Friends in São Paulo next March.
Relaxing after the course (l-r): Diana Holmes, Educational Psychologist with Southampton Local Education Authority, Robert Paris and Alceu Nunes from Brazil, trainers Ieva Petraviciute and Jeppe Kristen Toft, and Tania Paris, co-ordinator for Zippy's Friends in Brazil.