Post Covid-19 lockdown challenges

A teacher in a special educational needs school in the Cayman Islands shares her experience of delivering Zippy’s Friends for SEND. We hear how the programme has had an impact on her own wellbeing and the difference the programme is making to the children during the return to school post Covid-19 lockdown.
 
'I was fortunate enough to be one the teachers trained in Zippy’s Friends for SEND last year. In a short space of time it was clear to see the impact the Zippy’s programme was having on the students with moderate learning difficulties that I was working with. The way that the students were interacting with each other improved, they were showing empathy and understanding of how everyone was feeling.
 
The management of their own emotions improved within the first couple of sessions, they began using breathing and counting techniques, as well as other coping strategies learnt in Zippy’s Friends which helped to reduce the low level disruptive behaviours within the classroom.
 
I also applied the coping strategies we learnt in Zippy’s Friends in my everyday life to help manage the stress and emotional rollercoaster that comes along with being an educator and it helped me to feel more in control. 
 
The most amazing part was this all happened within such a short space of time, just over a term. The students and I were very invested in the programme and did what we could during the Covid-19 Lockdown to run the sessions over Zoom.
 
Zippy’s Friends is now back up and running in the classroom, much to everyone’s delight. The golden rules are being applied across multiple areas of the curriculum and the coping tool box is well and truly in use as we all take on the challenge of the new normal back at school.'