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Social Support and Relationships theme (Friendships)

To help support the wellbeing and resilience of young people transitioning from school Year 6 into Year 7, the Resilience Rucksack project identified four areas (or themes) that particularly stood out: Healthy Sleep Practices, Physical Activity, Social Support & Relationships, and Self-Compassion. Here, we will look at Social Support and Relationships:

In our co-production workshops for the ‘Social Support & Relationships’ theme, young people advised us on the best ways to support children with this theme. We focused on peer relationships and friendships, and two tools stood out as the best and most engaging ways to support this theme: Playing Cards and a Friendship Tree!

What are friendships?

Friendships are a type of social support and building supportive social connections and relationships is a key ingredient to improve your wellbeing and resilience.

How can friendships help you?

  • When you feel emotionally supported this helps you to be more resilient to any negative thoughts you have about yourself. This includes worrying less about what others think of you.
  • Friendships can help you to develop your communication skills, your empathy towards yourself and others, your identity, and your sense of belonging.
  • Friendships can even help you to be more active, through playing games with your friends and trying new things.
  • Good friendships can help you to feel good and safe, valued, and respected.
  • Friendships can give you someone to talk to if you want to share a happy moment, or if you feel sad or want someone to talk to.
  • You can also help your friends too, which can improve wellbeing for both people.

To find out more about this theme, please read the information sheet here.

The Playing Cards

The children specifically emphasized a light touch approach to our ‘friendships’ theme, and after long-listing and short-listing tools and approaches, felt that learning new card games with other children could be a great way to break the ice and meet new friends, both on the day of the Resilience Fair and beyond. For more details on the playing cards and to find some examples of games to play, click here.

The Friendship Tree

The children in our co-production workshops and the members of our Steering Consultation Group agreed that the concept of the Friendship Tree would be a great way to help support this theme. Each child could contribute by anonymously writing a message to their peers offering words of encouragement or support, which would then be pinned to a large image of a ‘friendship’ Tree on the classroom wall. The children could then read these messages gaining a sense that there are ‘people out there who care’ or ‘understand’ and facilitating a positive sense of community.

In discussion with participating schools, it was arranged that this wellbeing tool would be incorporated into tutor group time, to support the theme throughout the year.

For more details on our Friendship Tree please click here