Friendship Groups
Friendship Groups are designed to be positive and fun, and are primarily aimed at shifting unhealthy behaviour patterns in younger children. This kind of direct intervention is useful for addressing persistent issues, especially because these patterns can become increasingly problematic as students enter older grades, and more difficult to shift as children grow older.
In working with friendship groups over the past seven years, we have found that including the older peers as mentors within the group can accelerate the achievement of the desired outcomes. Our experience shows that participants enjoy these groups so much that they do not want them to end.
The Program:
The Friendship Groups involve peer leaders and younger students coming together on a weekly basis in a highly engaging, positive environment, to find creative ways that inspire children to break unhealthy patterns. The types of issues addressed include:
- isolation
- disruptive behaviour
- cliques that may knowingly or unconsciously exclude others
Key features:
- Weekly sessions explore the underlying dynamics within the group to shift behaviours and patterns
- Customized objectives based on the issues and strengths identified by group participants
- Small group environment with up to six students per group
- Facilitated by an adult and two older peers from the Peer Leadership Program. The adult can be either a SELF facilitator or a school staff member trained by SELF
As part of the Friendship Groups program, SELF will provide a parent education session on ways to support children’s friendships and to address friendship challenges at each age during elementary school. The session will also cover issues related to sleep, nutrition and technology time.
Program benefits:
- Involves students in an engaging and appealing process that makes them want to continue to participate in future Friendship Groups
- Shifts problem dynamics that may have been entrenched over time
- Trains existing school staff to run current or future Friendship Groups (with or without SELF)
- Builds existing school capacity by supporting school staff and peer leaders
- Fosters a culture that values leadership
- Dealing with problematic dynamics results in an entire classroom enjoying the benefits of reduced tension and greater harmony, with new, positive behaviours often becoming part of a healthier culture for that grade
Success, Strategies and Habits for Self-Directed Learners (Grades 6 and up)
This two-session workshop shares effective strategies to help self-directed learners meet a variety of learning objectives. In the first session, we help students identify inspiring goals and projects, and create a realistic and supportive project plan. In the second session, we teach students how to manage their unique work patterns and develop daily habits that set them up for success.
The workshop also introduces techniques for effective self-reflection and stress management, as well as approaches to dealing with procrastination.
Healthy Media Use – coming soon
Learn how to use media in a way that supports your happiness rather than detracts from it.
SELF’s Healthy Media Use workshop provides nine sessions to help students explore their relationship with media. With a playful yet research based focus on identifying what they want to ‘feed their brains,’ the workshop supports students as they consider the links between media use and optimal happiness and personal growth. This includes finding ways to set limits around the amount of time spent online and to increase awareness of healthy and harmful online messaging, learning and activities, and making wise use of their cell phones and computers.
The workshop’s first three sessions exclusively benefit the older peers and provide an opportunity for safe reflection on their personal media use and habits. In the second set of three sessions, the older peers craft lesson plans for their use as peer mentors to pass on their knowledge to the younger students. The final three sessions involve the delivery of healthy media use lessons by the peer mentors to the younger students, with the support of SELF’s team and school staff.