Mental health

Mental health - educational material

-Automatic translation

Zippy's Friends

Zippy's Friends is a social and emotional learning programme for children in the early years of primary school. Many preschools have also used the materials for their oldest children.

The British organisation Partnership for Children manages the programme globally. It is taught in more than 30 countries, including Iceland.

Zippy's Friends in Iceland

Zippy's Friends has been taught in Icelandic schools since 2007. The programme has been very popular and is among the most widely used resources for life skills and for promoting social and emotional skills among the youngest primary school children.

The Programme

The programme comprises six modules, each with four lessons, for a total of 24 lessons.

Teachers receive:

detailed teaching instructions
ready-made homework assignments
various supplementary materials for use in teaching

Teachers must attend a course with the Directorate of Health to be licensed to use the programme in their teaching.

Parental Involvement

The programme expects parental participation. At the end of each module, or after every fourth lesson, children are given a homework assignment to complete with their parents.

Parents also receive introductory material about the programme, and teachers are encouraged to present its topics to them.

Further information

Read more about Zippy's Friends in the Directorate of Health report on educational materials and a whole-school approach to strengthening children's social and emotional skills in school activities (Icelandic). The report states that Zippy's Friends is among the most evidence-based social and emotional learning programmes available to schools in Iceland.

We can also point to a short article on the interest in and use of Zippy's Friends in Icelandic schools, published in Netla – an online journal covering pedagogy and education.