ISPCC is delighted to announce that it is now expanding Smart Moves the in classroom resilience building
programme. Smart Moves for sixth-class students is designed to give young people making the
transition between primary and secondary schools the skills to increase their overall resilience.
For many children, the move from primary school to second level can be a tough one. Anxiety levels
among students are high, exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. At Childline, we have seen increases
in the number of children and young people presenting with anxiety, with school avoidance becoming
an increasingly common issue.
But the ISPCC can help with our free Smart Moves programme.
It can help to empower sixth-class students and it has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from
users with one student saying that the programme helped them to talk about their concerns and
realise that they did have support.
Smart Moves was launched in September 2021 and initially rolled out to over 50 primary schools.
Now primary schools throughout the country are being offered the opportunity to benefit from the
programme which provides coping tools for sixth-class students.
This free, evidence-based programme is aimed at all sixth-class students. It includes 15 short
lessons, covering topics from friendship to problem-solving to sleep difficulties.
The programme’s resources are sent directly to each school: they include a manual for the teacher as
well as a private booklet for each student in which they can explore their thoughts and feelings during
each module.
Smart Moves has received extremely positive feedback from its users, with all the schools that initially
took part in the programme opting to participate again this coming academic year.
According to one teacher who was involved in the programme, “it stimulated good conversations”,
while another said that the programme was very easy to use, adding that “it encouraged pupils to
think about potential worries, problems and routes of support”. Another teacher lauded Smart Moves
for helping students to realise about all the people who are there to support them.
For the students themselves, completing the Smart Moves programme was an overwhelmingly
positive experience and they would recommend that other schools get involved in it.
As one sixth-class pupil said, “it made me feel more prepared by talking about my feelings and other
people’s feelings” while another added that doing the programme made them feel less worried about
the transition to secondary school. The private booklet was also a winner, which one student saying
how they liked the fact that teachers could only look at it if they had permission and students didn’t
have to read out what they had written in it.
For more information or to register your interest in Smart Moves, go to ispcc.ie/smart-moves. Places
are limited so please make contact as soon as possible.
Smart Moves is proudly supported by Avolon Aviation, a corporate supporter of the ISPCC.
