03Mar By Alex Panton FoundationPartners News Partnership for Children – news from the UK and around the World Partnership for Children – news from the UK and around the WorldDear Friends,In these extremely challenging times, helping children to deal with change and uncertainty has never been more important. Our programmes deal with difficult issues such as anxiety, change and loss – issues that children around the world are now facing on a daily basis due to the coronavirus (Covid-19). Whether you are a teacher, a partner organisation, a parent, a supporter or someone interested in promoting good mental health, we are extremely grateful for your ongoing support which means that we can continue to help children, teachers and families during this difficult time.Stay safe and healthy.The team at Partnership for Children Coronavirus (Covid-19) – Mental Health Teaching Resources for Parents, Carers and School StaffPartnership for Children will continue to support school staff, parents and carers of children and young people during these difficult times. Over the coming weeks we will be providing ‘Skills for Life Covid-19 Support Resources’ with activities that teachers, parents and carers can run with children. The activities will help children to develop coping skills to deal with the current situation. Themes will include: how to deal with changes in routine, how to effectively communicate during the isolation and how to cope with anxiety over change and loss.We will work to support our Skills For Life trained teachers continuing to teach the programmes in adapted circumstances (small groups/1-2-1) or if they are sending resources and lessons home for children to complete. Please click this link to email me with any questions you have or requests for support. Our Skills for Life programmes are going digitalVoksne for Barn, our Norwegian partner, will be the first to provide Zippy’s Friends and Passport online. Kirsti, the IT genius at VfB, has created a new website where trained teachers can access all the programme resources, plus short videos explaining various aspects of the programmes. Hilde, Zippy and Passport Coordinator at VfB, explained: ‘Almost all resources provided for schools these days are digital. Going digital will also make the logistics and expenses for revising the material easier.’Teachers say, ‘This makes Zippy sessions more flexible and easier to adjust to my class.’ ‘The Dragon’s Path [in Passport] as a digital gameboard is wonderful.’ Meanwhile, Juliana, Director of ASEC in Brazil, will trial an online training course on the Moodle platform for Zippy teachers this year. Brazil is so vast that a trainer may take several days to reach a remote region, so online training is far more practical. The course will include face-to-face contact and chat via webinar. It will be fascinating to see how it compares to traditional training in person.Lesson plans for all our Skills for Life programmes will also be available online for all UK trained teachers ready to access at the start of the new term in April.