The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), with support from our colleagues in the Galway Education Support Centre, are holding an online implementation cluster session for teachers who have previously completed training or delivered either the Friends for Life Programme and/or the Fun Friends Programme.

This session will be held on Thursday 29th January 2026 from 1:30pm to 3:00pm. To register please click here or on the registration button below.

What are the Friends for Life and Fun Friends Programmes?
These programmes are evidence-based anxiety prevention and resilience building programmes, which consist of 10 to 12 sessions and complement the SPHE curriculum. More information can be found here.

What is the purpose of this implementation cluster session?
Many teachers have been trained in these programmes over the past 10 years by NEPS (refresher training is available on the Friends Resilience Hub). This Implementation Cluster Session will allow teachers who have delivered the programme/s previously to refresh their knowledge of the programmes, support them in implementing the programmes in their setting, hear about revisions and developments, discuss challenges and solutions, see new books and resources on the Friends Resilience Hub aswell as allow for questions and sharing of good practice amongst teachers running the programme.

Who should attend?
Teachers who have completed the initial facilitator training and who have possibly delivered either programme can attend this session - this includes class teachers, special education teachers, deputy principals and principals. It doesn't matter when you trained as a facilitator as long as anyone attending has previously received training in these programmes from NEPS.

Which Primary classes do these programmes apply to?

• Friends For Life - 3rd to 6th Class
• Fun Friends - while Fun Friends training is suitable for Junior Infants to 2nd Class, it can be used with students with additional needs in older classes. It also facilitates the option of teaching the programme to younger children, if the teacher moves class levels. 

• There is no cost for this cluster session
• No substitution cover is available for this session, schools can make their own local arrangements to facilitate attendance.

• Only teachers registered as Certified Facilitators with Friends Resilience can order books and access resources (posters, videos, links) for running the programmes in their classrooms. They order books through their online Friends Resilience Hub (details of which will be discussed at the session). There are also free resources following book purchase.
• The current cost of the Activity Book is €10 (available through Friends Resilience Hub). Each student must have their own, original Activity Book.
• The Facilitator Manual is between €12-€50 (depending on the book format: printed or pdf) which is available after training from Friends Resilience. One Facilitator Manual must be available to the teacher delivering the programme, after training.