Helping Pupils Feel Connected, Capable, and Confident

Easy to embed within PSHE, pastoral or wellbeing provision

  • Involving children's communities in building resilience, including children's workforce, schools, families and peers

  • Capturing children's voices and empowering them to seek support and support others

  • Improving prosocial behaviour, helping to reduce exclusions and suspensions in schools

  • Creating a safe and supportive environment, helping to reducing absenteeism in schools

  • Involving parent/carers and significant others through shared language and celebration

  • Involvement of staff teams in Team of Life, building team cohesion and individual awareness of support networks

  • When children have safe, supportive relationships and learn to believe in their abilities, they build the confidence to pursue their goals and face challenges with courage

  • Through connection, conversation, and care, we can help young people write stronger, more hopeful stories about themselves

The social approach to resilience

A unique narrative approach to building resilience aimed at children and young people aged 7 and upwards. Our programme builds resilience by activating children and young people's support systems.

Team of Life offers a way to involve the whole school community in building resilience. Schools select the staff they wish to lead on the implementation of Team of Life who will be trained to deliver our unique resilience programme as well as provided with tools that enable them to involve the school community through Team of Life activities.
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Key Features

The Team of Life builds resilience by activating children and young people's support systems and empowers them with the confidence to achieve their goals with the help of their support team.

  • Children decide who they would like to think of as being in their ‘team of life’ from among their family, friends and other people who are important to them

  • Recognising the skills in their teams helps them to build social support networks and develop children's confidence that they have the back up they need

  • Drawing how they worked together with their team to achieve a goal is an innovative way of telling positive stories of achievement and hope that encourage resilience

  • Children are reminded that celebrating goals with a team is much more fun than on your own, encouraging pro-social behaviour and social skills development

  • Being part of a team makes it easier to think about how to tackle problems together, giving children a sense of belonging and connection

Promoting positive mental health and school belonging

Research by University of Liverpool has shown Team of Life helps to increase pro-social behaviour and reduce social withdrawal

Since the pandemic, mental health problems have increased in the UK. A recent survey undertaken by NHS found that 20% of children aged 8-16 had a ‘probable mental disorder’ (NHS England, 2024), which is an increase of 50% compared to 2017. Schools have also recorded the highest ever exclusions and suspensions in academic year 2022-23 (gov.uk, 2024). Team of Life helps to promote a sense of belonging and social cohesion, which in turn can promote school attendance. Children learn to recognise and build their support networks and become more aware of their strengths and achievements.

Audience

No prior therapy training is required - just a commitment to helping children grow in confidence and connection. The programme is ideal for:

  • Teachers

  • Mental health leads

  • SENCO's

  • Teaching assistants

  • Learning support workers

  • School counsellors

  • Learning mentors

  • Youth and family practitioners

  • Anyone in the school that is supporting student's social and emotional development

Primary Schools

Up to 500 students on roll

Includes facilitator training and follow up support for up to 5 members of staff, introductory training for parent/carers, and all school staff. Whole school training can be in person inset or twilight session or online on demand course.
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Team of Life Resilience Programme

Secondary Schools

Over 500 students on roll

Includes facilitator training and follow up support for up to 10 members of staff, introductory training for parent/carers, and all school staff. Whole school training can be in person inset or twilight session or online on demand course.
Contact us
Team of Life Resilience Programme

Training Options

If you would like to discuss our Whole School Packages further, for example you would like a bespoke package, you are interested in commissioning in person training or represent a group or chain of schools please contact us to discuss your requirements

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Team of Life Whole School Package

Here are all the products included in the annual subscription. We offer packages for schools of different sizes but if you have any specific requirements do get in touch

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We train you to deliver the Team of Life Programme

Ready to learn how to deliver this unique resilience programme?

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Team of Life Whole School Package

Includes everything you need to involve the whole school community in building resilience

  • Programme delivery

    Schools select staff members to lead on the implementation of Team of Life in their school. These staff members complete facilitator training to become Team of Life Coaches and can deliver the programme.

  • Community involvement

    Staff and families are introduced to Team of Life through a short online course and can be involved as members of children's teams and through Team of Life activities such as ceremonies to celebrate children's teams and goal stories.

  • Developing a team culture

    Team cohesion and wellbeing among staff teams can be enhanced through Team of Life activities that help build a sense of camaraderie, highlighting how teams work together to achieve goals.

Testimonials

Andrew Hastings - Secondary Behaviour Improvement Teacher, TESSA, St Helens Borough Council

"I am now looking forwards to promoting Team of Life to all 9 high schools in St Helens. I will be using the course across schools for those who are at risk of being permanently excluded. I work closely with referred families and i genuinely believe that narrative therapy may build bonds between school, students and parents."

Sabahat Malik – Senior Practitioner, Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

“I have delivered the Team of Life programme as an EMHP to primary school and secondary school pupils. The engagement, progress and positive impact was quick and very much noticeable after the first few sessions. I had great pleasure in delivering Team of Life and loved seeing the fruitful impact it had on children and young people who were in need of the support. The impacts of Team of Life are lasting and truly changing lives. Most of all, the CYPs absolutely loved it and took away valuable, everyday life skills.”

Laura North, Family Worker Buckinghamshire Mental Health Support Team

"One child said ‘ I feel so much happier than I was’’. A child tackled a problem of bullying – loved his advice, ‘’When you are bullied, it is good to tell an adult because holding on is not good’’. From delivering Team of Life I feel it not only empowers the young people but it lets those working with the young person’s to know more about the great support there is surrounding the children! I am amazed that through the Team of Life you uncover so much about the child’s voice, and that promotes empathy and understanding and builds relationships!"

Jayne Hart, Educational Mental Health Practitioner, Wirral Mental Health Support Team

“I have delivered Team of Life to 4 groups of young people ranging from year 3 to year 6. I find it is a lovely piece of work. I have seen how some young people have flourished and gained confidence to join clubs in and out of school, plus take part in assemblies and school performances. SENCO's have commented that they can see a difference in the young people who have taken part in Team of Life.”

Dr Laura Tozer, Clinical Psychologist, Buckinghamshire Mental Health Support Team

“The Team of Life training provided by Riverbank Psychology was incredibly helpful to our team. The experiential learning enabled the team to fully embrace the Team of Life approach and we all hugely enjoyed the training whilst learning a great deal. The training provided the opportunity for the team to learn about each other, consider who is in our own ‘team of life’ and reflect on our values. I would highly recommend this training to anyone who is looking to run Team of Life.”

Claire Owens, Director, Next Chapter CIC

“The Team of Life provides a common language that most students understand… I consistently witness students experiencing an appreciation and understanding of the value of support networks and how this has a positive impact on their lives. I have been particularly struck by the importance of stories, which comes from a narrative approach and how this can be used for children to tell their story, with a deeper understanding of how their experiences shape their attitude towards the future, finding key positive learning experiences from difficult circumstances.”

Dr Hayley Lugassy, Educational Psychologist, Cheshire East Council

"We are keen to begin implementing this wonderful intervention as soon as possible.”

Stephanie Davey, Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner

"I loved watching the young people grow in confidence throughout the programme and start to share more about their lives with us.’’ 

Lucy Rothwell, Education Mental Health Practitioner, Alder Hey Mental Health Support Team

Last week we were trained in the Team of Life, which is a strength focused, narrative approach. We thought about how we could use this approach in schools to help CYP identify support systems, strengthen friendships and increase self-esteem. Thank you @riverbankpsych