About the Buddy Bench Programmes

Buddy Bench Ireland is a school-based positive mental health programme that promotes emotional resilience, release the stigma of asking for help, celebrate the children who act with compassion, kindness empathy and encourage them in developing conflict-management skills, thus relieving anxiety, stress and feelings of isolation.

Research has shown that anxiety is the most common form of psychological disorder, affecting up to 20% of children and teenagers. If left unattended, anxiety significantly interferes with a child’s   development and can cause serious problems in later life, such as social isolation, underachievement, depression and unfortunately suicide. For young children, constant worry about relatively normal, everyday activities (for example: school camps, playing with friends or completing homework) as well as worry about external events over which the child has no control (such as natural disasters and international conflicts) can significantly detract from a child's learning. Such disproportionate responses can also become learnt behaviour of a child's peers or siblings, multiplying the negative effects.

Children do not need to be struggling with anxiety and can benefit from being taught the proper coping skills. Strategies for managing social and academic performance, peer pressure and the formation of positive friendships as well as skills to focus on the here and now instead of worrying about of the past or fearing the future, help to strengthen and inspire all children not just those prone to emotional distress.

Playtime holds challenges for many children – whether it is because a regular playmate is missing for the day or because a child has not yet developed the social skills he or she needs to be successful. As parents, we try to give our children the tools they need to have successful friendships and to grow into compassionate adults – and the Buddy Bench is one more tool we can add as a visual reminder that sometimes we all just need a buddy.

Our aim is to use a physical “buddy bench “as a visual tool alongside our paediatric-psychotherapists-designed "Buddy Bench Aware" programmes, to reach every primary school child in Ireland as an early intervention method.

Our team of dedicated experienced psychotherapists from Life Matters whom have designed  child friendly fun programmes based on a story by Jeffrey Gormly and divided appropriately by age and comprehension.

The first American Buddy Bench was created after a boy named Christian aged 8 saw a special bench on a German school playground. Children sat on the bench to indicate that they wanted someone to play with and classmates, seeing their peers on the bench, would invite them to play. Upon learning more about that bench, Christian realized that it would be a great solution to help friends in his own school who felt lonely or had trouble finding playmates at playtime. He told his teacher and principal about his idea and Roundtown Elementary in Pennsylvania became the first US school to offer a Buddy Bench in the fall of 2013, this is now a successful Global movement.

We are in contact with Christian and he is looking forward to growth of Buddy Bench Ireland and seeing the benefits becoming apparent of the schools who partake in our "Buddy Bench Aware" program.

We piloted our programmes in Danesfort National School, Kilkenny Ireland in November 2016 with the help of the “Irish Men’s Shed” who are making the benches on a national scale.

Why do schools need training to effectively use the Buddy Bench?

Despite the good intentions behind Buddy Benches, many fall short of actually helping children because the supporting culture was not in place. Our “Buddy Bench Aware” program teaches students and school staff that there are many reasons why students use a Buddy Bench, including:

• If you are new to the school
• If you want to make new friends
• If your friends are not here today
• If you want to play something different from what  your friends are playing
• If you’re having a problem with your friends and you just can’t solve it right now/you want to take a break

Buddy Bench Rules

The Buddy Bench IS:

A very special place that reminds you to be your kindest self.

A place to sit and decide what looks interesting for you to play on the playground.

A place to include people in your play and make new friends.

A place to say "YES!" to friends who ask you to play. 

The Buddy Bench is NOT: 

A place to hang out and play with friends you already have.

A place where you say "NO!" to a friend who invites you to play. 

A place where being mean or hurtful is OK. 

A place where excluding others is OK. 

We want to roll this initiative out nationally as it entwines heavily with the SPHE program (Social Personal and Health Education) in the primary school curriculum.

Help us so we can deliver the Buddy Bench Aware Programmes to every primary school child in Ireland, forming a happier society and the voices of our younger children being heard.

Thank You

Sam Synnott: (087) 3816706

Judith Ashton  (087) 6976395

Email: hello@buddybench.ie