Best of Friends Program

Best of Friends Program

Best of Friends (BoF) is a targeted social skills program designed to strengthen students’ friendship skills, emotional understanding and confidence in social situations.

At Somerville Rise, the BoF program supports students to develop the practical skills needed to build and maintain positive peer relationships. Through structured, small-group sessions led by trained staff, students practise and apply skills in a safe and supportive environment.

The program focuses on:

• Understanding emotions in themselves and others
• Positive communication and active listening
• Turn-taking and cooperative play
• Problem-solving and conflict resolution
• Flexible thinking and perspective-taking
• Help-seeking and self-regulation strategies

Students engage in discussions, role-play scenarios, games and guided reflection activities to rehearse real-life social situations. Skills learned in BoF are reinforced within the classroom to promote consistency and confidence across settings.

Best of Friends aligns with the Victorian Curriculum Personal and Social Capability and complements our whole-school wellbeing approach, including Berry Street and Zones of Regulation, ensuring students experience consistent language and strategies across the school.