PSED • Self-regulation • Emotional Development
Tilly and the Journey of Me is one of the six-week intervention units within the Foundations for Learning Intervention Programme (FLIP). It is designed to support Reception children who would benefit from additional help with Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).
Through short, structured daily sessions, children develop the skills to recognise and express their feelings, regulate their emotions, build positive relationships and cope more confidently with challenges.
Access everything you need to deliver Tilly and the Journey of Me, from guidance and identification through to six weeks of structured PSED intervention resources. The Unit Guide explains the programme and its progression, while the Identification and Progression Toolkit helps you identify children who may benefit from additional support and establish their starting points. Practitioner Notes and the Participation Log support observation and progress monitoring as you work through each week’s sessions.
Start with the Unit Guide to prepare, deliver and review the programme.
Use the Identification & Progression Toolkit to identify children, monitor progress and plan next steps.
Keep a clear record of each child’s participation across the sessions.
Access each week’s planning, presentation slides and practical resources as Tilly travels through six imaginative lands, with each week building on the last.
Recognise basic emotions and begin to connect feelings with different experiences.
Explore feelings, personal strengths and challenges, and begin talking about abilities and preferences.
Notice body signals and explore simple calming strategies to support developing self-regulation.
Explore friendship, kindness and inclusion, and practise using language to build positive relationships.
Develop turn-taking, sharing and collaboration, with opportunities to practise negotiating with others.
Build resilience and perseverance, practise managing frustration and learn to keep trying when things feel difficult.
Tilly and the Journey of Me is one unit within the Foundations for Learning Intervention Programme (FLIP). Explore the main FLIP programme to discover other targeted Reception interventions and learn more about the wider approach to identifying need, delivering support and monitoring progress over time.
Explore the FLIP programme →Tilly and the Journey of Me has been designed for children in Reception who would benefit from additional support with Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED), including self-regulation, emotional development and social skills. It can be delivered 1:1 or in small groups using professional judgement.
Each session is designed to take around 10 minutes and can be delivered daily by a teacher or teaching assistant, either 1:1 or with a small group.
Yes. Tilly and the Journey of Me is designed as a structured six-week intervention, with each week building on the skills developed previously. Children move from recognising emotions and developing self-awareness through to self-regulation, relationships, cooperation and resilience, so the weeks should be completed in sequence.
Yes. Practitioners can use their professional judgement to adapt questioning, modelling, pace and the level of support to meet individual children’s needs, while keeping the intended learning outcomes and sequence of the intervention.Teachers should ensure that anyone delivering FLIP has the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience to work with young children, use professional judgement, adapt delivery where appropriate and respond to children’s individual needs.
The intervention supports key areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, including recognising and expressing feelings, developing self-regulation strategies, building positive relationships, cooperating with others and developing resilience and perseverance.
Aside from the included resources, most activities use simple classroom resources that are commonly available in Reception classrooms. Any additional resources are clearly listed within the weekly planning.
Use the Identification & Progression Toolkit, Participation Log and Practitioner Notes to record observations, monitor children’s progress throughout the programme and review next steps.
No. Tilly and the Journey of Me has been designed to be straightforward to deliver using the included practitioner guidance and resources. Anyone delivering the intervention should have the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience to support young children and respond to their individual needs.
Yes. Children may complete one FLIP unit or several, depending on the areas in which they would benefit from additional support. Professional judgement should be used when deciding which intervention is most appropriate for each child.
FLIP has been designed to fit into everyday school practice and doesn’t require any specialist equipment.
To deliver sessions, you’ll need:
All equipment and preparation requirements are clearly explained within each FLIP unit, helping practitioners set up sessions quickly and confidently.
Yes. FLIP has been developed using established educational research and national guidance relating to early intervention, communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development and inclusive practice. Throughout the programme we reference evidence from organisations including the Education Endowment Foundation, Ofsted and the Department for Education. While these organisations do not endorse FLIP, their research has informed its design.
The Department for Education’s Inclusive Mainstream Fund is intended to help mainstream schools strengthen inclusive practice through early identification, evidence-informed decision making and targeted intervention. FLIP has been developed around these same principles. Individual funding decisions remain the responsibility of schools and local authorities, so schools should always refer to the latest national and local guidance when deciding how funding is used.
Schools may choose to purchase FLIP through a range of existing budgets, depending on local priorities and funding arrangements. This may include curriculum budgets, SEND or inclusion budgets, Early Years Pupil Premium or other funding streams where appropriate. Schools should always follow their own financial procedures and local authority guidance. Pricing details are here.
FLIP combines early identification, structured intervention and progress monitoring within one consistent framework. Rather than providing isolated activities, each unit includes an Identification Toolkit, practitioner guidance, lesson presentations, practical activities and assessment materials, helping schools deliver targeted intervention with confidence.
Take a look at a complete week of FLIP with Week 1 of Tilly’s Travel Tales, our Communication & Language and Physical Development intervention. It’s free, with no membership required.
