The Riroriro Programme Pilot

Riroriro Pilot Evaluation

Fruitvale Primary School in partnership with Presbyterian Support Northern has developed and piloted Riroriro: a response to the significant needs of a growing cohort of children with extremely dysregulated classroom behaviours – often resulting from sustained exposure to traumatic, high-stress and high-deprivation environments from pre-birth to school age. The pilot brought together classroom interventions, teacher training, therapy, counselling and wrap around support to build each child’s capability and readiness to transition successfully into the mainstream classroom.

The full evaluation of the Riroriro pilot has found the programme has succeeded in meeting both its short-term and medium-term outcomes. The target group of children learned the skills necessary to regulate their emotions, form healthy interpersonal relationships and - for five of the six target children - be ready to move into the mainstream educational environment. Their newly-developed skills have been demonstrated both within Riroriro and in mainstream classrooms.