Michele Hedley

This term the SEL focus will be on developing the students’ Social Awareness. Our 6 school agreed ways explicitly teach children how to show respect to others. Developing Social Awareness helps our students understand how they can have a positive impact on those around them by being respectful and helping others.

What is social and emotional learning (SEL)?

Children grow and change in many ways during primary school. As well as growing physically, they develop socially, emotionally and cognitively. Primary school is a key time for children to build on the development that’s occurred since birth and will continue into adolescence and adulthood.

Practical skills

SEL is all about children learning values, knowledge and skills that help them relate to others effectively and contribute positively to their home and educational environment. Applied to everyday situations, SEL is a practical process through which children:

Develop and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to

develop a strong sense of self
set and achieve positive goals
feel and show empathy for others
establish and maintain positive relationships
communicate effectively
work to resolve conflict
make responsible decisions
handle challenging situations.

Children who've developed social and emotional skills ﬁnd it easier to manage their emotions, relate to others, make decisions, resolve conﬂict and feel positive about themselves and the world around them. They’re more likely to perform better academically with enhanced motivation to engage and achieve.

The Learning Assets give students practical skills to enhance and explicitly teach SEL.