Wellbeing

Small Group Social and Emotional Learning 

This term, Anne Gollan, a Melbourne-based Drama Therapist and a Drama and Creative Movement Teacher facilitated a series of small group social and emotional learning (SEL) sessions focusing on the complex and often challenging terrain of friendship. 

The workshops used drama therapy and creative arts activities to help students explore their personal identity and enhance their social interactions. Through storytelling, movement, role-play, and art-making, students practiced empathy, honesty, self-awareness, and healthy boundary-setting in a playful, supportive environment.

In one activity students worked together to create their imagined “Land of Friendship.” One student reflected that this activity made them feel “big and strong from being together.”

In another activity, students created portraits of each other—each portrait infused with imagined superpowers that celebrated their partner’s strengths. One student shared, “I chose kindness and fire as superpowers for [my partner], because she is kind and funny and kind of fiery.”

TPS offers small group SEL sessions to students intermittently throughout the year, alongside our whole school SEL program.  These groups are facilitated by practitioners, often as part of their postgraduate studies or in the early stages of their career.  Small group SEL sessions encourage children to learn teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills. They learn to navigate social situations, negotiate roles, and work together towards shared goals. If you feel that your child would benefit from participating in one of these groups, please contact their classroom teacher.