Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Social and emotional skills are widely acknowledged to be essential to being a virtuous student, citizen and worker. School leaders acknowledge the significance of student wellbeing in all areas of their learning.
Teaching children social and emotional skills helps to promote resilience – the capacity to cope and stay healthy in spite of the negative things that happen through life.
What does social and emotional learning have to do with learning?
Research has shown that children’s learning is influenced by a range of social and emotional factors. How well children do at school is affected by things such as:
- how confident children feel about their abilities show effectively they are able to manage their own behaviour
- how well they can concentrate and organise themselves
- how effectively they can solve problems
- how positively they are able to get on with teaching staff and with peers
- how effectively they take into account others’ needs
- how well they can understand and accept responsibilities.
- how social and emotional learning is taught
St Monica’s implements a number of strategies, programs and resources to support the individual need of all students including whole school initiatives and external intervention agencies.
These include:
- Buddy program
- Playground Buddies
- Play options
- Respectful Relationships program
- Transition program
- Social and Emotional Learning programs
- Personalised Individual Learning plans
- Safety Plans
- Wellbeing Leader
- Onsite psychologist
- Onsite speech pathologist
- Learning Assistants
- School wide Positive Behaviour for Learning
- Student Leaders