SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

This term all students at Mary Immaculate will be participating in activities designed to develop their social and emotional skills. Social and emotional learning begins at birth and is first experienced in the family home. Throughout their lives children learn from you as a teacher and role model for the social and emotional skills they need in their world. Children with well-developed social and emotional skills find it easier to manage themselves, relate to others, develop resilience and a sense of self-worth, resolve conflict, engage in teamwork and feel positive about themselves and the world around them. As parents you play an important role in enhancing this learning at home.

The Australian Curriculum outlines these social and emotional skills as Personal and Social Capabilities which are to be taught in every school across Australia. Social and emotional learning is the process of developing and practising important social and emotional understandings and skills. These understandings and skills can be grouped into five key areas. This term our focus will be on teaching Self-Awareness Skills.

1.  Self-awareness skills help us to recognise and understand our feelings, while valuing our strengths and abilities. This involves:

• being able to understand what we are feeling
• understanding why we might feel a certain way
• recognising and having confidence to use our strengths and abilities

 2.  Self-management skills enable us to handle and direct our emotions in appropriate ways. This involves:

• managing our emotions so they don’t stop us from effectively dealing with situations and pursuing our goals
• striving to achieve our goals despite difficulties

 3.  Social-awareness skills help us to be aware and respectful of the feelings and perspectives of others. This involves:

• recognising what others may be feeling
• trying to understand a situation from another’s point of view
• accepting and valuing people who are different from ourselves

 4.  Relationship skills help us to deal positively with relationship problems and other social conflicts. These skills include:

• making friends and maintaining healthy relationships
• dealing effectively with negative social influences and conflicts
• seeking help if we are not able to solve a social problem ourselves

 5.  Social decision-making skills help us to consider the consequences of our actions for ourselves and others, and make thoughtful, effective decisions. This involves:

• understanding how a situation makes us feel
• considering the different choices we have and the positive and negative consequences of each of these choices when making a decision
• making positive choices, while considering how these choices may affect ourselves and others.

 MRS LILLIAN DEL GUDICE

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL