SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Last week, I included information for parents about the importance of Social and Emotional Learning. Developing skills in self-awareness is the key area that we will be focusing on as a school this term.

SELF-AWARENESS

How we feel about a situation will depend on what we think about the situation, and these feelings will affect what actions we take. Even as adults we can struggle with emotions and responses in difficult situations.

Learning to recognise, name and describe emotions is the first step to managing them. Children need our support to learn about their emotions and how to manage them.

Tips for talking about emotions with your child

• Talk to your children about how they feel about every day things going on around them and encourage them to use descriptive words to describe how they feel.
• Talk about how you feel and demonstrate the use of different language to describe how you feel to demonstrate how feelings can change throughout the day.

Emotions and Literature

A great way for children to explore emotions is through literature, no matter what their age. Stories that describe people expressing their emotions can help your child to relate the characters and how they are feeling. This can also help your child to develop empathy for others and experience, with a range of different feelings.

Watching television or movies together and identifying the responses and emotions of the characters or discussing your own emotional responses to the stories is another good way to explore emotions.

Strengths and capabilities

You can help your child develop their sense of identity and self-awareness through discussion and support.

The following tips may help:

• Help your children think about their abilities and what they are capable of in a realistic way, eg you throw really well for someone your age.
• Encourage your children to try new activities.
• Help them to find ways to deal with problems rather than telling them what to do. Ask questions like, “What could you so?” and “What do you think?”
• Listen to your children and show them that you value what they have to say.
• Foster their growing need for independence. Begin with basics like caring for their own belongings, making their own bed and feeding their pets.

MRS LILLIAN DEL GUDICE

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

VALUES AWARDS

3 GREEN

Isaiah V – Stewardship – For ensuring that our environment is respected and cared for

Louis P – Stewardship – For caring for our environment by ensuring rubbish is placed in the correct bin

3 GOLD

Marcus B - Stewardship - For his willingness to care for our environment

Millie S - Compassion - For showing love and kindness in all her interactions

4 GOLD

Sebastian W – Compassion – For always showing kindness and compassion to others by looking out for his friends in need

Noah V - Celebration – For celebrating the goodness in others by acknowledging their kindness and friendship

4 GREEN

Ella C – Doing Your Best – For persevering when working through Challenging Maths tasks

Akansha C – Leadership – For displaying organisation skills when working in a team situation

4 BLUE

Kristo K – Justice – For trying hard to ensure that fairness happens within our classroom

Koby P – Doing your Best – For persistence and challenging himself in Mathematics

5 BLUE

Therese G – Doing Your Best – For her dedication and effort in SPLICED

Ivy K – Faith – For always displaying reverence during Christian Meditation

5 GOLD

Patrick F – Compassion - For the way he respects and interacts with others in the classroom

Emily F – Doing Your Best – For consistently trying her best in all Key Learning Areas and applying feedback to improve

5 GREEN

Caleb L – Doing your Best – For always seeking and using feedback to improve his learning

Adelle B – Celebration – For her enthusiastic support of others and their learning

6 GOLD

Ayvah H – Celebration – For celebrating peer success and achievements in Sport

6 GREEN

Miyah M – Leadership – For displaying qualities of sportsmanship and teamwork during PE