Welcome to the SEAL Community!
Social and emotional learning helps children and young people to:
‘… learn how to communicate their feelings, set themselves goals and work towards them, interact successfully with others, resolve conflicts peaceably, control their anger and negotiate their way through the many complex relationships in their lives today and tomorrow’.
This kind of learning underpins positive behaviour and attitudes to learning, personal development and mental health and wellbeing. It is at the heart of PSHE, relationships and health education.
Research shows it also helps raise attainment. Social and emotional learning is attracting increasing attention in schools. On this website you will find age-related teaching resources and whole school frameworks to support your work.
Many of them come from the national ‘Social and emotional Learning’ (SEAL) initiative. By registering with us (which is free, quick and easy), you can immediately find and download all of the national SEAL curriculum materials and teacher guidance. There’s a progression in learning objectives that can be used in any school, and training materials if you want to introduce or refresh a whole-school SEAL approach. Click on National Resources then click the Getting Started with SEAL tab.
If you would like regularly updated teaching resources, you can also join our SEAL Community. Set up and supported by leading experts in the field, the SEAL Community is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to promote and develop SEAL through sharing news, practice, resources and expertise. Joining costs £30 for individuals, £75 for schools/settings and £100 for local authorities or other multi-school organisations. Click the Join button on this page to join.
News update
Calls to Childline from children under 11 struggling with loneliness have risen by 71 per cent in just five years, latest data shows.
Children and young people who feel safe in school, enjoy coming to school, and that they belong in school were less likely to have a mental disorde
The primary collection features 40 books for 3-11-year olds; the secondary collection has 25 books for 12-16-year olds.
Sharing practice
RULER is a well-researched American SEL programme which uses four main tools: a class or school Charter, a Mood Meter, tools to m
Beckley Ashley Irving, SENCO at Tetney Primary School, describes how her school promotes wellbeing.
At Brookvale Primary School, all children, staff and parents focused for two weeks on acts of kindness and helped each other fill their kindness bu
Resource roundup
Since the pandemic, there has been a big rise in numbers of children who feel anxious about going to school.
Have a look at the short films and discussion prompts created by the DIALLS project, which teaches children to be tolerant, empat
Download the Go-To Guide to help children identify, understand and work through their emotions.
Practical tools
We loved this picture to use as an emotional check-in; children choose which frog best represents how they are feeling.
We came across this in – of all places – a street in San Francisco while on a twice-COVID-postponed big holiday.
We often use punishments and rewards to tackle attendance problems – but some schools approach it differently.
Try these ideas (and age progression) from Edutopia
Get children to design a poster for your calm-down corner, using the words
New research
In this study psychologists recruited nearly 4,000 people from 19 countries and divided them into groups who imitated the facial expressions of smiling actors
This study looked at whether child maltreatment experiences affect the development of empathy.
This study investigated the impact of the counselling services provided by the charity Place2Be.
In 2003 and 2004, a team of researchers implemented a year-long social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention with 192 children in 22 classrooms
Longitudinal research shows that teachers significantly impact the long-term physical and mental health of their pupils.
Top resource
This is a great new book from Tina Rae, with activities to support children and young people who have lost someone they love
This is a nice book of poems to share with KS2 ...
In I Really Want to Shout by Simon Philip, a little girl uses witty and insightful rhyme to tell us about the things that make her angry...
In this book by Kate Milner, a young boy discusses the journey he is about to make with his mother...