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 here to join
News update
Young Minds have released their annual (and much loved) winter Wellbeing Advent Calendars – daily activities for children, and staff for the period 25 November – 13 December.
An analysis by the Children’s Society reveals the UK is at the bottom of European rankings in terms of life satisfaction across 27 nations.
The world's largest empathy festival for schools is back for a 6th year. It is a free annual festival of film, storytelling and events for students aged 5-18. Mark your calendars for 10th - 14th March 2025.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) has hit a new record in the USA, where more than 8 out of 10 schools are implementing a SEL Curriculum and implementing SEL through regular check-ins with students, SEL integrated into academic content, and opportunities to promote student agency.
Sharing practice
Four secondary schools in Torfaen in Wales developed a great project some years ago to ease transition to secondary school for students identified as at potential risk of exclusion. Two of the schools recorded no Y7 exclusions for the year following the project, and the rest showed reduced exclusions in Y7 when compared to the previous three years.
Each year, staff at Exminster Primary ran a series of five weekly Family SEAL sessions for new Reception class parents. The format was an adult session immediately followed by time for adults and children to undertake activities together.
Resource roundup
Brilliant new resources to develop empathy skills and support anti-hate discussions, and to help children learn how to be good listeners
New ideas and resources here for the SEAL themes about setting goals, persistence, resilience, confidence
If you’re planning any workshops/discussions with families about social and emotional learning there are some nice ideas (used selectively) in this CASEL Guide.
Looking for an inspirational short film for an assembly or lesson? Have a look at the new Character Counts resources. There’s a lesson library you can explore by SEL area (self-awareness, self-regulation etc) or by six character strengths/values, or search for specific topics such as kindness, empathy, perseverance, resilience or teamwork.
Check out the Zones of Regulation Digital Curriculum, which includes interactive presentations, videos and new visuals. It is the next evolution of the original best-selling book by Leah Kuypers, and offers a comprehensive approach to help learners ages four upward to understand and manage their emotions effectively.
Practical tools
If your school can find £1200 we think a good investment would be two days of groupwork with the organisation Progressive Masculinity . Mike Nicholson and his team provide brilliant workshops for groups of boys – they suggest focusing on the older ones and the leaders/peer influencers first. Here is a sample of their activities/discussion questions.
Leah Kuypers, who devised the very popular Zones of Regulation, has some advice on using the Zones in the early years.
One of the easiest ways for teachers to incorporate mental health check-ins with their students is to rethink the way they use their entry and exit tickets.
Try using ChatGPT to create lesson plans aligned to specific incidents or student needs.
New research
Empathy Studios have worked with Cambridge University to evaluate the impact of its work in ten schools, with 900 students. The evaluation found that teachers reported higher student empathy and improved behaviour at the end of a five week programme.
Social isolation and reduced access to services may have brought the experiences of traditionally advantaged groups closer
A survey of 2,594 primary students (aged 7 to 11) and 2145 secondary students , carried out by the organisation Embracing D
Top resource
Realy useful emotion wheel for classroom work on identifying and naming different feelings . Use it as a poster or on the whiteboard.
My Life on Fire by Cath How is a great book to use in upper KS2 to discuss and develop empathy.
We loved these sheep memes, to use in emotion check-ins ...
