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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

Get started with SEAL

Register or join the SEAL Community here

Whats new

News update

Save the date

Mark your calendars for 9th - 13th March 2026, next year’s Empathy Week. The theme for 2026, ‘My Culture | Your Culture | Our Culture’, will give students a chance to explore the cultures that shape their identities, ...

Green shoots of recovery

Teenage mental health could be on the mend, as new research reveals a sharp decline in distress and signs of recovery from the pandemic’s impact. The report, Green Shoots and Grass Roots, draws on new polling by Public First of over 1,000 11- to 18-year-olds, using questions first asked in 2021 as a reference point.

Teen girls struggling in Wales

A Public Health Wales survey of 130,000 secondary students has found that a fifth of teenage girls reported that their social media use was ‘problematic’ – twice the percentage found among boys.

Princess of Wales says we must prioritise social and emotional skills

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood has published a new framework aimed at improving awareness of and knowledge about social and emotional skills to inspire action across society, as part of The Princess of Wales’ mission to create a happier, healthier society.

Now and Beyond is back on 5 February 2025

Now in its fifth year, Now and Beyond is a national online festival for educational settings. It equips educators with the tools they need to facilitate difficult conversations on subjects that confront them every day, including resilience, self harm, and suicidal ideation.

Sharing practice

Family SEAL for transition in the primary school

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.

Teaching self-regulation through transactional analysis at Matthew Moss High

Watch this amazing film case study about how Matthew Moss High School have reshaped relationships and helped students (and adults) regulate their emotions and behaviour – by teaching staff and students about transactional analysis.

What does a classroom built around social emotional learning really look like?

At Parkway Elementary School it looks like this..

A totally brilliant idea – the Human Library at Ladybridge High School in Bolton

Ladybridge High School have created a distinctive approach to personal development, in which learners can elect to visit the ‘Human Library’ during weekly 30-minute personal development time...

How to stress like a champion

How about a cross-curricular module on stress, taking it beyond just PSHE? This is what they’ve done at an American high school...

Resource roundup

First Five

We like some of the ideas from EdTomorrow’s ‘First Five’. These are quick five minute classroom activities to start the day that foster connections and belonging. ...

Understanding our brains

Do you want to get beyond the simple flight or flight neuroscience with your older students? Help them understand what is happening in the cells of their body when emotions are activated? Learn about the cascade model?

Into Film Relationships resources

We were all shocked by the Adolescence Netflix drama. You will know that Into Film have made the series available to schools along with teaching resources . But did you know about another Into Film resource for teaching about relationships? R

Toxic masculinity

Addressing the impact of Masculinity Influencers on Teenage Boys: A guide for schools, teachers and parents/guardians is a useful resource based on research conducted in Dublin.

Exploring gender stereotypes

In this interesting activity students tape or clip cards with different qualities on a string on the wall with Male at one end and Female at the other end. They discuss questions about gender stereotyping, what was difficult or easy about the activity and how it feels to have an opinion challenged by a different opinion

Practical tools

Try saying this…

When students are stressed or upset or having behaviour problems, try these really useful adult responses from Young Minds.

How have you felt this week?

If your students have individual access to laptops,  have them Go to the Interactive version of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. Ask them to click on three emotions they’ve felt this week. Then read the short blurbs to discover what each one might be trying to tell them — and how that insight could help guide their next steps.

Roses and thorns

Try the rose and thorn check-in, in which students share roses—something positive going on for them that day—and thorns, which are negative, or at least less than positive. Be sure to share yours too. Students can choose their level of vulnerability ...

Animal mood boards

Make check-ins fun and vary them by searching Google Images for ‘animal check-in mood boards’. We love this one, of Moo Deng the viral baby hippo. Which Moo Deng mood are you today?

Sticky Note Check-In

Students put a sticky note on the whiteboard or a poster that has different categories (such as “I’m doing great today” or “I’m struggling”), with the option to write more on the back of the note for the teacher’s eyes only.

New research

Co-operative behaviour is infectious…

Lab research with adults has shown that cooperative behaviour can spread through social networks up to three degrees of separation. This means that when one person acts with empathy or intentionality, it can influence not only their immediate contacts but also their contacts' contacts, creating a ripple effect that fosters widespread behavioral change.

How important are emotions for learning and how do they develop?

We learned some interesting things from a Tes interview with  Reinhard Pekrun, professor of psychology at the University of Essex, who has spent much of his career researching the interactions between emotions and achievement...

Empathy is teachable

A study in Ireland evaluated the effectiveness of an empathy-based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programme, Activating Social Empathy (ASE), in promoting empathy, social concern and helping among secondary-school students...

Yes, restorative approaches to behaviour really work

This 2025 study looked at Chicago Public Schools’ adoption of restorative practices and found that compared to control schools there was a significant reduction in suspensions and arrests and a 15% decrease in out-of-school arrests, with no negative impact on attainment.

Unlocking high quality teaching

An interesting report from OECD draws on extensive research to unpack what actually constitutes high quality teaching. Two of the five key areas they identify relate to SEL:

Top resource

My Life on Fire

My Life on Fire by Cath How is a great book to use in upper KS2 to discuss and develop empathy.

Which sheep are you today?

We loved these sheep memes, to use in emotion check-ins ...

We've Got This! Six steps to build your empathy superpower

We love this new book for children from EmpathyLab. Written by Rashmi Sirdeshpande, with stunning illustrations from Juliana Eigner, it gives young people concrete, fun, accessible ways to practice and build their empathy skills.

Really useful (we hope)

We’ve created three new resources, to support work on self-awareness/self-regulation - A progression in vocabulary for describing emotions – words to teach from EYFS through to Year 7 - Twenty simple exercises to help children stay calm – a collection of breathing and relaxation exercises, with instructions and video links - Top emotion check-ins – thirteen different ways for children to show how they are feeling at points during the day

Emotion wheel

An emotion wheel for the classroom