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4th
September 2009
Dear Parents
and Carers,
At the last meeting of the Parent
Forum, I explained the SEAL programme which has been a whole school
focus for the last year. The Forum members felt that they had not
fully understood the purpose of SEAL previously, but following an
explanation from Mrs. Collard and myself, they were better informed
and understood the benefits to their children. It was agreed that it
would be helpful if I wrote to parents to explain in the same way.
SEAL stands for Social and Emotional
Aspects of Learning. It is the centre of the Government’s Every Child
Matters agenda and makes a significant contribution to the school’s
statutory responsibility to promote well-being and community cohesion.
When children are worried about
friendships or a family member being ill or have low self esteem, they
are unable to give their full attention to learning in the classroom,
and do not achieve as well as they might; the SEAL activities are
designed to address this. They involve discussion and role play and
equip children to recognise and talk about how they are feeling, to
deal with problems in a responsible way, to recognise their strengths
and to encourage them to aim for personal goals. It encourages them to
have empathy for others.
There are 7 themes to the SEAL
programme which aim to develop 5 skills.
The 7 themes are:
New Beginnings,
Getting on and falling out:
Say no to bullying;
Going for goals;
Good to be me;
Relationships;
Changes.
The 5 skills are :
Empathy-How well do I understand other
people?
Social skills-How well do I relate to other people?
Managing feelings-How well do I manage my feelings?
Motivation-How well do I carry out tasks?
Self awareness-How well do I know myself?
Social Skills is the development of
skills such as being a good friend, treating others as you would like
them to treat you, learning how to say sorry when you hurt someone’s
feelings, dealing with friendship problems and sorting them out.
Sometimes, if a group of children are having friendship problems ,
they will be invited to role play a similar situation, understand how
sometimes their actions may upset others and talk through how the
problem can be resolved. Just as we teach children to read and
form letters, so we need to teach them how to get on well with others.
We have rules about discussion groups
to avoid any embarrassment or hurt to others. If, on occasions during
discussion, a child begins to talk about a personal experience which
may not be best discussed in the group, the teacher will intervene and
offer the child an opportunity to talk to someone privately about it
later.
We encourage children to have high self
esteem and to recognise that although they may not be great at one
thing, they are better at other things eg I may not be good at
football yet, but if I keep trying and practising, I will improve.
However, I am really good at art and can show others how to get better
at it.
An important aspect of SEAL is the
involvement of families in their children’s learning. The homework is
designed to encourage discussion at home to support the topics at
school-recognising the different talents of members of the family,
recognising that all families are different, reminding each other of
what we value and love about each other and sometimes that the way we
behave can upset others. Many parents have said how much their
children have enjoyed the time they have spent talking about the
homework activities. The homework returned to school is not as
important as the discussion that has gone on with you at home, as it
was completed.
Finally, although SEAL will no longer
be a whole school focus , each class will continue to incorporate it
as part of their Personal, Social and Health Education scheme of work
and may ask children to do some homework activities related to the
theme being studied. I hope that you will continue to support us in
developing this very important aspect of learning.
Mrs. M.A. Opara
Headteacher |
