Social and Emotional Learning

‘Social and emotional learning is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible choices.’ Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning

Wow! No wonder social and emotional learning is such a huge focus for us at City Beach Primary School! We use the You Can Do it Program Achieve to explicitly teach and support our students to understand the Keys to Success and Wellbeing in life. Although success and wellbeing are abstract concepts –we help our students to understand that their success and wellbeing doesn’t just happen because they’ve got great parents, teachers or by being super intelligent. They are linked to the way they think, feel, and behave – and they have control over these things.

Across the school we consistently highlight that success comes from doing your best and is not about being the best. Energy, effort and enthusiasm contribute to the level of success we experience. When we talk about wellbeing we explain it as; feeling happy and safe, having one or more friends, enjoying being engaged in school work, and joining in with activities at home, school and in your community – being a part of something bigger than yourselves, belonging.

We are currently in the middle of shaping our future directions and writing our next business plan.  Social and emotional learning and the words success and wellbeing, have consistently appeared in our initial consultation sessions exploring our aspirations and values at City Beach Primary School with our school community.

The selection of our drivers or future focus areas for our business plan is an exciting process as these will guide our direction and success over the next three years. Here are some of the aspirational threads that have emerged from our early consultation with the staff, the School Board and school community:

Our aspiration is for every student at City Beach Primary School to feel supported and encouraged to:

  • Be connected, curious and creative in their learning to exceed their potential;
  • Be successful, enjoy coming to school and find joy in their learning
  • Approach academic and social challenges with confidence and resilience;
  • Be independent and collaborative learners prepared for the future;
  • Value and respect diversity;
  • Embrace innovation, Inquiry and Independence;
  • Develop the social and emotional intelligence to drive their effort in learning
  • Drive the growth and progress across learning areas
  • Positively contribute to a sustainable world
  • Nurture a growth mindset
  • Be flexible learners who adapt to change and have a growth mindset
  • Experience curiosity and creativity in their learning
  • Genuine contributors to cultural inclusion and responsiveness
  • Be successful regardless of challenges they may face in their learning
  • Connected to their environment and responsible for caring for our world

If you have any ideas or aspirations that have not featured in the threads outlined – please drop me a line and let me know mari.dart@education.wa.edu.au

It’s an exciting time for us as a school and I look forward to working with the school community to further explore and refine our plans over the coming months.