Our Goal: To maximise student learning by developing self-regulation, independence and interdependence. At St. Peter’s School, SEL (Social Emotional Learning) plays an important part throughout the daily curriculum.
What is SEL?
CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) has identified five interrelated sets of cognitive, affective and behavioural competencies.
At St Peter’s, we refer to the Victorian Curriculum – Personal and Social Capability domain. The two major areas covered are:
SELF-AWARENESS AND MANAGEMENT
- Recognition and expression of emotions
- Development of resilience
SOCIAL AWARENESS AND MANAGEMENT
- Appreciation of diversity and understanding of relationships
- Working collaboratively
The Victorian Curriculum aims to assist students in:
- Recognising, understanding and evaluating the expression of emotions.
- Demonstrating an awareness of their personal qualities and the factors that contribute the importance of supporting diversity for a cohesive community.
- Developing EMPATHY for and understanding of others and re ignite the importance of supporting diversity for a cohesive community.
- Understanding how relationships are developed and use interpersonal skills to establish and maintain respectful relationships.
- Working effectively in teams and developing strategies to manage challenging situations constructively.
Restorative Practices
In 2009 St. Peter’s was awarded Accreditation as a Restorative Practices School. Restorative Practices recognise that relationships are important and seek to build these in the school community. When conflict occurs and relationships break down, students are assisted to identify the harm caused and focus on what can be done to repair the relationship. The use of ‘Affective Questions’ and the Circle Time strategy enables students to consider this while at the same time encouraging self-efficacy, resilience and personal accountability.
Affective Questions focus on the specific behaviours or incident without blaming anybody. These questions are used to draw out who was affected, how they were affected and what needs to happen to restore the relationship.
Affective Questions:
- What happened?
- How did it happen?
- How did you act in this situation?
- Who do think was affected?
- How were they affected?
- How were you affected?
- What needs to happen to make things right?
- If the same thing happened again how could you behave differently?