We have a fantastic SEAL resource available on CD Rom for schools combining all the published SEAL resources including Family SEAL. The material has been organised by Theme and by Year Group to make it easier for teachers to use. The CD also contains some fantastic PSHE / SEAL mapping and planning tools. Ring the office (01209 - 310061) or send us an e mail for a copy of the CD ROM or click here to download some of the mapping / planning tools.

Increasingly education is recognising the importance of SEAL as fundamental to learning and achievement in school.

Social, emotional and behavioural skills underlie almost every aspect of school, home and community life, including effective learning and getting on with other people. They are fundamental to school improvement. (SEAL Guidance DfES 1378-2005)

There has been an increasing interest in helping children develop good self-esteem and emotional literacy to help them make the most of their learning opportunities. Schools have become increasingly interested in Circle Time as one way to help deliver this area of the curriculum and in Protective Behaviours as way of helping children develop the skills to help keep themselves safe.

A major research report was published by the DfES in 2003 which looked at the importance of developing children's social and emotional competence and well-being and this has lead to the development of the Behaviour and Attendance Pilot and the SEBS pilot project which has been an outstanding success and has lead to the publication and distribution of the SEAL materials.

One of their key findings was:

"Programmes which attempt to build social and emotional competences must include extensive, routinised, regular and predictable work to develop specific skills across the curriculum, and reinforce these skills by pupils' real life experiences across the whole school".

SEAL aims to do this.

A further report (MAKE LINK)on the pilot programme published in 2006 is already describing the impact SEAL is already having on behaviour and attendence, emotional literacy in pupils, parent involement etc.

An introduction to SEAL

The SEAL resource aims to provide schools and settings with an explicit, structured whole-curriculum framework for developing all children's social, emotional and behavioural skills. (SEAL Guidance DfES 1378-2005)

What are SEAL?

It may be helpful to consider five broad social and emotional aspects of learning:

self-awareness
managing feelings
motivation
empathy
social skills

which fall into two categories:

The personal (e.g. self-awareness) and the inter-personal (e.g. social skills)

The knowledge, skills and understanding developed by the SEAL resource. (Appendix 1 of the SEAL Guidance DfES 1378-2005)

You can download all the new SEAL (formerly SEBS) curriculum materials and background information at the the Behaviour and Attendance Pilot website: bandapilot.org.uk or from the PNS site at DfES.

New material is being added every so often so it is worth a look from time to time.