SEAL IN DRAMA AT BALBY CARR – Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)

This is a successful programme that promotes the hard-edged social and emotional skills all children and young people need to thrive.

What is SEAL?

Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)

This very successful programme had a major impact on discipline and well being in pilot schools and was also linked with increases in attainment. It helps young people to be more confident and resilient; resolve conflict peaceably; and empathise with others by developing behaviour skills across the curriculum.

The Secondary SEAL programme builds on the success of the programme at primary level and will be rolled out from this September. It promotes the hard-edged social and emotional skills all children and young people need to thrive. These skills underpin positive behaviour, regular school attendance, effective learning and emotional health and well being. They also contribute to social mobility and employability skills by ensuring all children, regardless of background, have confidence in their abilities and understand how to interact with others in a positive way.

Ed Balls said:
“Many schools that have implemented this programme have seen a marked improvement in the way their pupils interact with each other both inside and outside the classroom. The programme will make sure that all children understand the importance of being confident and interacting with other children in a respectful and positive manner.

“The roll out of SEAL follows tough new behaviour powers which came into force in April this year which remove any ambiguity over a teacher’s right to confiscate items, give detentions and physically remove violent pupils from the classroom.

“These initiatives give teachers some powerful tools to make sure that good behaviour and an atmosphere of respect are the norm in all schools.”

The programme focuses on developing skills in the following key areas: understanding oneself; management of feelings; motivation; empathy and social skills. Some examples of the skills taught are:

• deal with and resolve conflict effectively and fairly;

• solve problems with others or by themselves;

• manage strong feelings such as frustration, anger and anxiety;

• be effective and successful learners;

• be able to promote calm and optimistic states that promote the achievement of goals;

• recover from setbacks and persist in the face of difficulties;

• work cooperatively;

• compete fairly and lose with dignity and respect for competitors;

• recognise and stand up for the rights of others; and

• understand and value the differences and commonalities between people.

Opportunities to develop social and emotional skills across the Drama Curriculum include:

• developing motivation through our Drama lessons by exploring the experience of characters who have overcome difficulties;

• developing empathy through Drama when considering why it can be so difficult to keep the peace by exploring some current conflicts

• Units based on 'Bullying', 'runaway children', 'self-awareness' and schemes based upon the Abervan tragedy/Hillsborough tragedy strengthen the SEAL agenda.
•Use of drama We use scripts to tackle issues such as bullying, ‘A bit of fun’ is about 2 girls who bully a boy through mobile phones or ‘Cyber-bullying’ and this coincides with National Anti-bullying week.
Bullying links 

• “You're Not Alone" is an exciting DVD created for students by students to explore the issue of bullying. The DVD is a result of improvised drama created by some year 10 students to explore the types of bullying that affect young people. The project is aimed at Y10 students to encourage them to create their own dramas to use with younger students at KS3. The result is a filmed version of their drama, with documentary interviews that explain how a school/youth group can use drama to address this issue.

• And we use games to explore the SEAL issues, for example; ‘how to keep the bullies at bay’