From the Deputy Head of Junior School – Wellbeing – Social Emotional Learning in the Junior School

A Continuum of Personal Social Capabilities is found on the Australian Curriculum website. These Capabilities form part of a wider set of Capabilities which encompass knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions needed for learning and their lives outside of School.

Also known as SEL (Social Emotional Learning), the Continuum of capabilities or competencies is useful for us, in the Junior School, to track our teaching in Pastoral Care programs as well as how the girls are developing across the areas of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, social management and responsible decision making.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), is highly regarded for its commitment to evidence based SEL to support all students’ learning and development.

CASEL states that:

High-quality SEL instruction has four elements represented by the acronym SAFE: Sequenced – following a coordinated set of training approaches to foster the development of competencies; Active – emphasizing active forms of learning to help students practice and master new skills; Focused – implementing curriculum that intentionally emphasizes the development of SEL competencies; and Explicit – defining and targeting specific skills, attitudes, and knowledge.

MLC School ensures that our Pastoral Care programs are sequenced across the whole school, from Pre-K to Year 12. This ensures continuity of the development of each girl during her time here at School.

Using our School Values as a basis for our Pastoral Care and Wellbeing Framework allows active forms of learning, not only in Pastoral Care lessons, but also in Personal Development and Health (PDH) lessons, the way we interact with each other and the culture we aim to develop in the School.

By tracking our Pastoral Care programs against the Continuum, we are focussed and intentional in aiming to develop the SEL capabilities/competencies.  Using data from surveys the girls complete also enables us to understand what the needs of each girl/cohort are and focus on these needs.

Through our positive approach for Behaviour Expectations, we are explicit in our expectations of the girls and how they treat themselves, others and their learning and we can target specific skills where there are needs in grades or for individual children. 

MLC School always strives to provide a high-quality education for your daughter and the development of SEL capabilities forms one part of this.

– Joanne Sharpe
Deputy Head of Junior School – Wellbeing