Seal of approval

It's morning break at Pelham Primary School in Wimbledon and the junior playground is a melting pot of activity. A couple of games of football are in progress, the slide and climbing frame are seeing heavy use and countless smaller knots of children are playing informal games, or just standing and chatting alongside the elephants built into the brick wall between them and the fire station next door.

The two teachers on duty deal calmly with a familiar selection of minor issues causing concern; a girl has something in her eye and a boy seems to want to push into the queue for the slide. Nothing takes more than a few seconds to deal with, and soon the classes are lining up ready to troop back into lessons.

But, as every teacher knows, occasionally playground incidents can escalate and lead to arguments and upset, and Pelham, like anywhere else, has its fair share of these differences of opinion.

School structure

What is different, though, is how a new whole-school approach to teaching children about the link between emotions and behaviour has led to a reduction in serious incidents. The school's Red Book, where incidents of inappropriate behaviour are recorded, has had far fewer entries in the last 12 months.

Pelham is one of about 250 schools in 25 local authorities across England that have taken part in a pilot initiative to embed social, emotional and behavioural skills across the entire school experience. The results have been so encouraging that, from this term, the DfES Primary National Strategy is making available to all primary schools a box of resources with the title Excellence and Enjoyment: social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL). Additionally, about one third of schools will be chosen by their local authority to receive funding for four days' supply cover, about £600, to give time for training and for planning how to build the resource into the school's existing practice. Leading practice schools will receive about £3,000 to use to share experience and help in the implementation process.

Pelham's head, Katherine Davies, readily agrees that the substance of the scheme is nothing new. Teachers have always had to deal with issues such as friendship breakdowns, anger and conflict management, and behaviour getting in the way of learning in the classroom. But SEAL gives schools a structure.

"It has given a nice broad framework for delivering the whole-school ethos issues," she explains.

Pelham followed the broad structure of the scheme by introducing a different topic in a whole-school assembly each half term. The themes include: New Beginnings, Getting On and Falling Out, Going for Goals, and Relationships.

Class teachers then expanded on the themes every week in their timetabled personal, social and health education (PSHE) lesson, and in the Thursday morning 'circle time' sessions. Resources were provided from the SEAL box, which also has ideas for integrating themes into other subjects. The aspects of determination and perseverance in the Going for Goals topic, for example, can be picked up in Heroes in History lessons, telling the story of Mary Seacole, also known as the black Florence Nightingale.

"It's great that it's a whole-school thing," says Year 2 teacher Jessica Ives. "And good that the box has ideas, activities and group work."

A wide impact

PSHE co-ordinator and Year 4 teacher Justine Green and the head led the introduction of SEAL across the school. She says: "The beauty of this programme is that it ties everything together. Class teachers reinforce the message from the introductory assembly, and all use the same vocabulary."

She's seen marked improvements in her class' self-esteem and control of their emotions.

"What we're doing in class seems to spill out into the playground. Problems continue to happen, but now the kids are more articulate and better at seeing things from the other person's point of view."

A wider impact reported by the school is an improvement in pupils' attitudes to learning, which is also a key reason why the programme has been developed by the DfES Primary National Strategy. The hope is that, over time, SEAL will lead to big improvements in all-round behaviour and achievement. 

What's in the resource box?

• A guidance booklet, summarising the resource and advising on how best to start implementing it
• Assembly and teaching ideas for six whole-school themes, each providing up to six weeks of work
• A second set of these materials supplied in year-group packs, two per school
• Additional assembly and teaching materials on bullying
• Ideas for follow-up work with small groups of children needing extra support
• Ideas to develop staff confidence and to involve parents

Highlights from the pilot

• In Plymouth, three schools saw serious behaviour incidents go down, and a drop in fixed-term and lunchtime exclusions
• In Southend, seven out of the nine pilot schools saw improvements in
  KS2 maths and English results
• In Cornwall, nine out of the 10 pilot schools reported improvements in children's ability to co-operate and communicate

Words: Steve McCormack Pictures: Dave Young

FOR MORE INFO

The SEAL resource box can be ordered from Prolog on 0845 6022260 or dfes@prolog.uk com from the second half of summer term 2005. Quote DfES 0110-2005. Visit, www.teachernet.gov.uk/pshe

This content was published in May 2005 and may not reflect current policy