Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is critical to the development of Lower School students. SEL, which teaches students how to regulate their emotions, connect
effectively with others, and use and develop their strengths, has been linked with significant, positive outcomes for students, including greater resilience, well-being, happiness, improved academic grades, and decreased emotional reactivity and stress.
HAFTR Lower School’s SEL initiative, spearheaded by HAFTR Lower School’s
Guidance Team, focuses on four pillars. Students are provided with programming, workshops, and activities on the school-wide, classroom, and individual levels to
ensure that they internalize and use the information they are taught to maximize their happiness and success.
Positive Psychology
Positive Psychology teaches students how to identify, use and develop their key strengths to become happier, more resilient, and more successful. All Lower School students will engage in an activity where they identify their key strengths and will be provided with opportunities throughout the school year to use their strengths and to reflect on their experiences taking advantage of their character strengths and virtues.
Coping & Regulation
Utilizing tools and strategies from the teachings of Ross Greene and the Yale Center For Emotional Intelligence (RULER, Mood Meter, etc.), students will learn skills to label, express, and healthily regulate their emotions using research-based frameworks.
Healthy Relationships
As students grow, it is important they develop an understanding of how to stand up for themselves and feel confident saying “no” when they are faced with situations or relationships that make them uncomfortable. Students in each grade learn how to identify and stand up for their own personal comfort level through psychoeducation, modeling, and role-play.
Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship refers to the appropriate and responsible use of technology. As technology is a pervasive part of our students’ lives, they are taught about the many benefits of technology and how to utilize it appropriately. Students are also taught about things that are safe and appropriate to post online and those that are not. Disinhibition on the internet, where people say and do things on the internet that they would not do in real life, is also discussed, and students are taught strategies to combat this prevalent trend. Students in each grade engage in developmentally appropriate workshops to discuss the appropriate use of technology.
