Caring for the Whole Child: Social & Emotional Learning

WE LIKE TO REFER TO THE K-8 EXPERIENCE at Peck as a continuum - perhaps because a student’s individual academic journey is inseparable from their social and emotional journey within the wider community.

This interrelationship, and its impact on student outcomes, was a leading factor in Peck’s 2015 Strategic Plan goal to increase our emphasis on the health and wellness of our students—or, “Social and Emotional Learning” (SEL), in the parlance of educators.

When it comes to weaving SEL into the everyday lives of our students, The Peck School has a unique advantage.

As Upper School Psychologist Dr. Julie O’Rourke explained, “Because of our size, we can be flexible. So if there is something in the news or if there is something going on within our community, we can pivot in a second. If we need to address any pressing need in terms of the social and emotional health of our kids, we can.”

Sensitivity to the K-8 journey and how that journey uniquely unfolds at Peck is equally as important.

“We wanted a concrete approach to SEL,” explained Lower School Psychologist Ashley Tabor, “and we wanted to create goals that were very specific to Peck and what is happening with our community and with our kids.”

Under the Umbrella of InDeCoRe

Social Emotional Learning at Peck closely aligns with the school’s character program known as “InDeCoRe” (Individual Development Community Responsibility).

In Kindergarten and Grade 1, students focus on the first part of the acronym, Individual Development. The objective is to provide these younger students with an awareness of their feelings and a vocabulary to express those feelings as they navigate social situations.

“We expect kindergarteners to be empathetic with their peers, but often they don’t yet understand how their behavior impacts others. If we can first help them to be aware and manage their own moods and behavior, we can eventually teach them to comprehend the bigger social struggles that come with growing up,” explained Tabor.

Students then progress in Grades 2-4 to the Community Responsibility portion of the acronym. Tabor schedules “InDeCoRe” talks with Lower School students where social issues are discussed ranging from conflict resolution to maintaining friendships to finding your voice.

The older students in Grades 5 to 8 grapple with the very nexus of InDeCoRe— where values related to the self and values related to the community combine in subtle and ambiguous ways.

As O’Rourke described, “Upper School students have a choice as a member of the community as to what kind of person, friend, student, or family member they want to be. They are now old enough to have the capacity to step outside themselves and view themselves. They have had that responsibility modeled to them and need to decide whether to live it and internalize it.”

The expansion of their neural capacity and further brain development provide them greater cognitive flexibility and the ability to consider the abstractness of a community, and how the various parts of a community meet to form a whole.

A Scaffold for Social Emotional Learning

Whether delivered as InDeCoRe talks, lunch bunch gatherings, or raised in a classroom, health and wellness topics are carefully reviewed and appropriately delivered. O’Rourke and Tabor, in conjunction with science department faculty, the athletic department, the Peck school nurse, school division heads, and other key personnel at Peck, work to create a clearly defined SEL curriculum map for all grade levels at Peck.

The map lays out age-appropriate topics, discussion techniques, and delivery methods for a variety of important areas relating to the five core social and emotional competencies we want to bolster in our students: self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

The social and emotional learning process at The Peck School is dynamic, responsive and continuously adapting to the outside world. Fundamentally, it is just that: a process. Just as we build an academic scaffold for students to navigate increasingly complex subject matter, we must also scaffold their social and emotional growth as they acquire a maturing awareness of their role in the world and their impact on others.