Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning
Dorothy Stringer pupils don't just get excellent exam results; we also learn how to be thoughtful, happy and individual young adults. The circular boards were made by Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils during Activities Week, and contain images of SEAL that we felt were most important.
The statements below were taken from a questionnaire sent out to pupils, and prove the pupils value their social and emotional learning just as much as getting a good mark for a piece of work. Teachers and staff at Dorothy Stringer know that pupils learn best when they're happy and proud of themselves. Offering the students the chance to feel good about themselves is at the heart of our school.
Here are some of the ways the school helps us to develop, both inside and outside of the classroom:
Empathy
- Drama lessons and clubs help us think about other people's experiences and to put ourselves in someone else's shoes
- Our link schools in Ghana, Cameroon and other schools around the world help us to relate to other pupils our own age
- Charity events, such as collecting food for a homeless shelter in Brighton, and sending Christmas presents to orphans in war-torn countries, let us help less fortunate people
- We know the money from our non-uniform days goes to worthy charities
- Many subjects, such as History, Geography and English, help us to empathise with people from the past, or other cultures
- We have assemblies about other people, such as the Holocaust assembly, and the Drive Safe/Stay Alive assembly, which help us think about difficult topics
Social Skills
- Work experience week in Year 10 and Take Your Child to Work Day in Year 9 help us to learn the skills we will need as adults
- In Year 10, being a Peer Mentor to pupils in Year 7 help us to guide the younger members of school through the first few months
- Being a prefect or Head Boy or Head Girl allows us to be a role model to younger pupils and help out staff
- Our teachers show us how to have good social skills by being polite and fair and sometimes helping us solve arguments
- Some pupils work with the sports department to learn how to coach primary school pupils in PE lessons
- In Year 7 and 8, we learn how to save people's lives, by doing a first aid course
- We often have to work in pairs or groups in lessons; sometimes with people we wouldn't normally choose
Self Awareness
- We know that there are lots of different people in the school, and we learn to respect them all
- There are many different languages spoken in Dorothy Stringer
- Pupils come here from all over the world and learn to speak English - we can help them with this
- We are friendly with people who have disabilities, and if we have a disability, we learn to ask for help when we need it
- Many students and staff have a religion which is different to ours - or we might not believe in a God, and that’s fine too
- We respect all the different races in the school
- We know we can talk to members of staff about changes happening in our bodies, or any worries we have
- We know lots of people in Brighton are gay, and some staff and pupils are too
- We know the school had a strict anti-discrimination policy, and that makes us feel safe
- PSHE lessons teach us about sex and how to respect ourselves and stay safe
- If we find it hard to learn, or to read or write, we know people will help us and no one will laugh at us. There are support teachers to help us too
Motivation
- Sports teachers and lessons motivate us to do well and perform the best we can. And there are 51 sports clubs each week
- The Eco club and the Environment Centre help us to understand the world around us and how we can protect it
- PSE lessons, Geography and lots of other subjects tell us how we can make a difference to our world
- In Year 11, we can go to the Prom, to celebrate our time at the school - and the end of our exams. Most of the teachers come, too!
- From Year 9 onwards, we can take part in the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, which motivates us to work in teams and individually, to achieve our awards
- There are more than 100 clubs each week, which help us to take part in something we enjoy and do our best
- Our teachers always write how we can improve on our work, then we can do even better next time
- At the end of the year, each year group gets to take part in a Celebration Assembly, which shows us all just how much fun we've had that year - and motivates us to do well next year
- Some subjects send letters or postcards home to our parents, when we've done something really great
- We can earn Commendation Slips too
Managing Feelings
- Teachers help us to control our emotions by giving us 'time out' or helping to solve arguments
- We learn to respect each other, and also respect our teachers, by trying not to shout or use swear words
- We know there are people we can go to, to talk about our feelings if we're having a bad day. Sometimes the members of staff we talk to haven't even taught us - they're just good listeners
- If we have problems learning, and feel cross about it, we can go to the learning support room, and they will help us
- There are quiet areas around the school (the Green Room, the library, the Peace Garden, the fields, form rooms etc.) where we can relax at break time and lunch time
- There is a school counsellor and other members of staff who are trained to help us if we need to discuss difficult problems
- Drama, English, PSE and other subjects help us to manage our feelings by talking about how other people have felt in difficult situations