The Junior School has been embarking on an initiative for the last two years to incorporate elements of Positive Education, which examines the role of happiness in promoting learning, into our school life. This initiative looks at the way positive emotions, health, engagement, accomplishment, relationships, and purpose all contribute to overall student wellness and deeper learning. We build positive relationships through our House Days, positive health through our various school fitness initiatives, including the upcoming Pumpkin Run, and positive engagement through our co-curricular program. This is a key part of our Social-Emotional Learning.
Junior students stretch before the Pumpkin Run.
Our positive emotions initiative is led by Ms. MacDougall. Every month in the Junior School we focus on a different positive attribute that we want to develop as individuals and as a community. Each week at our special Guest Reader assembly, a Junior School teacher or guest reads a story to Grades 1-5, and we talk about the attribute of the month and complete activities to promote its development. In September, we talked about gratitude and being thankful for all we have, leading up to Thanksgiving.
Ms. MacDougall read The Box Turtle by Vanessa Roeder about a turtle who learns to be grateful for the shell he has that’s perfect for him. We listened to songs about gratitude and wrote all the things we’re thankful for on pumpkins! In October, we focused on kindness. Last year during our kindness month, each class created a whole month’s worth of kindness suggestions to create a Kindness Calendar that is now displayed near the school entrance. In assembly last week, we read Pass It On by Sophy Henn. This beautifully written and illustrated story about finding joy, kindness, and positivity, and passing it on to someone else, shows that kindness will find its way back to you most of the time. We gave the students a challenge- find at least three examples of joy or kindness in your life, and pass them on! We want to become a community filled with kindness. Our attribute for November is perseverance, and we look forward to reading and discussing with the girls how to grow as learners who don’t give up and persevere through challenges.
Social-Emotional learning and all its components is a key part of educating the whole girl. The Positive Education model is one way we incorporate that learning into our daily lives.